Confusing advice from the Department of Environment about salmon farm antibiotic use has left local rock lobster fishers reeling. They have renewed worries about ongoing impacts on their operations and risks to key markets.
Both the Liberals and Labor have repeatedly dismissed concerns about the use of huge quantities of antibiotics on salmon farms, despite the move having immediate impacts on the rock lobster industry last year. Fishers are now highlighting further issues, with the government shirking responsibility for antibiotic impacts and saying its up to individual operators to assess the risks to their business and to the wider industry.
This is a completely unfair and untenable situation for local rock lobster and recreational fishers.
We only have to look to Chile to see how the intensive use of antibiotics can be hugely damaging to wild fisheries. But the Liberals have conveniently ignored this example and supported the untested use of florfenicol in Tasmanian waters without giving any thought to the cost of iconic local industries.
It’s well past time for the government to stop looking after the profits of the multinational corporations that run the state’s fish farms at the expense of everything else.
