Marine & Coastal

9 February 2000

Fish farm at Tiwi Islands may be environmental disaster

Environment Centre demands public Environmental Impact Assessment

The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory called today for Lands Planning and Environment Minister Tim Baldwin to conduct a full Environmental Impact Assessment of the barramundi sea cage farm currently being constructed at Port Hurd on the Tiwi Islands.

Sea cage fish farms are increasingly controversial due to a history of serious environmental impacts around the world.

Environmental impacts from tuna sea cage farming have led to a series of court cases in South Australia recently as well as a Parliamentary Inquiry. Evidence this year has led to calls within Scottish parliament for an inquiry into the environmental impacts salmon cage farms including disease passing from caged fish to wild stocks.

'To our knowledge this is unchartered territory for Northern Australia. These will be the first sea cages used to farm fish between Cape York and Broome and certainly the first in the NT. This is a large and complex operation and there are plans to extend it over time. Considering the impacts sea cages have had elsewhere, Environment Minister Tim Baldwin will be neglecting his responsibilities if he allows this operation to commence without a full public and transparent Environmental Impact Assessment." the Centre's Kirsten Blair said.

"We understand that the company, Pivot, is conducting limited surveys of the area, however there is no reason why this work should not be made fully public through an Environmental Impact Assessment. The pristine marine environment of the Northern Territory is one of our major assets and it will be a tragedy if the NT starts repeating the mistakes already made with aquaculture elsewhere in Australia." Ms Blair concluded.

More sea cage farming facts:

Known impacts to the environment from sea cage fish farming include:

For more information contact ECNT:
Tel: 8981 1984
Email: ecnt@octa4.net.au

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