Is it any wonder a so-called ‘review’, paid for by Salmon Tasmania, has tried to cast doubt on the impact salmon farming is having on the Maugean Skate in Macquarie Harbour? Of course not.
The Liberal/Labor coalition, yet again, are backing their Big Salmon mates at the expense of the marine environment. Their use of industry-funded analysis to justify the continued trashing of Macquarie Harbour would be laughable, if it didn’t involve the extinction of an ancient species.
The evidence of a decade of scientific monitoring is, unfortunately, overwhelmingly clear. Aquaculture companies have stocked pens in Macquarie Harbour full with salmon, with the fish food and waste deoxygenating the water to a point where the Maugean skate’s survival now hangs on a thread.
Macquarie Harbour is the only Maugean skate habitat on Earth, and thanks to industrial-scale fish farming, there’s only dozens of these special animals left in the basin.
This remarkable creature has lived since the time of the dinosaurs. We can’t let the major parties and the salmon-farming industry push it to extinction. To give the Maugean skate a fighting chance at survival, fish farms must be removed from Macquarie Harbour, and workers transitioned to sustainable industries.
The Maugean skate has survived since the Cretaceous period. It will be political decisions that determine whether it can outlive Big Salmon.
