Hér er nýibirt frétt af sjókvíeldi frá Tasmaníu. Iðnaðurinn þar lætur hræðilega mikið af eldislaxi drepast í sjókvíunum og er afar óskýr í svörum um þennan hrikalega dýravelferðarvanda. Allt er þetta óþægilega kunnuglegt.
Þetta er nákvæmlega sama saga og í öðrum löndum og heimsálfum þar sem þessi grimmdarlega starfsemi er stunduð. Alls staðar deyja eldislaxar í stórum stíl í sjókvíunum og iðnaðurinn berst um á hæl og hnakka gegn lögum sem eiga að stöðva þessa meðferð á eldisdýrunum. Hér á landi eru Samtök fyrirtækja í sjávarútvegi (SFS) í þessu ömurlega hlutverki.
Góðu heilli tókst að stöðva hið vonlausa lagareldisfrumvarp síðustu ríkisstjórnar í fyrra. Kaflinn þar um dýravelferð í sjókvíunum var fyrir neðan allar hellur. Við höfum trú á að núverandi ríkisstjórn muni gera miklu betur.
ABC lýsir martraðarkenndu ástandi og sofandahætti stjórnvalda:
Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) does not know how many farmed salmon have died in recent weeks because reporting of mortality events is yet to come into effect.
Salmon pens in southern Tasmanian waterways have been affected by a disease outbreak that has caused mass deaths.
Salmon chunks formed by fish oil have also washed up on beaches in the state’s south.
EPA director of finfish compliance Darryl Cook told ABC Radio National on Monday that salmon companies were not previously required to provide fish death data to the EPA, but that would change this month.
…Independent federal Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie said the comments showed the Tasmanian government was „hands-off“ Tasmania’s salmon industry.
„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 … the state government doesn’t seem to care about all these unknowns,“ Mr Wilkie said.
„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.
Mr Wilkie said it was not good enough that more than a week and a half after images emerged of „skip loads of dead fish“ and „rotting fish flesh on the beach“ we did not know how big the problem was.
„If the state government really cares about our natural environment and the industry, it would be jumping straight onto this,“ he said.
„For all we know, people are consuming Tasmanian salmon right now that might have unsafe levels of antibiotics and might have a form of rickettsia that is harmful to humans.“ …