A proposal to move Tasmania’s farmed salmon industry away from inshore waters has angered a group of islanders after their island was identified as suitable for offshore aquaculture.
Flinders Island is located off the northeast coast of mainland Tasmania, and its remoteness is said to be “one of the island’s greatest natural attractions.”
The Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania identified the island’s coastal waters as displaying “medium or high biophysical suitability” for offshore finfish farming.
But some 100 residents of the island are having none of it, reported The Mercury.
“We don’t want our pristine waters adulterated at all,” their mayor said, echoing the sentiments of the group.
Finfish farming has been permitted in parts of the Furneaux Group – to which Flinders Island belongs – since 1999, but no company has ever proposed a lease in those waters, the report said.
Tasmanian Salmon Growers Association chief executive Sue Grau was disappointed the industry was not contacted prior to the meeting of the residents.
“We would have welcomed an opportunity to understand and address the concerns of the local community,” she told the paper.
