Government Christmas present to salmon lobby: NRE against status upgrade for Maugean skate

26/12/2024

Tasmania's environment department has fallen into line with the multinational salmon lobby in rejecting a decade of science warning the 60-million-year-old Maugean skate is facing extinction in Macquarie Harbour.

"The Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) has fallen into line with the powerful foreign-owned salmon industry in opposing listing the skate as critically endangered," says Peter George, president of NOFF.
"What a Christmas present for the salmon barons who have driven exaggerated fears of job losses and economic collapse so they can continue to exploit for profit the only home of this ancient and endangered animal. It flies in the face of a decade of respected science that warns the Maugean skate is in danger of going the way of the Tasmanian Tiger, an extinction driven by ignorance, carelessness and fear.
"I've met some of the scientists whose work is now being undermined by the industry and it's political supporters and they have every reason to be horrified by the way their work's being trashed and twisted. I would think that Professor Barry Brook, who published salmon industry funded research questioning population levels estimated by the scientists, would be appalled by the way his work is being manipulated by the lobby. The recent improvement in Macquarie Harbour's oxygen levels is the result of one-off natural replenishments, certainly not from Federally-funded intervention through the oxygen bubble experiment.
"In its submission to the Commonwealth scientific committee, the Environment Department has abandoned the internationally recognised precautionary principle that mandates caution in the face of clear threats to habitats and our natural assets."

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