The EPA has renewed salmon farming licences in Long Bay, despite the overwhelming evidence from community and independent scientists of serious environmental harm. It’s a clear statement that this government’s broken regulations are designed to put salmon farm profits above marine environment protection.
The EPA has renewed the environmental licences for 16 salmon farms in Long Bay and surrounding areas of the Tasman Peninsula. It’s beyond belief the EPA has done this, given Tassal’s long list of compliance violations.
Peninsula residents have long-reported the extensive algal growth that has damaged rocky reefs and seagrass beds. The EPA’s own environmental monitoring program has shown the connection between algal growth and nutrients from salmon farms.
The EPA is supposed to protect the environment, not focus on enabling big salmon farming corporations to profit from the pollution of biodiverse marine waters. If the EPA were following the precautionary principle, as they should, salmon farming in Long Bay would be discontinued until they fully understood how agricultural runoff and salmon farm nutrients were affecting this marine environment. It’s clear more research is urgently needed.
The Long Bay salmon farm licenses expired in November last year, so why did the EPA take so long to make their decision? There seems seems to be limited new evidence the EPA have relied on to make their decision – so what have they been doing for the last nine months while the environmental licence was in limbo?
The local community acted in good faith in providing evidence to the EPA, but in return have been treated with disrespect for the last nine months by continual promises of decisions being made “very soon”, and stonewalling. The Greens wrote to the EPA Director on 15 July requesting an urgent update on the Long Bay licence and the Director failed to respond until yesterday – the day their determination was finally made.
Parliament’s Fin Fish Inquiry recommended reducing inshore fish farms, especially in sensitive, sheltered and biodiverse areas like Long Bay. Instead, the Rockliff Government and EPA are allowing salmon farms to continue in these fragile ecosystems, to make money at the expense of what once was a pristine environment.
The Liberal Government’s continued betrayal of local coastal communities, and the damage to beautiful marine environments, appals all who see the harm being done. The Greens will keep fighting for regulation of salmon farming operations to fully protect what is wild and special in our publicly-owned estuaries and rivers.
