TASSAL is considering its legal options after ABC’S Four Corners aired on Monday night an hour-long expose critical of the state’s salmon industry.
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The program questioned industry regulations, chemical colouring of Tasmanian fish, and conveyed Huon Aquaculture’s fears that the industry’s expansion in Macquarie Harbour would be an environmental calamity.
The government and state Opposition leaped to the industry’s defence on Tuesday, lauding new legislation introduced this year that had tightened industry regulations and allowed for bigger penalties for environmental breaches.
Tassal chief executive Mark Ryan, who heads one of the state’s biggest three salmon producers, said science was “the first casualty of the story”.
“It was biased and that there were a number of statements considered to be not accurate,” Mr Ryan said.
“We’ve maintained all sorts of professional advice and legal advice is one that we continually seek on a range of matters.
“We will look at the show again and see if what was said was being accurately reflected.”
Mr Ryan hit out at Huon Aquaculture for sharing its concerns.
“It is also disappointing that a competitor’s directed scientific research, only on its leases, were presented as evidence of the sustainability of the whole of Macquarie Harbour," he said.
“I am at a loss as to why Four Corners deliberately focused on a scare campaign which largely relied on anecdotal evidence and the beliefs of our commercial competitor.”
Huon Aquaculture breached a nitrogen cap on their leases last year and received a $260,000 fine.
The government has now increased fines to anything up to $41 million.
Tassal has proposed farming salmon on the East Coast at Okehampton Bay but has ruled out expanding to the Mercury passage.
Mr Ryan said the industry was also looking at several sites at Storm Bay in the South-East.
Environment Tasmania reiterated a call for a moratorium on lease expansion approvals.
The organisation’s strategy director Laura Kelly said it would soon meet with Tassal investors to raise awareness of the company’s farming practices after its second largest shareholder, Tribeca Investment Partners, withdrew 3.7 million shares on Monday night.
More than 5200 people are employed by the $700 million salmon industry which is based mainly in the state’s regional communities.
Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff said state’s salmon industry was one of the best regulated in the world.
“But we can always do better, which is why we recently changed the regulatory system so that the independent Environment Protection Agency now regulates the industry, including the stocking cap in Macquarie Harbour,” he said.
Labor primary industries spokeswoman Rebecca White expressed confidence in the industry’s regulation.
“The recent Senate inquiry showed that the public can have confidence that there are strong regulations in place to independently monitor the environmental impact of the industry,” she said.
“The science must always dictate how we grow fish to keep the industry sustainable and maintain the confidence of the community.”
