Regulator, industry and Government put profit and self-interest before waterways health

The regulator, industry and Tasmanian Government put profit and self-interest before the health of our waterways last summer. NOFF asks: "Why was this disastrous event not considered an environmental pollution incident?"

The EPA's report on the investigation into the events last summer deliberately conceals as much as it reveals about the ineptitude and contempt of an industry out of control in a changing climate.

The EPA report reveals the absence of a predefined "mass mortality response plan" in the industry/regulator framework. Without such a plan, communication, coordination and timely decision-making to properly address the disaster were grossly insufficient. The report also states that there were no defined triggers for defining the incident and escalating a response. 

Dead and dying salmon exceeded the existing waste-management capacity of the industry: the retrieval system was overwhelmed. Communities living along the coast saw an unauthorised discharge of controlled waste— dead fish and fat "mort balls"— into public waters. The report euphemistically calls this a "failed key performance indicator".

The industry clearly lacked contingency plans and waste-management infrastructure for the magnitude of this disaster. 

"The public expects the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job - that is, protecting the environment. Not supporting a rapacious foreign-owned industry. It is unacceptable that distressed and shocked local communities had to call regulators, government agencies, and engage the media, for action to be taken last summer," says Lisa Litjens, NOFF Vice President.

"We now have a disease confined to non-native farmed salmon, aided by a state government and regulator who have failed to hold this industry to account."

"Toxic salmon pens must be removed from our waterways, as recommended by the Legislative Council Fin Fish Inquiry. Tasmania and its communities deserve better. We do not have to accept a new disease, (and the dangerous antibiotics that come with it) that will remain lethal into the foreseeable future," says Alan Kemp, NOFF Committee.

NOFF also questions why the investigators interviewed industry spokespeople and the fish farm companies, but no one from the affected communities.

• Contact: Lisa Litjens, NOFF Vice President, 0400 461 624, litjenslisa@gmail.com