On the upnote at least the whites will be too full to eat us!
Nah fuck that... Why not beach a whale at bondi for summer.

FUCK FISH FARMS AND FUCK TA$$AL! Please sign this petition too as Hobarts beautiful right points and one of our best beach breaks will be directly effected by new "offshore" farms. I've never written a petition before before so let me know how to improve it and please sign and share it
https://www.change.org/p/jeremy-rockliff-protect-storm-bay-from-fish-far...

I go out of my way not to buy Tassal salmon since watching a doco on ABC re Huon vs. Tassal.
Tassal seem like a totally irresponsible, greedy organisation.

Thanks for bringing attention to this.

Instagram : danielsaan
www.communityrun.org/petitions/keep-king-island-fish-farm-free
Five mins max to complete the petition

Mass fish kill at Tassie Salmon farm was human error- ABC

Have a good look at Tassal , as they look like they are getting ready to go public , make a few $'s more by trashing King Island?
Tassie Salmon has high levels of Anti-biotics and hormones , which it makes it pretty shitty salmon , and is regarded as one of the worst farm salmon in the world.

Tassal has been public for a while TGR ASX.

Currently $3.80 . Down from $4.70 this time last year .

I travelled through Chile in 2016 and witnessed first-hand what this industry is about, they've smashed ecosystems in the south over there and have plans to expand massively (against unilateral public protest) into some of Chile's richest surf zones (which I won't name on here).

The largest Red Tide ever recorded caused the president of Chile to declare a state of emergency in the Chiloe region, and many argued the catalyst was due to a behemoth dump of dead fish and waste by the salmon farming industry (READ: https://www.ecowatch.com/chiles-worst-ever-red-tide-kills-20-million-fis...
AND
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160517-chile-red-tide-fisher...)

On ground it was pretty gnarly, people couldn't eat from the ocean anymore, livelihoods lost, thousands of people taking to the street in protest...

Or check out Scotland: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15583156.A_disgrace__Ten_million_salm...

Or probably the most sensitive of all locations in the world, British Columbia (because the farming affects their native salmon runs which in turn support entire marine and terrestrial ecosystems): http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marc-davis-/fish-farming-wild-salmon_b_9361...

It's one of the fastest growing primary industries out there, worth billions of dollars annually and counting - so the corporates are going for it.

It's a great idea to alleviate pressure off wild stocks, but if it's at the cost of poisoning King Island or catching all the bait fish in the ocean to feed farmed salmon then we've got gnarly consequences.

At this stage buying farmed salmon is one of the LEAST sustainable things you can do fish-wise.

Catch what you eat. Eat what you catch.

Farmed salmon creates dead zones.
it's gnarly environmental rape and pillage.

Just spent 2 weeks down on king island surfing all over the island. Such a beautiful place and never saw more than 2 people in the water at any time and mostly surfed on my own. This proposal is really bad news if it all goes ahead. Martha's is the most amazing and unique set up and any risk to how that wave is formed, let alone broader detrimental environmental impacts, should be avoided big time. Not all "progress" is worth the risks.

jeez, do they have to fuck everything.........

Gary can't help but wonder if someone was perhaps better positioned, or waiting longer to protest, but TC being TC decided he'd protest anyway?

Look at the permit area for the NW of Tas , huge area!
Would not the KI enterprise be beset with the same large transportation cost that the rest of life on the island is?
Is the nearby ocean mined to provide feed for the salmon? What is risk of marine dead zone in waters surrounding KI?
Will there also be 20ft whites hanging around the pens?
While I doubt the actual mechanics of wave formation would be affected by floating pens, would it be like paddling through an oily film of cray bait? That experience is freaky and eww.

Big business with local, state and national government working together again for profit.
Its what this is all about - the $$$$
Definitely worth checking out the Four Corners investigation from 2017 that was aired on ABC.
60 minutes and others have shown similar programmes about how greed is driving this industry to the absolute detriment of the ocean, harbours and general environment.
Tasmania's waters are already in the danger zone from over populating the waters with salmon and have damaged the eco system severely already.
Salmon isn't even naturally orange-ish. The farms feed it manufactured fish food to make it that colour.
Most have read this but it always come to mind....
When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
—Cree Prophecy

A little bit of info below re ABC doco.
Four Corners doesn't come down unless the community is concerned, I get that... I would be happier if we just slid under your radar and you hadn't been here, but you're here." Company CEO

Big Fish, a ground breaking investigation by Caro Meldrum-Hanna and presented by Sarah Ferguson, goes to air on Monday 31st October at 8.30pm EDT. It is replayed on Tuesday 1st November at 10.00am and Wednesday 2nd at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

I lived and studied in three little towns on the Huon in SE Tas for two years 1995-6. I surfed down there and sailed every week up and down the Huon estuary, the d'Entrecasteaux Channel , Bruny Island and some points south. All places had salmon farms. A few facts:
1. The effluent from the Huon salmon farms was the equivalent outflow of untreated sewage from a city of 50,000 people;
2. The fish are fed pellets of reconstituted animal protein, like chicken pellets made of fish meal. That's why cage hens taste like fish and farmed fish taste like chicken;
3. Every now and then a pen or pens break open and 25-50,000 rapacious salmon escape to eat everything that swims in those waters. The Huon, once a fabulous fishery, is almost a dead zone now;
4. Top level hunters, escaped salmon destroy the marine ecosystem by gorging and shitting. But having been raised in pens they patrol the shoreline at a specific distance so the feral Tassie poachers have a field day. Good luck to 'em.
5. This is a classic corporate greed play. Growth at all costs, just like a tumour. Anyone who has Netflix should check out the excellent doco series on food, Rotten, especially ep 5 on the New England fishery in the US. It's called Cod is Dead. A bitterly ironic pun given how the world's most fiercely independent businessmen, fisherman, have been sucked up and crushed dry by the corporate machine that now is trying to privatise the oceans;
6. Buy some Tassal shares, go to or log on to the AGM and half yearly results briefings (usually in February) , and make known your feelings as a company shareholder. This fish farm foolery on King cannot be allowed to happen.

Meh.. not eating from the ocean anymore with Fukushima belching 24-7. Others I know agree. Internal emitters are not good. Strontium is now in the pet food chain in Canada. So..

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/01/08/helen-caldicott-the-fukus...

Ease up on the Labrador sausages I've been buying from Vancouver you reckon ?

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-tas-lymwood-107412684

They feed the salmon beta carotene for the colour. Same thing that makes carrots orange

Exactly, the orange/red colour in wild salmon comes from carotenoids in the crustaceans they eat.

Farmed salmon are given beta carotene as supplements to make the flesh turn colour but the difference between wild and farmed salmon is still visible.

King Island salmon farm! as ludicrious as the farm in Okehampton bay. Both a very bad idea.
I worked in the Tassie aquaculture industry in the bad years 1985 - 2001.
The damage that these farms did to the water quality (algae blooms), the sea floor (buildup of detritus) and visual pollution on the seashore, ( ropes, plastics and other rubbish) on the enclosed bay habitat was prolonged and poorly managed.
I should know, I was employed to collect, monitor, report and document all aspects of water quality parameters and fish health.
Enclosed bay (Port Esperence, Barnes Bay, NW Bay, Macquarie Hbr, the Don Channel)) salmon farming is flawed in that water circulation is poor and water depth is restricted and water mechanics such as currents, swell and wind seas are minimal.
Fortunately times have changed, bay farming is being wound back and open water farming will supersede it ( it is widely practiced now in Nth Europe and Canada), greater water depth, strong ocean currents, swell and wind induced water movement is greatly increased; and a reduced visual pollution. Improved feeding regimes and technologies (demand feeding, camera mounted feeders, pellet sensors with increased control of food input) is greatly reducing the amount of waste generated. New sources of protein from soya and other agricultural crops will stop the terrible unsustainable over fishing of endangered wild fish stocks (anchovies, mackerel etc).
Now all that being said, it is a pristine and remarkable location (personally never surfed it), but know people who spent many years living and working on King island and seen their personal photos and how they rave about it.
It is no place for a salmon farm. Land based abalone/crayfish aquaculture somewhere else on the island would be a far better proposal.
The logistics of importing and exporting would be very costly. Plus water temperature during summer would have a detrimental effect on the fishes health. Atlantic salmon do not like water temp's above 18 deg cel (Okehampton bay!!!!!) for a prolonged period, causes stress (increased risk of diseases) and reduced feeding behaviour, but I'm sure the sammy's will welcome the banquet though.
So I for one will sign the petition and hope like crazy it never gets up.

Bugger off Tassal !

"Come on, Tasmania and King Island, are you kidding? This is the most pristine environment on the planet," Carroll said.
"Let's think about this again. What are we doing to our environment, and why?"
"The fact that somewhere still exists that has changed less than most everywhere and is known for its natural wealth and beauty is so important and valuable to us all," Sydney-based Lynch wrote on the page.
"It was so long ago that I visited King Island, it's gotta be over 20 years, and I remember being so touched by how beautiful, rich and raw the place was.
"In these days of crazy disrespect being shown by those who are motivated by profit, we need to stand up and together not let this be another example!" Lynch wrote.

"Hawaii-based Australian surf photographer Sean Davey said Martha Lavinia was his "favourite place in the world, it's a very special beach".
"As far as surf goes, it's like a dream come true when the conditions are good," he said.
Mr Davey said he believed a fish farm off the coast would be "right in the path of the swell" and expressed concern over the amount of waste it would produce.
He also pointed to seals, which are attracted to fish farms and have plagued Tasmania's salmon producers, as an issue, with seals up until recently being trapped and relocated, only to later return to cause more problems in many cases.
Mr Davey said more seals would inevitably result in more sharks off King Island's coast.
"The seals attract great whites, so you have all these hungry predators in the water. It's not cool, it's really not cool," he said."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-15/surf-legends-join-call-to-halt-tas...

Aquaculture gone wrong at Port Stephens:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/depths-of-despair-as-20000-ravenous-kingfish-hit-port-stephens-marine-park-20180201-h0rpqi.html

As some of your longer term swellnuts know, I spent 6 years recently down near Dover... The bay at Dover is a disgrace.. I wouldn't feed a feral cat with anything out of that bay.. And I hate cats.

Does any one have an update on what’s going on with the proposed fish farms near King island? Did they manage to block Tassel or is the debate still going?