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Marine & Coastal
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Concerns Expanded:
Aquaculture
threatens the Northern Territory's marine and coastal environment
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1.
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Feed for aquaculture farmed animals
is made up of fish meal and fish oil.
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This fish meal and fish oil is comprised in majority
of wild fish from ocean fisheries. Anywhere from 2kg -12kg of
wild fish are caught to produce 1kg of aquaculture farmed animal.
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Most commonly aquaculture farmed animals are
carnivorous thus requiring a high protein diet. Carnivorous farmed
animals include prawns and fin fish (such as salmon, snapper,
tuna, barramundi).
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Farming carnivorous fish results in a net loss
of fish protein. Carnivorous fish feed consists of fish meal
and fish oil. Fish meal is majority comprised of wild fish from
ocean fisheries. Anywhere from 2kg -12kg of wild fish are caught
and converted to feed producing only 1kg of farmed fin fish.
Anywhere from 2.5kg up to 6kg of wild fish are used to produce
1kg of farmed prawn.
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This unsustainable farming technique does not
replace fishing of wild fish stocks, but in fact results in more
wild fish and bycatch being harvested from oceans. Government
and industry policy should foster reduced use of fishmeal and
fish oil, partly by promoting the farming of plant eating and
other low trophic level species that do not require significant
amounts of animal protein or oil in their feed.
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2.
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Rapid expansion of aquaculture occurring in a
piece meal approach driven by short term goals.
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Industry expansion is happening in absence of
a long term management plan and with no consideration of cumulative
impacts. In the Northern Territory it is not compulsory to assess
the environment impacts of Aquaculture projects.
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There is no form of strategy or management plan
in place and cumulative (collective) impacts are not considered.
Aquaculture activities should expand only at a pace that insures
sufficient information is available to evaluate possible impacts
and that does not risk irreparable environmental damage.
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Cumulative impacts are currently completely ignored.
The environmental impacts of one aquaculture farm may not be
huge. However, having multiple farms operating in an area with
all impacting upon the environment can have devastating effects.
Cumulative impacts of farms need to be considered. This could
include measuring volumes of feeds, chemicals and drugs through
effective reporting and monitoring schemes.
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Operators should be required to provide information
gathered from regular monitoring of water quality and of adjacent
animal and plant communities. Reporting and monitoring is critical
to determine trends and evaluate impacts.
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3.
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The lack of a bond or surety scheme.
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The Northern Territory doe not currently have
a bond or surety scheme in place. Bond and surety schemes are
applied to ensure the minimisation of environmental damage. Under
these schemes, funds are set aside at the outset of the operations
to guard against environmental degradation and associated community
costs.
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The funds are returned to the operator at the
expiration of the permit, provided the environmental standards
set out in the permit are met. If the operator goes out of business
or fails to meet the conditions of operation and environmental
standards required, the funds would instead be used to rehabilitate
the area.
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Currently in the Northern Territory a bond or
surety scheme is nonexistent. If an operation were to have a
significant environmental impact, or if the project collapsed
(as has occurred in the past) the taxpayer is left to pick up
the costs for rehabilitation, if, in fact, any rehabilitation
is carried out at all. This is unacceptable and aquaculture project
developers should be required to lodge a rehabilitation bond
for all developments. The NT Environment Centre produced a brief
paper outlining the Key Issues of the Aquaculture industry and
the need for a bond or surety scheme.
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To view the aquaculture bond and surety scheme
key issues paper click
here.
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4.
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Discharge of pollutants into surrounding
environments.
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Substances added to the aquaculture system, and
thus most likely to enter the surrounding environment, may include
feed, faeces, pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals. Often
environmental and ecological effects of these are poorly understood.
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5.
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Clearing of native vegetation and associated
impacts.
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Hundreds of hectares of native vegetation may
be cleared for any single aquaculture farm establishment. Across
the whole aquaculture industry 1000's of hectares of native vegetation
may be cleared. The detrimental environmental impacts of tree
clearing are widely known and can include salinity, erosion,
loss of habitat, loss of native wildlife, increased sediment
loads in rivers, estuaries and the ocean, amongst others.
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6.
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Impacts of escapees
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Aquaculture farming using net-pens involves the
animals being farmed within nets in the ocean. Large numbers
of fish regularly escape from net pens into the surrounding waters.
Displacement of wild populations Once escaped, farmed fish can
reduce the viability of wild populations, particularly those
that have always been small or that have lowered population numbers
due to over-fishing, habitat loss or other causes.
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Genetic impacts
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Once they have escaped from net pens, farmed
fish may breed with wild fish and introduce their genetic makeup
into wild populations with unknown but potentially fatal implications.
Parasites and diseases In crowded net pens pathogenic organisms
can reach epidemic proportions, which in wild populations occur
at low levels. Disease and parasites can be transferred to wild
fish populations.
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7.
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Effects on other wildlife.
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Confining large numbers of fish in net-pens attracts
marine wildlife predators that can then become entangled in the
nets. Examples of animals at risk of entanglement include sharks
and sea birds.
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