THE BIG STINK OF TASMANIAN SALMON FARMS - SIX TIMES MORE POLLUTION THAN TASMANIAN SEWAGE
The Australia Institute - Rod Campbell
20 March 2026
Tasmanian salmon farms produce 6 times more pollution each year than Tasmania’s entire sewage
Salmon farms have been on the nose in Tasmania recently, but for those who aren’t located downwind of one, this comparison might help you understand just how polluting salmon farming can be.
Salmon farming and human sewage treatment both produce nitrogen, which is an important factor in the health of waterways. Too much nitrogen can cause algal blooms that lead to serious impacts on aquatic animals and plants. Of particular concern is dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN).
Hobart’s treated sewage produces an average 338 tonnes per year of DIN (Figure 4.4), or about 1.4kg for each of its 250,000 people. Assuming that the same 1.4 kg/year per person applies to the rest of Tasmania’s population (558,000 people), then DIN from all of Tasmania’s sewage would be around 755 tonnes per year.
CSIRO SURVEY FINDS DROP IN COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR TASMANIAN SALMON INDUSTRY
ABC News - Sandy Powell
6 March 2026
For decades, Tasmania’s salmon industry enjoyed an “enviable” social license as a broadly respected sector of the economy, but a new report suggests that is no longer the case.
The CSIRO recently published a report into results of a 2025 survey of Tasmanian residents’ connection to, and concern for, the local marine environment.
The survey aimed to assess values, perceived threats, levels of environmental concern, and stakeholder views on the performance of a number of marine industries.
It found the salmon industry experienced a "significant and sustained shift from the strong community support experienced from 1986 to 2015 when the industry held an 'enviable' social licence to operate".
TROUBLED WATERS OR SHARED FUTURES - NAVIGATING SOCIAL RISK
ResearchGate - Corrine Condie & Scott A. Condie
6 March 2026
Tasmania’s coastal waters and seas are central to the state’s identity, lifestyle, and environmental and economic wellbeing. Findings from the 2025 CSIRO Tasmanian Coastal Waters and Seas Survey reveal deep concern about environmental decline, with nearly 70% of respondents feeling worried or angry about marine conditions and fewer than 10% believing they are improving. Many also report limited ability to influence government or industry decisions, signalling heightened social risk. While stakeholder groups broadly agree on major threats—ocean warming, plastic pollution, biosecurity risks, land‑based runoff, and salmon aquaculture—views diverge sharply on industry‑specific issues. Salmon aquaculture remains the most contested sector, with increasingly polarised attitudes, whereas shellfish and seaweed aquaculture attract lower conflict and more favourable or neutral views. Offshore wind, commercial fishing, and recreational fishing generate mixed but less entrenched responses. The results underscore strong expectations for transparency, credible governance, and meaningful engagement, highlighting the need for tailored, sector‑specific strategies to reduce social risk across marine‑based industries.
TASMANIAN SALMON FARMING EMERGENCY LICENCE FOR ANTIBIOTIC FLORFENICOL ‘UNACCEPTABLE’
ABC News - Daniel Miller
5 March 2026
Australia's veterinary medicine regulator has revoked the Tasmanian salmon industry's use of the florfenicol antibiotic "on the basis of unacceptable risk of residue exposure" to other species.
In a statement on Thursday morning, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) said the industry had been "advised that the permit has been suspended and that the product can no longer be used under the provisions of the permit".
TASMANIAN SALMON FARMS BLOCKED FROM USING FLORFENICOL AFTER DETECTION IN WILD FISH 10KM AWAY
The Guardian - Lisa Cox
5 March 2026
Regulator suspends permit due to ‘unacceptable risk’ antibiotic poses to other species in move welcomed by environmental campaigners
Australia’s veterinary medicines regulator has suspended the use of florfenicol in salmon in Tasmania because of the “unacceptable risk” the antibiotic poses to other species.
The Bob Brown Foundation said the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority’s (APVMA) decision was an “indictment of the industrial fish farm companies and their complete disregard for the marine environment”.
The APVMA granted an emergency permit in November 2025 to allow the industry to use florfenicol to treat outbreaks of the bacterial disease piscirickettsiosis in fish farms in southern Tasmania, which had caused mass salmon deaths.
APVMA SUSPENDS PERMIT FOR FLORFENICOL
Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA)
5 March 2026
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has suspended the emergency permit (PER96499) for the use of florfenicol in salmon in Tasmania, on the basis of unacceptable risk of residue exposure to non-target species.
The suspension took effect on 4 March 2026.
In November 2025, the APVMA granted the permit for use of the antibiotic florfenicol in salmon in the south-eastern biosecurity zone of Tasmania, under strict conditions.
On 20 February 2026, the APVMA notified the product holder that it proposed to suspend the permit based on new information reporting low-level detections of florfenicol amine in some non-target species, unless information could be provided by 2 March 2026 to satisfy the trade criteria.
Information received by the APVMA on 2 March 2026 has been reviewed, and it has been concluded that there was no new data, or any evidence of measures that would address the APVMA’s concerns.
The product holder has been advised that the permit has been suspended and that the product can no longer be used under the provisions of the permit.
Further background is contained in the statement released by the APVMA on 20 February 2026.
ALBANESE GOVERNMENT DID NOT ACT ON ADVICE TO HALT SALMON FARMING AT MACQUARIE HARBOUR
ABC News - Jano Gibson
4 March 2026
The former federal environment minister did not act on departmental advice to revoke salmon farming approvals in Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour last year, newly released documents show.
The harbour, on the state's west coast, is the last known refuge of the Maugean skate, which shares the waterway with an industry that farms almost 9,500 tonnes of salmon each year.
The skate is listed as endangered due to degraded water quality and depleted oxygen levels in the harbour, with Commonwealth conservation advice pointing to aquaculture as the primary reason.
In 2023, three conservation groups asked then-environment minister Tanya Plibersek to reconsider an earlier decision to allow salmon farming to expand in 2012 without an environmental impact assessment (EIA).
HEALTH, ENVIRONEMNT DEPARTMENTS QUESTIONED ‘EVIDENCE’ CITED IN SALMON ANTIBIOTIC APPROVAL FOR FLORFENICOL IN TASMANIAN WATERWAYS
ABC News - Adam Holmes
27 February 2026
The former federal environment minister did not act on departmental advice to revoke salmon farming approvals in Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour last year, newly released documents show.
The harbour, on the state's west coast, is the last known refuge of the Maugean skate, which shares the waterway with an industry that farms almost 9,500 tonnes of salmon each year.
The skate is listed as endangered due to degraded water quality and depleted oxygen levels in the harbour, with Commonwealth conservation advice pointing to aquaculture as the primary reason.
In 2023, three conservation groups asked then-environment minister Tanya Plibersek to reconsider an earlier decision to allow salmon farming to expand in 2012 without an environmental impact assessment (EIA).
FISH FARMS ON OUR RIVERS ARE POLLUTING DRINKING WATER WITH – AMONG OTHER THINGS – UNREGULATED ANTIBIOTICS
The Mercury
23 February 2026
IT’S WELL PAST TIME TO REVIEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND TECHNICAL STANDARDS FOR INLAND FISH FARMS, WRITE CHRISTINE COUGHANOWR AND JOHN PITT
The recent news that antibiotics have been used at the Meadowbank flow-through fish farm – with no regulatory oversight – is troubling but frankly comes as no surprise. Antibiotic use is the glaring tip on an iceberg of hidden problems.
There are currently 14 flow-through fish farms in Tasmania; most of these include both hatchery and grow-out facilities that supply millions of small salmon (smolt) for the stocking of sea cages.
Flow-through fish farms pump enormous volumes of clean river water through fish holding tanks and ponds and discharge polluted water back to the river, usually with very limited treatment. Some solids may be removed by filters or settling ponds, but the vast majority of dissolved pollutants such as nutrients, disinfectants, formalin, hormones, antibiotics and salt would pass right through.
LICENCE FOR USE OF ANTIBIOTIC FLORFENICOL IN TASMANIAN SALMON INDUSTRY MAY BE SUSPENDED
ABC News - Scout Wallen
20 February 2026
The federal agency that approved the use of the antibiotic florfenicol in Tasmania's salmon industry has proposed to suspend that licence.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) granted an emergency permit for the use of florfenicol in salmon in the south-eastern biosecurity zone of Tasmania, in November last year.
On Thursday, the ABC reported the antibiotic was detected in waters more than 10 kilometres from the closest salmon farming operation using it, and was found in parts of abalone, bryozoans, urchins and whelks.
The testing was undertaken by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) for Tasmania's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE).
SALMON FARM ANTIBIOTICS FOUND IN NATIVE TASMANIAN SPECIES KILOMETRES AWAY
ABC News - Lucy MacDonald
19 February 2026
The antibiotic florfenicol has been detected in Tasmanian waters more than 10 kilometres away from the closest salmon farming operation using it.
The state's salmon industry has been using the drug in its pens south of Hobart since November, in response to a bacterial disease outbreak.
Public health advice issued last year suggested anyone who wanted to avoid antibiotic residue should not consume fish within a 3km radius of the pens.
But testing undertaken by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) for Tasmania's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) has found "very low levels" of florfenicol at Standaway Bay, 10.6km from the pens.
ON THE USE OF FLORFENICOL IN TASMANIA’S WATERWAYS
Tasmanian Times
19 February 2026
According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, florfenicol is an antibiotic used for veterinary medicine, agriculture, and aquaculture, including salmon farming.
Excerpt from Hansard transcript of Senate Estimates session, 10 February 2026
Senator WHISH-WILSON: There was some reporting in the last few days around oxytetracycline. That was approved by APVMA sometime ago for use in aquaculture. Is it your understanding that florfenicol was designed to replace that as a product that the salmon industry would use?
Mr Hansen: Yes. My understanding is that florfenicol is what the salmon industry is wanting. In the first instance, an application for an emergency permit was put in to try to deal with the immediate issue, but we’ve been told that their long-term ambition is registration of the product and that they’d be collecting data as part of these permits to be able to support that application. We keep saying ‘the industry’; it’s actually Abbey Laboratories Pty Ltd who’s the applicant for the permit and also who’s expressed an interest in registration [note: on behalf of the salmon industry].
COMMENT: THE EPA’S SECRECY OVER ANTIBIOTIC USE HIGHLIGHTS A CREDIBILTY PROBLEM
Tasmanian Inquirer - Bob Burton
16 February 2026
If antibiotic use at Huon Aquaculture’s Meadowbank Hatchery is so harmless, why all the secrecy?
That Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority and Huon Aquaculture said nothing publicly for more than two weeks about the use of antibiotics at a salmon hatchery in Hobart’s water catchment is a telling indicator of their preference for secrecy over public disclosure.
First, a recap. Tasmanian Inquirer contacted Huon early on February 5, requesting responses to five questions regarding the use of an antibiotic at its Meadowbank Hatchery on the banks of the Derwent River. Huon did not respond. The next day, we re-sent the questions to Huon. Similar questions were forwarded to the EPA.
HUON AQUACULTURE CONFIRMS ANTIBIOTIC USE IN SALMON HATCHERY ON RIVER DERWENT
ABC News - Jano Gibson & Adam Holmes
10 February 2026
There are calls for the public to be made aware of antibiotic use in Tasmania's freshwater hatcheries after Huon Aquaculture recently used oxytetracycline to treat diseased salmon.
There are no disclosure requirements regarding the use of antibiotics in freshwater facilities, despite more stringent rules applying to the antibiotic florfenicol in coastal marine fish farms.
Details of Huon Aquaculture's use of antibiotics at its Meadowbank hatchery on the River Derwent were only made public after a report by the Tasmanian Inquirer.
MAJOR INDUSTRY UNDER FIRE AFTER CASUING MILLIONS OF ANIMAL DEATHS: ‘THERE’S JUST SILENCE’
TCD - Susan Elizabeth Turek
4 February 2026
A keystone industry in the Australian state of Tasmania has been accused of violating the Animal Welfare Act after 4 million salmon died prematurely last year.
What's happening?
A series of mortality events shook Tasmanian fish farms last year. From February to early May, the state's Environmental Protection Authority recorded "a large and unprecedented salmon mortality event" due to an endemic bacterium. Then, around 500,000 fish died in November and December when ocean temperatures warmed, according to The Guardian.
With millions of people consuming salmon every year, the fish may frequently be an afterthought until they are in front of us on our plates. However, as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals noted, scientific evidence shows that salmon feel pain. In high temperatures, salmon can suffer liver and kidney damage and become susceptible to disease.
Their premature deaths have raised ethical questions about whether fish farms are doing enough to protect them from unreasonable suffering, as Tasmania's Animal Welfare Act requires in its duty-of-care section on management of animals.