Tamar Estuary

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Benthic Monitoring

Environmental licences require companies to undertake regular visual monitoring of the seabed to detect environmental changes associated with farming salmon. This occurs at all salmon farming sites across Tasmania.

One requirement is that there must be no significant visual impacts at, or past, 35 metres from the lease area. Visual impacts are monitored by remotely operated vehicles fitted with high definition cameras. Visual monitoring occurs at compliance points located around the lease area. Where significant impacts are detected, additional monitoring surveys are conducted at points further away to assess impact.

If a significant impact is detected within or outside the lease areas, the EPA may require management responses as well as further investigation.

Data is required to be collected annually, however the timing of environmental surveys is lease dependant and can take place within any month throughout the year.​

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​Significant mortality event reported

A company has to immediately notify the Government of any significant illness, mortality or disease in their fish.

​Mortality within a cage >0.25% for three consecutive days

A company must report as soon as possible any suspected or known incidents of disease or mortality affecting greater than 0.25 per cent of fish per day for three consecutive days in any individual cage.

Where fish mortalities are not collected daily then the morts need to be averaged over the number of days between collection. For example if there are 1.2% morts collected today but it has been 4 days since the morts were collected then it has been 0.3%/day for 4 days (which is reportable) not one day at 1% (which is not reportable).

Seal mortalities

​A seal death that is attributable to salmon farming is defined as:
"A mortality caused by an interaction with marine farming activities, operations and infrastructure including but not limited to: entanglement, vessel strike, other infrastructure interaction, deterrent use, sedation, and humane destruction."

Whether or not a seal death was caused by salmon farming activities is determined on a case by case basis after assessing all of the facts.

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​​​​​Marine Farm Inspections

There are a range of requirements that licence and lease holders must comply with. These are created by instruments such as legislation, licences, leases and Marine Farming Development Plans. The Government has an inspection program where authorised officers from Government or Marine and Safety Tasmania visit and inspect marine farms for compliance.  

Operations specific to the Marine Farming Inspection Program during Q1 and Q2 2020 were ​impacted by restrictions put in place as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.​

The Aquaculture Branches Compliance and Inspection program completed all finfish marine farm lease inspections for the 2024 period, by the end of Q3.

Infringements

When an infringement is detected, authorised officers from Government or Marine and Safety Tasmania may issue an infringement notice.

​​​​Marine Debris clean ups

As the population and industries expand, marine debris is a growing environmental and navigational issue for the waterway. Debris may come from lots of sources including:

• pleasure craft
• commercial vessels
• fish farming activities

Debris may also end up in the ocean from land, for example litter, and runoff from stormwater drains. Finfish and shellfish farmers monitor and remove marine debris from nominated shorelines through an ‘Adopt a Shoreline’ initiative. The Government also participates in shoreline clean up activities. This helps to ensure that any debris, whether marine farming related or not, is collected and Tasmania’s coastline is protected.  

In undertaking these activities, it is important to ensure that any sensitive bird breeding habitat is not impacted, and request that companies seek advice from BirdLife Tasmania prior to any targeted marine debris removal from sensitive bird breeding habitat during breeding season.  BirdLife Tasmania has provided guidance on where and when shorebirds may be most vulnerable and general operational limits are now in place from September 1st – March 31st with some shoreline areas classified as 'avoid disturbance' and others as 'minimise disturbance – seek advice'. As such, corresponding 'effort' through these periods may appear reduced in some marine farming areas.  Refer to the LISTmap layer ‘Bird breeding habitat and access recommendations’ for further information, which you can access here.

Operations and activities specific to the Marine Debris Clean ups program during Q1 and Q2 2020 were impacted by restrictions put in place as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

​Fish escapes notified to NRE

Salmon farmers must not release into Tasmania’s waters any fish unless authorised to do so. If fish are released this is a breach of their licence and operators must notify Government.

The table below shows which companies have reported fish escapes to Government. Sometimes companies fail to report fish escapes, and this is a breach of their licence and they may be penalised.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​HOG Weight

HOG Weight refers to the weight of a fish “Head On Gutted” and is how companies and the market refer to the weight of fish in a commercial setting.

Company specific production data is published on this site on a financial year basis.  Release of company specific production information for the 2023-24 financial year will occur after 1 July 2025.

Number of tonnes produced state-wide

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Employment Data

​Each company employs staff across Tasmania on both a permanent and casual basis.  

Number of Permanent staff state-wide​

Number of Casual staff state-wide