State and federal governments want to push the Tasmanian salmon industry into deeper water. 

Tasmania’s Primary Industries and Water Minister Guy Barnett and federal Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonathon Duniam have announced an agreement to push aquaculture into Commonwealth waters, three nautical miles off the coast of Tasmania.

Aquaculture brings about $1.6 billion to the Tasmanian economy each year, employing over 5,000 people.

“Currently, aquaculture in Australia is operated in state or territory waters and by moving further offshore … we can harness recent technological improvements and investigate the potential environmental and resource access benefits available from undertaking aquaculture in deeper waters,” Senator Duniam said.

“The work will be led by the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), an independent not-for-profit company funded under the Australian Government’s CRC Program.”

One of the major challenges will be to build pens that can withstand rougher conditions offshore, and the development of autonomous technologies for feeding and monitoring.

There is no timeline for the shift further out to sea, but Senator Duniam says “the sooner the better”.

The plan to move further offshore comes just a few weeks after the Tasmanian Government announced plans for a 10-year roadmap to move the salmon industry onto land. 

The plans to move the industry both further offshore and onto land have been prompted in part by concerns about the environmental impact of salmon farming. 

Tasmania’s sheltered river estuaries and bays are struggling under the weight of the rapidly-growing industry. 

There are strong concerns about the concentrated effluent released by the huge schools of penned fish.

This untreated waste builds up beneath and around the pens, boosting nitrogen levels and causing toxic algal blooms while driving out native marine life.

It causes damage in the form of plastic pollution when pens break apart during rough weather. 

It also creates risks to native marine life whose life cycles can be interrupted, and animal welfare concerns for the fish and inquisitive seals that are killed while trying to feed on them.

“The Tasmanian aquaculture sector has been a national success story, with the industry growing steadily to provide world class products while also delivering jobs in regional Tasmania,” the state’s water minister says. 

The Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association has welcomed the move further offshore, saying it “provides a new frontier for responsible growth of Australian aquaculture”. 

Environmentalists say both the plans to move further offshore and onto land are attempts to distract from the fundamental risks and damage caused by salmon farming pens.