At least 1.35 million salmon were killed in Macquarie Harbour over six months from October 2017 due to a virus, the state’s Environment Protection Authority head has revealed.
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The massive fish kill has reignited calls from the Greens and environmentalists for the harbour to be closed to the state’s three major salmon companies.
The news came after the environmental watchdog confirmed it would stick to a draft determination to impose a 9500-tonne biomass limit on the harbour for two years.
The previous limit was 12,000 tonnes.
This means there will be 21-per-cent less fish farmed within leases operated by Tassal, Petuna and Huon Aquaculture.
Petuna will be able to farm 4267.9 tonnes of salmon, Huon 2359.5 tonnes, and Tassal 2872.6 tonnes.
EPA director Wes Ford said the final determination was based on the harbour’s environmental status.
“It is prudent to adopt an approach which reduces the biomass for a sufficient time to allow harbour response to be monitored and interpreted meaningfully,” he said.
He told ABC Radio on Tuesday that 1.35 million salmon had been killed over a six-month period over spring and summer.
Greens environment spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the fish were killed through mismanagement by salmon farming companies and overstocking in the harbour.
Environment Tasmania spokeswoman Laura Kelly said all fish needed to be removed from the harbour so the environment can recover and its endangered inhabitant, the Maugean Skate, a chance of survival.
Premier Will Hodgman said the government had acted to reduce biomass levels in Macquarie Harbour and empowered the EPA to have more control over activity within its waters.
"There is no doubt that there have been significant environmental stresses at Macquarie Harbour which is why we as a government intervened to reduce caps and increase environmental protections," he said.
Tassal in a release to the Australian Securities Exchange said the outbreak of Pilchard Orthomyxovirus was stabilised quickly and fish were soon replaced in the nursery.
“Accordingly, the impact of this elevated mortality is not expected to have a material impact on Tassal,” it said.
