Senator slammed for car park claim after disease outbreak: 'Won't be emotionally blackmailed'
An Aussie senator has been met with a barrage of criticism after declaring he will "proudly continue to buy" Tasmanian salmon, insisting it remains "healthy," even as authorities scramble to assess the full extent of a disease outbreak that has recently led to mass fish deaths and rotting carcasses washing up on beaches in the state.
Tasmania's Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, also the shadow minister for the environment, posted on social media from the car park of a supermarket on Monday, saying he "won't be emotionally blackmailed into stopping."
"[I] will proudly continue to buy it from Hill Street and every other shop that will sell it. It's healthy. It's Tasmanian," he wrote.
The post drew a wave of backlash, however, particularly from locals demanding greater transparency in the self-regulated industry. Critics claimed that farmed salmon are fed harmful antibiotics, contaminating waterways and posing potential risks to human health.
"No one's blackmailing anyone. By their own admission the fish have a new bacteria that even the farms don't know what it is OR what the impact will be," one constituent fired responded.
"If you honestly believe it's healthy Jonno, please eat it to your heart's content ... I'd rather see you pollies eat this toxic crap that you are promoting, than feed it to my family," another fired back.
"You're supporting a toxic system that is not even locally owned anymore. Enjoy your dinner," commented a third.
The debacle comes weeks after Tasmania's salmon industry first revealed it was grappling with a significant outbreak of a rickettsia bacterial disease, leading to elevated mortality rates across multiple fish farms in the region.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Tasmanian Government are investigating the issue, though the exact scale of the die-off remains uncertain as mandatory mortality reporting requirements are not yet in effect. Independent federal Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, accused the Tasmanian government of taking a "hands-off" approach with regard to the salmon industry, worth an estimated $1 billion.
"The EPA only does what it's allowed to do and resourced to do by the Tasmanian government, so this, in essence, goes back to the state government's responsibility and … [it] doesn't seem to care about all these unknowns," Wilkie told the ABC.
"It was very worrying [the EPA] didn't know how many fish had died, didn't know which kind of rickettsia had affected them, didn't know the effect of the big spike in antibiotic use both on the natural environment as well as human consumption.
"The problem here is … both Labor and Liberal governments for many, many years have been beholden to the salmon industry and have accepted that the industry will largely self-regulate and self-report."
Images shared by the Bob Brown Foundation show rotting salmon carcasses in pens and along shores of state's beaches such as Verona Sands and Bruny Island.
Alistair Allan, the group's Antarctic and Marine Campaigner, said Australian consumers "are now seeing the disgusting truth" about the industry.
"We are hearing that local tips can't manage all the rotting fish and it's being dumped on farmland," he said last week.
Yahoo News has contacted major farmers Huon and Tassal for comment.
Lifeline thrown to Aussie salmon workers
Locals 'not happy' as 'foul-smelling chunks' wash up
'Disgusting' photos of popular Aussie food spark furious debate
Last month, shocked Tasmanian residents of a small coastal town discovered mysterious "foul-smelling chunks" scattered along the shoreline at their local beach, thought to come from salmon farms.
"The smell was terrible, and locals are not happy," community group Neighbours of Fishfarming said alongside photos of the stinky substance. "It's no secret that the salmon farms are having huge mortality events ... and we are concerned that this foul pollution is a direct result of mishandling of the fatty diseased salmon carcasses."
Verona Sands beach lies on the Huon River in southern Tasmania, near salmon farms operated by Huon Aquaculture. The chunks were spotted by locals who said there was "tonnes and tonnes and tonnes" of the fishy material on the sand, with speculation it was possibly fish feed.
Huon Aquaculture later said confirmed chunks were not rotting pieces of fish, but believed to be "fish oil", creating "chunks of oily sand on the beach".
Tasmania has the largest marine salmon farming industry in the country and is responsible for more than 90 per cent of Australian Atlantic salmon production, according to the state government, with an annual value of over $1 billion.
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