Stakes raised by Bob Brown Foundation in war on salmon

Tasmania’s salmon trade faces a new era of on-water disruption, with the Bob Brown Foundation staging the first of likely many protests and vowing to meet the $1b industry ‘head on’.

Tasmania’s $1bn salmon trade faces a new era of on-water disruption, with the Bob Brown Foundation staging the first of likely many protests while vowing to meet industry “head on”.

BBF protesters used boats to impede the unloading of salmon from Tassal Group’s fish transport vessel Aqua Spa into 16 pens at Long Bay, near Port Arthur, for up to four hours on Tuesday.

The protest signals an expansion of BBF’s direct action from forests and mines to coastal ­waterways, where many Tasmanians believe salmon farming should cease.

Bob Brown. Picture: Chris Kidd

“Unless this industry starts to get out of Tasmania’s waters, the BBF will meet the toxic salmon head on,” said BBF fish farm campaigner Alistair Allan. “These community pushbacks will only grow.”

The action will fuel debate over controversial anti-protest laws before the Tasmanian parliament. Tasmania’s salmon farming industry is highly contentious – backed by many for the regional jobs it provides but also widely opposed for localised environmental damage and impacts on wildlife. The sector ­argues it ­operates sustainably and that any impacts are localised and temporary.

While the industry is looking to expand into deeper, better flushed waters further off the coast, opponents argue it should quit shallow bays, such as Long Bay, due to environmental impacts, including on water quality.

Bob Brown, former Greens leader and veteran conservationist, said he “congratulated … all those peaceful defenders of Tasmania’s natural splendour and lifestyle who stood up to Big Salmon”.

“Long Bay is a scenic spectacle as anyone approaches Port Arthur,” Dr Brown said. “It is long, shallow and has no flushing current. Loading this beautiful cove with tonnes of Tassal ­salmon faeces is an environmental debacle.

“The ongoing maiming and killing of fur seals, which people from around the world delight to see around the Tasman Peninsula, adds to the smashing of brand Tasmania, which is an ­obvious outcome.”

Mr Allan said direct action was justified after the state government and Tassal ignored months of community requests, backed by the recommendations of a Legislative Council finfish inquiry, to remove farmed ­salmon from shallow bays such as Long Bay.