Salmon Mortality Inquiry

The petition of the undersigned Residents of Tasmania draw to the attention of the House the need for a holistic inquiry into the causes, response and effects of the mass salmon mortality event that has occurred throughout February and March of 2025 in southeast Tasmania.

Your petitioners call upon the House to initiate an inquiry to:

l.       Examine the cause of the mortality event, including the source of the RLO in Okehampton Bay, and its subsequent transmission to different biosecurity areas.

2.      Understand how the companies involved contributed to the event through their actions.

3.      Examine the response of government agencies and departments.

4.      Make recommendations that will improve responses from government agencies and departments.

5.      Examine animal welfare, biosecurity, license conditions, controlled waste disposal, public communication response, etc.

6.      Examine how the EPA pollution incident response was handled, inter-department and industry communications, which ultimately led to beachgoers not being informed appropriately enough to be able to make informed choices.

7.      Examine why large amounts of antibiotic continued to be administered for a further 10 days to an infected pen after mass mortality was evident, and the antibiotic subsequently was not taken up and polluted the surrounding waterway.

8.      Examine why the State ministers for the Environment, Health and fisheries were silent on the issue despite public calls for information.