Maugean Skate National Recovery Team releases first communique with ‘no agreed actions’

Conservationists say there has been a lack of action to prevent the extinction of the endangered Maugean skate, after a communique from the first meeting of the recovery team was quietly released.

Dr Leonardo Guida of the Australian Marine Conservation Society. Picture: Supplied

Conservationists say there has been a lack of action to prevent the extinction of the endangered Maugean skate, after a communique from the first meeting of the recovery team was quietly released late on Friday.

Recent monitoring data published by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies indicated there had been a significant decline in the last population of the ancient species at Macquarie Harbour.

The Maugean skate is listed as endangered under the state’s Threatened Species Protection Act, as well as the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The Tasmanian and Commonwealth governments have together formed a Maugean Skate National Recovery Team to help save the species.

Membership of the team includes representatives from all three tiers of government, Hydro Tasmania, the aquaculture industry, research organisations, natural resource managers, environmental NGOs, and the West Coast community.

Holding their first meeting on July 27 in Hobart, the team is set to meet on a quarterly basis, with the potential to convene more regularly if required.

Maugean Skate in Macquarie Harbour TAS (Credit Jane Ruckert). Picture: Jane Ruckert

A Department of Natural Resources and Environment spokeswoman said the recovery team had discussed a “range of actions to minimise threats to the Maugean skate,” including “research and monitoring priorities, and short and long-term management and conservation actions such as a captive breeding program”.

“A Conservation Action Plan is expected to be finalised towards the end of the year,” she said.

The communique said the “agreed primary objective” for “immediate short-term action” was to develop a strategy based on the best available information, the aim of which would be to prevent the extinction of the skate and “maximise its recovery in the wild, while simultaneously minimising the impact of conservation actions on local communities and industries”.

Australia Institute Tasmania director Eloise Carr said “nothing has changed to improve water quality” at Macquarie Harbour and the communique detailed “no agreed actions and no time frame for anything to change”.

Director of the Australia Institute Tasmania Eloise Carr speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns in Hobart on Thursday, March 10, 2022.

“Macquarie Harbour … has suffered impacts from mining and forestry since the nineteenth century. But it’s the harbour’s 21st-century salmon industry that will go down in history for being linked to the extinction of a species if business as usual continues,” she said.

Bob Brown Foundation Antarctic and marine campaigner Alistair Allan said salmon farms needed to be removed from Macquarie Harbour “immediately” as an “obvious proactive and precautionary measure”.

Alarm sounded in crisis talks over future of endangered species

July 28, 5am: Tasmania could play host to the world’s first modern extinction of a shark or ray if extreme and urgent action isn’t taken to prevent the Maugean skate from dying out, a leading marine scientist has said amid crisis talks being held in Hobart this week.

It comes after recent monitoring data compiled by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies indicated there had been a significant decline in the last population of the ancient species at Macquarie Harbour.

The Maugean skate is listed as endangered under the state’s Threatened Species Protection Act, as well as the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Hosted by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania and the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, a workshop canvassing potential solutions to the extinction threat was held in the state capital on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

It was attended by a diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives from the salmon industry, Hydro Tasmania, the research community, and all levels of government.

Brisbane-based Dr Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist at the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), was in Hobart for the workshop and said the situation for the Maugean skate was “as dire as it gets”.

“It’s absolutely imperative that the federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek do all she can under her powers to avert a new, and global, extinction event,” Dr Guida said.

“The Maugean skate has been pushed too hard for too long and I doubt Tasmanians want another Tasmanian tiger.”

Dr Guida said fluctuating levels of dissolved oxygen in the harbour were killing off the skate and called for the “immediate cessation” of salmon farming in the area, as well as increased regulation of river flows to produce hydro-electricity, which have a downstream effect on the harbour.

The AMCS and Humane Society International Australia have nominated the Maugean skate for listing as critically endangered under national environmental laws.

Environment Minister Roger Jaensch. Picture: Chris Kidd

Salmon Tasmania CEO Luke Martin said earlier this week that the industry had committed more than half a million dollars to fund research into protecting the skate and that issues other than salmonid aquaculture may also be impacting the species.

The workshop was followed by the inaugural meeting of the Maugean Skate National Recovery Team on Thursday, where the focus of talks was on priority conservation actions for the species and updating conservation advice to guide its recovery.

Outcomes of the workshop are set to inform a Conservation Action Plan for the skate.

Tasmanian Environment Minister Roger Jaensch said the Rockliff government had changed gillnetting regulations and supported a pilot study on captive breeding techniques in a bid to halt the decline in skate numbers.

“We are also actively engaging with key stakeholders on a range of proactive and precautionary actions to minimise threats to the Maugean skate, identify research and monitoring priorities, and determine short and long-term management and conservation actions needed to recover the skate,” he said.