The Liberals have admitted the intensity of salmon farming within existing leases will still be allowed to increase, despite a promise to “pause” spatial expansion of the industry. Farming intensification, combined with existing disease and warming waters, will drive the conditions for another summer mass mortality event. Instead of fast-tracking a harmful antibiotic to dump in public waters as a response, the Liberals should enforce destocking of diseased salmon pens now.
Through the first half of 2025, millions of diseased salmon were pulled from southern waterways, and far more washed up on beaches as fleshy, fatty chunks. Diseased fish were processed for human consumption.
Minister for Primary Industries Gavin Pearce has conceded Tasmania’s waters will continue to get warmer, and that Piscirickettsia salmonis is now endemic in south-east Tasmanian waters. He also conceded Tasmania will most likely experience a repeat of last summer’s mass salmon mortalities more often as a result without changes.
The Minister’s acceptance this is the new normal unless preventive action is taken is refreshingly honest, but his government’s response is alarming. Instead of reducing the number of fish in pens to mitigate the risk of mortalities, they are supporting the salmon companies’ application for an emergency permit to use the unregistered and hugely concerning antibiotic, Florfenicol.
The first action needed to mitigate the risk of mass mortalities of salmon from disease is to reduce the number of fish in the water. However, the government’s so-called “pause” on spatial expansion will allow for an increase in the number of sea cages in existing leases and an increase in numbers of fish in each pen, up to unrealistically high maximum levels. This approach will guarantee the spread of disease.
The only mitigation response salmon corporations are exploring is the mass dumping of antibiotics in waterways. These antibiotics have untold and unstudied effects for the wild fish population and broader marine environment.
The government has chosen the bluntest of instruments and supported an emergency permit for an unregulated antibiotic – a recognised last resort.
Tasmanians deserves better than this fake pause in expansion accompanied by the confected outrage of the salmon industry. Multinational salmon corporations have exacted an awful toll on our marine environment. The Liberal government must act immediately to require this industry to reduce stocking densities to help prevent what could be the deadliest summer impacts yet on our waterways.
