Unsustainable salmon farming practices “primary” threat to skate, documents reveal
Tourism and aquaculture are at risk if the Maugean skate goes extinct, the premier was warned in 2023 with documents revealing the federal environment department’s reasons for reconsidering the EPBC decision.
Tasmania
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Unsustainable salmon farming practices in Macquarie Harbour are the primary threat to the endangered Maugean Skate, federal documents released on Tuesday reveal.
The briefing documents sent from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in November 2023 also say the skate is an attribute of the world heritage values of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and that any significant impact on the skate may also have implications on world heritage values.
“Any significant impacts to the Maugean Skate as a listed threatened species may also have implications for world heritage values as a potential separate EPBC Act controlling provision for salmon farming activities, and may also attract world heritage stakeholder interest,” the documents read.
In a letter addressed to Premier Jeremy Rockliff, Ms Plibersek says urgent action, in addition to oxygenating equipment, must be taken to change low oxygen levels and poor water quality in the harbour to help the endangered species recover.
“Failure to do so will have implications for the long-term viability of important regional industries and jobs, especially in tourism and aquaculture,” she said in the letter contained in the documents.
She said the Threatened Species Scientific Committee identified a number of threats to the skate “primarily unsustainable salmon farming practices in Macquarie Harbour, but also hydro operations, and climate change”.
The brief says the department had encouraged the Tasmanian Government regulator of aquaculture, the Environment Protection Authority, to consider how it would prepare for a halt to salmon farming operations in Macquarie Harbour if a controlled action decision were to eventuate.
The documents warn Ms Plibersek that the Tasmanian government is expected to have “strong concerns” about any decision that might limit salmon farming operations.
Ms Plibersek was reconsidering an EPBC Act referral decision for salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour before the prime minister stepped in to guarantee the future of the industry in the region following positive data about the species numbers.
In 2012 it was determined that salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour was not a controlled action under federal environment laws, leaving this management of the industry to the state government.
The documents show the department received three requests for reconsideration of the 2012 decision which provided a “range of scientific information to support their assertions that Macquarie Harbour salmon farming is having a more significant impact on the endangered Maugean skate than was anticipated at the time of the 2012 EPBC
referral decision”.
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