The campaign to remove Tassal’s salmon pens in Long Bay, Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia has intensified after a study linked the salmon lease to harmful algal blooms.
Locals started becoming concerned about the deterioration in water quality in Long Bay after Tassal began stocking the lease in 2017.
Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority has been monitoring water quality in the Port Arthur area since December 2019. “Nitrogen isotope data demonstrates that the farm is a nutrient source for macro algae communities at the sites directly adjacent to the lease,” concluded the newly released report.
Activists gathered on Monday outside the Parliament House following the release of the study’s findings and demanded officials to shut down Tassal’s salmon farming operations, reported Tasmanian news outlet The Mercury.
The Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection said the science validated what locals suspected all along. The group said it won’t accept anything else other than the removal of the farms.
