Tassal’s application to use the controversial antibiotic, florfenicol, at its Okehampton Bay factory fish farm marks the beginning of antibiotic contamination on Tasmania’s east coast.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the federal government should reject the application and instead require companies to lower stocking densities to help combat the spread of the bacterium P. salmonis.

“First, the toxic fish farm corporations were allowed to contaminate Tasmania’s south, locking out recreational fishers and divers, and shutting down parts of a commercial fishery. Now the same is going to happen on the east coast,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Marine Campaigner Alistair Allan said.

“These are public waterways that are having tonnes of antibiotics dumped into them to protect the profits of industrial salmon companies, at the expense of the community and the marine environment.”

“The federal government should reject the application on the grounds of public interest and public health, and the EPA must require these factory fish farms to lower their stocking levels to help mitigate the bacteria’s impact and spread.These factory fish farms are a scourge on the marine environment and must be removed from Tasmania’s waters entirely before we are left with nothing but contaminated waters and dead ecosystems,” said Alistair Allan.