After Greens and community pressure, a new Direction has been issued under the Biosecurity Act that finally requires stricter requirements for reporting farmed salmon mortalities. This is a positive step forward, but this information should be made available to the public in real time.
Under previous rules, salmon farms only had to report fish deaths once they met an arbitrary definition of a “mortality incident”. This meant that many fish deaths would go unreported, and the full extent of the animal cruelty at the heart of this industry went unknown.
After significant pressure from the Greens and community to tighten standards, the total mortalities for each pen must be reported on a weekly basis, as well as the suspected cause of death. It’s a real win for greater monitoring of the salmon farming industry, which the Liberals have allowed to operate secretively and unchecked in Tasmanian waters.
These new reporting requirements are very welcome, but they are still missing a critical element: public transparency. Tasmanians deserve to know what’s going on in the waterways they treasure for recreation and their livelihoods.
Just last year, mass fish deaths in salmon farms polluted Tasmanian waters with fatty chunks of diseased and dead salmon. There’s significant public interest in what’s happening behind the closed doors of the salmon farming companies, and how it could affect local communities and the environment.
Tasmanians have a right to know what salmon farming companies are doing in their local waterways. The Liberal Government must ensure reported salmon farm mortalities are released to the public in real time.
