An outbreak of piscirickettsia salmonis in a Tassal salmon farm pen at Great Taylors Bay is a very concerning event. Instead of risking marine harms, the government needs to require the salmon industry to destock diseased fish from pens.
Tassal plan to use the antibiotic oxytetracycline in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, after their emergency permit for florfenicol was suspended by the APVMA. The salmon farming industry’s long-term plan for disease control in public waters is to use the florfenicol, and they’re trying for a further permit.
AMA Tasmania has formally warned of the health impacts of florfenicol in marine waters and recommended against further emergency florfenicol approvals.
Over three tonnes of florfenicol was dumped in southern marine waters last summer, and the public only found out the exact amount months afterwards. The industry’s use of florfenicol forced the closure of wild-caught fishing industries in areas surrounding the pens, which eventually led to the APVMA cancelling the permit.
A disease outbreak occurring so early in the pre-summer period, is extremely concerning. The largest El Niño ever recorded is still building. Very hot waters are predicted this summer, which will increase the risk of fish diseases and mass salmon mortality events.
During last summer’s mass mortality event, southern waters and beaches were polluted with stinking dead fish. The government needs to put Tasmanians’ health and wild-caught fishers before multinational salmon farming corporations. That means standing up against companies dumping antibiotics into marine waters, and requiring destocking of pens instead.
