HELP TELL BRADDON THE TOXIC TRUTH ABOUT FISH FARMING!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! THE BRADDON ELECTORATE MUST HEAR THE TOXIC TRUTH ABOUT FISH FARMING BEFORE THEY VOTE AT THE FEDERAL ELECTION!

A federal election is coming up and Braddon communities need to know the toxic truth about fish farming plans for their coastline and Bass Strait before they vote!

If fish farms get into Braddon's coastal waters or Bass Strait we will never get them out! They will be given 30 year leases and allowed unlimited expansion of their toxic industry. Please make a donation (no matter how small) so we can tell THE TRUTH BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!

SINCERE THANK YOU

Our sincere thanks go to everyone who cares about our oceans and acts to protect them.

WHO ARE WE?

NWTAS is a non-political, non-profit organisation. Our goal is to save the pristine oceans of Tasmania’s north-west coast, support like-minded groups across Tasmania and keep our Braddon electorate informed about risks to their marine environment.

NWTAS is affiliated with Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF) and the Tasmanian Association for Marine Protection (TAMP).

OUR GOALS ARE TO:

Save Our Braddon coast and Bass Strait from the scourge of toxic fish farms.

• Run a campaign to tell Braddon residents the TRUTH about fish farming and how it will impact on their lives if it comes to their northwest coast and Bass Strait

• CONDUCT A PUBLIC RALLY.

OUR CHALLENGES:

• WE DON’T HAVE BIG CAMPAIGN BUDGETS LIKE THE MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES.

• THE MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS REFUSE TO PRINT OUR PRESS RELEASES.

• WE HAVE INSUFFICIENT FUNDS TO MEET THESE EXTRA-ORDINARY COSTS.

PLEASE DONATE TO THIS IMPORTANT CAUSE!

PLEASE READ ON IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH

ABOUT FISH FARMING IN TASMANIA

THE TRUTH – A SNAPSHOT

The only way Tasmanians can have their voices heard and to influence real change, is to use their vote at elections. The next federal election will be in April or May 2025.

• Both Federal Labor and Liberal parties are targeting Braddon to help them win majority government.

• The welfare of Tasmania’s coastline and Bass Strait is not a Liberal or Labour priority. In fact, quite the opposite.

• The salmon industry, with the unquestioning support of both state and federal governments, is preparing to use Braddon waters and Bass Strait as a cesspit, sacrificing our pristine coastal waters and the Strait, for their own political gain.

• If fish pens are installed in Braddon coastal waters or Bass Strait three overseas companies will be awarded 30-year leases and the opportunity to endlessly expand! There will be no way out of fish farming then!

THE TRUE JOBS DATA

The fish farm industry claims it employs 2000 people across the State and supports another 5000 jobs. They also claim most of those jobs are in regional areas.

• The truth is the industry employs less than 2000 fish farm workers across the whole state, a mere .04% of total workers. The Australian Institute advises this is less than vegetable and mushroom growing. For comparison, food outlets and restaurants employ close to 12,000 people across the state.

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics does not recognise fish farming as a significant industry in Strahan or Tasmania.

• Fish farming jobs are distributed across Tasmania as follows:

West and North-west coasts maximum 167 (11%)

Launceston and north-east: maximum 78 (5%)

Hobart: maximum 397 (31%)

Southeast: maximum 638 (53%)

• A huge 780 Braddon employees work in tourism, one of our largest industries (total jobs 6250). Only a handful work in the fish farm industry.

• 84% of fish farming jobs are in the southeast of the state, close to Hobart. Only a very small number of jobs are in regional areas. The industry also employs staff in in other states. How many of these are included on their job figures?

• A maximum of 77 people work in the Strahan fish farming industry. Only a handful of people in the rest of Braddon work in the fish farm industry. All jobs are important but we need to consider alternatives which benefit all Tasmanians.

IS SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG

WITH THE INDUSTRY JOB FIGURES?

TASMANIA – CURRENT DAMAGE

• The fish farm industry has already polluted and starved many Tassie waterways, bays and beaches (including their marine life).

• The fish farm industry generates huge volumes of waste from fish faeces and fish feed, resulting in the death of seabeds and marine environments. Native species are threatened by antibiotics and diseases prevalent in fish pens.

• Many hundreds of open fish pens are located close to Tassie shores (even close to houses) and, without exception, have resulted in toxic salmon faeces and feed waste, deoxygenated waters, algal blooms, denuded sea floors and noise pollution. Many residents suffer mental health issues as a result.

DOES THE FISH FARMING INDUSTRY HAVE UNDUE CONTROL OVER THE TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT?

BRADDON

• Much of Braddon coastal waters are now rated by the state government as “highly biophysically suitable” for fish farming.

• The fish farm industry does not have a social license to conduct fish farming on the north west coast. In other words it does not have any public acceptance to fish farm in the Braddon Electorate or in Bass Strait. The fish farm industry has demonstrated it has no geniune interest in the views or needs of the community, in fact to the contrary.

• 780 Braddon employees work in tourism, one of our largest industries (total jobs 6250). Only a handful work in the fish farm industry. Our tourism industry is destined to suffer catastrophic damage with many job losses. Without the invasion of fish farming Braddon’s tourism industry will continue to grow and thrive, attracting financial investment in hotels, restaurants and resorts. Tourism will generate thousands of clean jobs for Braddon into the future.

FISH FARMING OUTCOMES

BASS STRAIT

• Bass Strait supports commercial and recreational fishing. It supports healthy populations of dolphin, whales, King George whiting, snapper, sea grass meadows and many other species. Fish farming will threaten all this, particularly over a 30-year period.

• To compound pollution problems, scientists tell us Bass Strait is very difficult to flush. It takes 160 days to flush in the centre of the Strait.

FISH COMPANIES

• The three overseas-owned fish companies annually harvest $1.5 billion worth of Atlantic Salmon and Ocean Trout from Tasmania’s waterways and oceans. Their profits go overseas.

• The fish farming industry pays a meagre $900,000 per annum to the state government for the vast areas of ocean and waterways they currently lease for 30-year terms. Over 30 years Tasmania will receive less than $30million for current leases. In addition, Tasmanian taxpayers have to pay to subsidise and support the fish companies!

• Tasmania’s waterways are being exploited to provide 99% of farmed salmon and trout to the Australian market. Half a million Tasmanians are paying for this! And we get no return other than a meagre 2000 jobs and destroyed waterways!

• The industry PAYS NO TAX and is heavily subsidised and supported by the Tasmanian and Federal governments with taxpayer funds. In return they accept secret political donations.

• Vast acreages of ocean and waterways are leased, far more than the industry needs. This ensures, as the companies expand, they only need to gain approval for an increase in stocking the lease, not a new lease. It also ensures no-one can view what is going on in or under the fish pens!

• Companies do nothing to remediate the vast areas of marine devastation they have caused in 40 years of “occupation”.

• Community views are met with disdain from the fish farm industry and totally ignored by both governments, even the Federal Minister for the Environment.

• The companies refuse to consider land-based farming because it will cost them more - they prefer to pay a small fee (less than $1 million annually) for leasing vast areas of our oceans and shallow waterways and annually harvesting $1.5 billion in fish.

• If the companies ever pack up and leave Tasmania, taxpayers will be responsible for a huge and lengthy cleanup, after decades of abuse. Our waters may never be fully rehabilitated.

GOVERNMENT “GIFTS” TO THE INDUSTRY

No amount of representations, scientific evidence or petitions has resulted in any positive response from the government. There has been no remediation of damaged waters, reduction in fish stocking rates, removal or reduction of fish pens in desecrated waters or any significant penalties to the fish farming industry for the damage they continue to impose on Tasmania. Your community voice appears to be irrelevant to the government.

Instead, both levels of government pour millions of dollars into the industry on an ongoing basis. This support is in the form of grants, subsidies, infrastructure costs and research projects etc. Governments appear deaf and blind to Tasmanian’s concerns and opinions. Here are some recent examples of government “gifts” to the fish farming industry:

• All decisions relating to applications for new fish farm leases and expansion of the industry are made personally by the Minister. Neither scientific, Independent or community voices are part of the decision-making process.

• The fish farmers, with their 30-year leases, harvest $1.5 billion from Tasmanian waters and pay only $900,000 to lease vast amounts of Tasmania’s coastal waters. The industry pays no tax! In other words, Tasmania is not compensated for the vast use of its natural resources!

• Five salmon hatcheries feed into Hobart’s primary drinking water supply. TasWater has recently been compelled to upgrade the Bryn Estyn water treatment plant at a cost of $240million, in part due to taste and odour issues caused by algae. The cost of the new treatment plant was met by half a million Tasmanians.

• The Blue Economy Co-operative Research Centre (BECRC), with assistance from the fish farm industry, has State and Commonwealth government approval to conduct a 3 year “research trial” in Bass Strait just off the coastal waters of Burnie! The trial will include 2 huge open net fish pens for Atlantic Salmon and Kingfish. This project will provide the industry’s gateway into Bass Strait.

• The government continues to support fish farming in Macquarie Harbour. This is a financial boon to the industry because of the Harbour’s unique characteristics. It gets a regular, supply of oxygenated salt water. This means the industry does not have to cart fresh water into Strahan every fortnight to “bathe” their fish, as they must elsewhere. This is a huge saving to the industry and explains why they are so keen to expand their fish stocking in the Harbour, even though the Maugean Skate is under threat of extinction.

• The Tasmanian Liberal government, in partnership with the industry, has funded a study by the University of Tasmania entitled Statewide-Finfish-Planning-Exercise Dec 2021 (updated March 2022). This study identifies areas of Tassie’s coastal waters ranked as “biophysically suitable” for fin-fish farming. This research will enable the fish companies to fast-track applications for expansion into Braddon’s coastal waters and Bass Strait.

• Both levels of government have heavily subsidised a small oxygenation research project in Macquarie Harbour. Apparently, this project is not designed to fully replenish the Harbour with oxygen. The federal government has contributed $21 million to the project.

• The state government has established a laboratory breeding program for the threatened Maugean Skate because its numbers have been severely and rapidly depleted. Scientists attribute its demise largely to the fin-fish industry.

• The fish farmers lease huge acreages of ocean and waterways, more than they need. This ensures, as they expand, they only need to gain approval for an increase in stocking the lease, not a new lease.

• In 2019, Glamorgan Spring Bay Council built a freshwater pipeline from the Prosser River dam to Tassal’s Okehamptom Bay fish farming site. As a consequence of borrowings to support Tassal, the Council could not afford to undertake any new projects and rates had to be increased by $95 per property.

• Calls have come from the community to relocate their fish farms to land where they can use a Reticulation Aquaculture System (RAS). RAS is a closed loop system that uses tanks to raise aquatic species in a controlled indoor environment. RAS has many benefits:

The government and the industry have ignored community views. The governemnt has never required or requested that the fish farm industry examine RAS as an alternative.

THE GIFT LIST GOES ON AND ON...

THANK YOU FOR READING TO THE END!

Sources:

NWTAS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162969115731233

NOFF: https://www.facebook.com/NeighboursofFishFarming/

NOFF: https://www.noff.au/

TAMP: https://www.tamp.org.au/#:~:text=Tasmanian%20Alliance%20for%20Marine%20Protection,2

Blue Economy CRC: https://blueeconomycrc.com.au/blue-economy-zone/

University of Tasmania: https://www.utas.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1558341/REPORT-Statewide-Finfish-Planning-Exercise-Dec2021-updated-Mar2022.pdf

Australian Institute: https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/small-fish-big-pond/

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