MASS PROTEST AGAINST POLLUTION OF SOUTHERN TASMANIAN WATERWAY WITH ROTTING SALMON WASTE
EPA orders two companies to prevent salmon carcasses and other waste from spreading beyond 14 fish farms in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel
Tasmanian Times - Bob Burton
17 March 2025
Organisers say that more than 2,000 people protested on Sunday about rotting salmon waste from fish farms polluting a major southern Tasmanian waterway. Two days earlier, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) directed two salmon companies operating 14 fish farms in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to stop discharging fish carcasses and associated waste into the environment.
Author Richard Flanagan told the crowd on the beach of Verona Sands, where salmon waste washed up a month ago, that the state was “faced with the worst environmental catastrophe in recent Tasmanian history and, accompanying it, the biggest cover-up our island has experienced since the 1989 Rouse bribery scandal”.
ANTI-SALMON PROTEST HELD AT VERONA SANDS, SITE OF FIRST DEAD FISH WASH UP FROM TASMANIAN MASS MORTALITY EVENT
ABC News - Madeleine Rojahn, James Dunlevie, Meg Whitfield
16 March 2025
A month on from salmon residue washing ashore, opponents to industrial fish farming have gathered at the Tasmanian beach location to repeat their call for the industry to be shut down.
The protest event, at Verona Sands, south of Hobart, comes weeks after pieces of Atlantic salmon, including what was described at the time at "chunks" of fish, were found on the foreshore, with images posted by the Bob Brown Foundation.
The detritus came from nearby salmon farming enclosures; the result of a mass mortality event caused by a bacterial outbreak.
ANTIBIOTIC FOUND IN ‘LOW LEVELS’ IN SALMON MATERIAL WASHING UP ON TASMANIAN BEACHES
ABC News - Lucy MacDonald
14 March 2025
Tasmania's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) says it has detected an antibiotic in the "fatty fish material" that has been found on beaches in the south-east of the state over the past few weeks.
The EPA says it gives rise to "further questions" about the antibiotic's presence in the broader environment.
While the EPA intends to undertake further environmental monitoring, the agency says that given the low quantities, the Chief Veterinary Officer and Public Health Director have concluded it does not pose a risk to human or animal health.
SALMON MORTALITY EVENT, LOWER D’ENTRECASTEAUX CHANNEL 2025
EPA Tasmania
14 March 2025
Situation
A large and unprecedented salmon mortality event has unfolded since mid-February 2025 in the lower D'Entrecasteaux Channel. Huon Aquaculture Company (Huon) and Tassal operate salmon farms in this area.
Mortalities affect salmon farming worldwide and are typically elevated during summer months, including in Tasmania, when warmer waters and other factors affecting salmon health are more likely to occur. Tasmania's Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) has made a statement on the cause of the mortality event, available at Salmon mortalities | Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania.
SAFE SALMON CLAIMS DIFFICULT TO STOMACH STUDY
Dead fish and undisclosed amounts of antibiotic use is very worrying, write Dr Frank Nicklason, Dr Lisa Gershwin and Dr Fiona Beer
The Mercury - Talking Point
13 March 2025
Many Tasmanians have watched with disgust at the tragedy which unfolded in southern salmon farms over the past couple of weeks. Rotting fish carcasses floating in their pens and fatballs washing up at Verona Sands and on Bruny Island. Unmasked and ungloved workers shoveling great loads of dead fish into huge skips. Undisclosed amounts of antibiotics dumped on fish farms to kill the bacteria.
INDEPENDENT MP CRAIG GARLAND MAKES UNSUCCESSFUL PUSH FOR LAND-BASED SALMON FARMING STUDY
Pulse Tasmania
13 March 2025
An independent feasibility study to assess the environmental and economic impacts of transitioning Tasmania’s salmon industry from marine to land-based operations has been rejected in Parliament.
The study, proposed by Independent MP Craig Garland, gained support from The Greens and independents Miriam Beswick, Rebekah Pentland and Kristie Johnston but ultimately failed to pass.
1,300 LOCALS SIGN PETITION AGAINST STORM BAY SALMON FARM EXPANSION PLANS
Pulse Tasmania
11 March 2025
Over 1,300 Tasmanians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of salmon farming expansion plans in Storm Bay.
The petition, which gathered 1,367 signatures in just over a month, was presented to Parliament on Tuesday by Greens MP Tabatha Badger.
It comes at a time when fish waste is washing up on other southern beaches and millions of diseased dead salmon are being dumped.
Badger said the petitioners are “watching on in horror” at the situation and have drawn a “red line in the sand” to stop it from occurring in their bays and beaches.
RSPCA SUSPENDS HUON AQUACULTURE CERTIFICATION
Tasmanian Times
8 March 2025
RSPCA Australia statement on certification of Huon Aquaculture
On Thursday afternoon, the RSPCA Approved Certification Committee met and decided to suspend Huon Aquaculture’s RSPCA Approved certification.
The Certification Committee made the decision to suspend Huon Aquaculture’s certification, as an initial step, because of breaches of clauses 1.01 and 2.11 of the RSPCA Approved Standard.
The suspension is in place for an initial period of 14 days while we undertake further enquiries.
The inhumane handling of live, sick or injured fish as shown in the video being circulated is completely unacceptable.
TASMANIAN SALMON INDUSTRY REELING FROM LARGEST EVER FISH DEATH EVENTS AS EPA LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION
ABC News - Adam Langenberg
7 March 2025
More than 5,500 tonnes of dead fish were dumped at waste facilities around Tasmania in February alone, with unprecedented numbers dying due to warmer waters, the state's environmental watchdog says.
Environment Protection Authority acting chief executive Cindy Ong said the huge amount of dead fish, equivalent to about 6 per cent of the industry's annual production in Tasmania, had been disposed of at facilities in the state's south.
Ms Ong said the deaths were "the largest event we've ever seen", and information showed it was "not quite past the peak yet".
OPEN LETTER TO PM BY CONSERVATION GROUPS CALLS FOR DITCHING OF SALMON PROTECTION LEGISLATION IN TASMANIA
ABC News - Sandy Powell
5 March 2025
An open letter from a dozen conservation groups urging the prime minister to abandon a pledge to support salmon farming in Tasmania comes as the industry battles to control the fallout from dead fish washing up on local beaches.
The letter was jointly signed by representatives from Environment Tasmania, the Bob Brown Foundation, the Surfrider Foundation, NW Tas for Clean Oceans, Neighbours of Fish Farming and others.
‘I’VE HAD A GUTFUL’: JACQUI LAMBIE SAYS SALMON INDUSTRY SHOULD GET OUT OF MACQUARIE HARBOUR
Tasmanian senator says she is ‘pro-salmon’ but the farms should move on to land or offshore
The Guardian -Paddy Manning
4 March 2025
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has called on Tasmania’s salmon industry to stop farming in Macquarie Harbour on the state’s remote west coast, marking a dramatic intervention into a polarised debate with implications for the federal election.
“Macquarie Harbour has been a very hot, hot spud when it comes to the salmon industry for many, many years,” Senator Lambie told the Tasmanian Inquirer, “and it’s getting worse.”
60 JOBS: THE SALMON INDUSTRY FINALLY COMES CLEAN
Media Release - The Australian Institute Tasmania
4 March 2025
Ever since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s letter pledging to protect the foreign-owned salmon industry at the expense of world heritage wilderness, an ecological disaster has unfolded in Tasmania.
Mass farmed salmon deaths are continuing in southeast Tasmania, with rotting corpses washing up along the state’s beaches.
Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority appears to know very little about what is going on.
A similar event occurred in Macquarie Harbour last year, with 10 per cent of farmed fish dying.
EPA UNSURE ABOUT TASMANIAN SALMON MORTALITY NUMBERS, ANTIBIOTIC USE AND HUMAN CONSUMPTION OF SICK FISH
ABC News - Manika Champ
3 March 2025
Tasmania's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) does not know how many farmed salmon have died in recent weeks because reporting of mortality events is yet to come into effect.
Salmon pens in southern Tasmanian waterways have been affected by a disease outbreak that has caused mass deaths.
Salmon chunks formed by fish oil have also washed up on beaches in the state's south.
WARNING: DON’T TOUCH - HAZARDOUS SALMON REMAINS
Authorities finally acknowledge health hazard on Tasmanian beaches - two weeks late.
Media Release - Peter George & NOFF Campaigner, Jess Coughlan
3 March 2025
In a complete failure of duty to protect the Tasmanian public from toxic
substances, authorities are belatedly warning that the fatty remains of diseased farmed salmon washing up on beaches are hazardous to human health.
After two weeks of the industry and government denying there is any danger, the Tasmanian EPA’s acting head, Cindy Ong has finally acknowledged the truth.
TWO EXCITING NEW FLAVOURS OF TOXIC TASMANIAN SALMON
Tasmanian Times - Boohoo
28 February 2025
Developed in conjunction with bacterial infections, heatwaves and secretive management, the new flavours are intended to be ‘more Tasmanian than ever’.
“We think consumers will love Bruny Barf Bomb and Verona Sands Vomitage,” said Salmon Tasmania CEO Puke Martin.
He explained that the flavours were inspired by ‘nature taking its course’ with salmon in southern Tasmanian feedlots.
ROTTING CHUNKS OF FISH WASH UP ON TASMANIAN BEACHES HIGHLIGHTING SALMON FARM HORROR
7 News - Hayley Taylor
26 February 2025
Rotting fish carcasses and “stinking salmon fat” are reportedly washing up on pristine beaches in Tasmania and Bruny Island, as large numbers of salmon die offshore in the state’s fish farms.
Images of salmon carcasses floating in ocean pens, strewn across the shore of Verona Sands and entangled with an unknown substance which locals say looks like “fat” have been circulating online.
The “elevated mortality event” is an industry-wide issue according to peak body, Salmon Tasmania, which said the companies involved are taking steps to control the issue.
ANTHONY ALBANESE UNDER PRESSURE ON SALMON FARMING FROM BOTH CONSERVATIONISTS AND INDUSTRY
The Guardian - Adam Morton
22 February 2025
Anthony Albanese is caught in a pincer movement over a pre-election pledge that he will protect salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, with conservationists and industry leaders both urging him to rethink the commitment.
The future of salmon farming in the harbour on the state’s west coast has become a sharp political issue centred on whether it can coexist with the endangered Maugean skate, an endemic ray-like species that has survived since the age of the dinosaurs.
ROTTING CHUNKS OF FISH WASH UP ON TASMANIAN BEACHES HUON ACQUACULTURE TO TREAT SALMON WITH ANTIBIOTICS AT TASMANIAN FISH FARM
Pulse Tasmania
13 February 2025
Huon Aquaculture has confirmed it will be treating fish at one of its Tasmanian farms with antibiotics.
The decision comes two weeks after the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) announced increased monitoring of the state’s salmon industry.
In late January, the EPA received multiple notifications that mortality rates in salmon pens had exceeded 0.25% for three consecutive days, though the full extent of the deaths has not been made public.
FISH FARM ACTIVIST SETS SIGHTS ON FRANKLIN SEAT
The Mercury - Sue Bailey
5 January 2025
Anti-salmon farm campaigner and former foreign correspondent Peter George will run as an independent in Franklin at the federal election.
Mr George, who worked for the ABC as a reporter in Hobart before being posted overseas, returned to Tasmania 13 years ago, settling at Cygnet in the Huon Valley.
He is the president of Neighbours of Fish Farming, and is expected to publicly launch his campaign in coming weeks, but spoke at a meeting in Huonville on Saturday afternoon.
“The reason for standing is that I’ve been working with my community in the Huon Valley for at least a decade, trying to protect our waterways and trying to restore our waterways from the pollution and the debris that industrial salmon farming has brought to it,” he said.
ROTTING CHUNKS OF FISH WASH UP ON TASMANIAN BEACHES HUON ACQUACULTURE TO TREAT SALMON WITH ANTIBIOTICS AT TASMANIAN FISH FARM
Pulse Tasmania
13 February 2025
Huon Aquaculture has confirmed it will be treating fish at one of its Tasmanian farms with antibiotics.
The decision comes two weeks after the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) announced increased monitoring of the state’s salmon industry.
In late January, the EPA received multiple notifications that mortality rates in salmon pens had exceeded 0.25% for three consecutive days, though the full extent of the deaths has not been made public.