Comments for the ACF community submission are now closed.
However, comments via the Australian Government's consultation hub remain open until Friday 2 February. Use the talking points on this page and send your message directly to the government!
The Maugean skate is crashing towards extinction from the impacts of industrial salmon farming in its only home of Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania.
Without urgent intervention this marine ray that’s as old as the dinosaurs is likely to disappear forever.
In 2012 the Environment Minister of the day decided salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour didn’t need assessment and approval under Australia’s nature laws. The Maugean skate needs Tanya Plibersek to revoke that decision and declare it does require assessment under Australia’s nature laws, as the first step to getting the skate the emergency relief it needs.
Add a comment and we’ll include it in an ACF Community submission to the government – comments close next week.
What to include in your comment
The minister can choose to reconsider the decision if she deems there is substantial new information about the impacts of salmon farming, or a substantial change in circumstances for the Maugean skate as a protected matter. Use these talking points to craft your comment:
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The Maugean skate population in Macquarie Harbour has declined by 47% in seven years, between 2014 and 2021. The pace of the decline shows its vulnerability to environmental degradation and very few juveniles are reaching adulthood. This raises serious concerns about the species' survival if suitable conditions can’t be delivered.
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New evidence confirms salmon farming’s impact on dissolved oxygen levels in Macquarie Harbour, and its contribution to the decline of Maugean skate populations and mass-skate death events.
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Macquarie Harbour is now the only known location of the Maugean skate. It is highly likely it is the only home it has making it critical to its survival. Failing to address the threats to the skates from salmon farming will almost certainly lead to its extinction.
- The Australian Government’s own Conservation Advice for the Maugean skate 'Substantial recent evidence indicates a high risk of extinction for the species in the near future'. and names the 'urgent priority' of 'Eliminating or significantly reducing the impacts of salmonid aquaculture on dissolved oxygen concentrations'.
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The Albanese Government’s pledge to end extinctions demands that the Minister intervenes urgently by declaring salmon farming in Macquarie harbour a 'controlled action' requiring assessment under Australia’s nature laws.
Banner image: Salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour. Credit: Crbellete/Shutterstock.
Latest Supporters
I am calling on Minister, Tanya Plibersek, to reconsider the 2012 decision that salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour didn’t need assessment and approval under Australia’s nature laws.
The Maugean Skate population has declined 47% in the last seven years with very few juveniles reaching adulthood. The Skate needs a clean Macquarie Harbour to ensure it’s survival. With new evidence confirming salmon farming’s impact on dissolved oxygen levels, and the high risk of extinction for this species in the near future, the Minister must act now.
Please honour your pledge to end extinctions.
We have to stop killing off species in our world. If you unbalance nature, it has ongoing negative effects. There must be a better way.
Macquarie Harbour is now the only known location of the Maugean skate. It is highly likely it is the only home it has making it critical to its survival. Failing to address the threats to the skates from salmon farming will almost certainly lead to its extinction.
The endless chant of “jobs, jobs, jobs” will eventually see the end of humans .. they have become the biggest threat to their own survival.
All wildlife must be protected to keep Mother Nature in balance.
Someone has to have a brain between this greed and realise the damage their doing to both animal and plant.
Save the Maugean Skate from extinction in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Salmon industry needs assessment and approval under Australia’s Nature laws.
More accountability needs to be put into nature reforms by the Government and we need to save this beautiful species.
We have the opportunity to allow forms of life to thrive in Australia. We are a unique country with incredible biodiversity. It pains me to see big companies destroying our land and wildlife to profit a few. The way we live can change and ad a community and can protect and appreciate this beautiful wild land and aquatic life we’ve been blessed with. Macquarie harbour is sick, diseased and polluted, the wildlife and the ecosystem is currently dying because of human greed. End fish farming now please and bring life back to the area. Look at the long term picture, not just the now.
Bonnie
No more extinctions please, we don’t need industrial farming in our bays and estuaries
We need to ensure not one more creature disappears from our planet in our watch. Not from our forests, not from our oceans. We need to stop our governments from opening more coal mines, and fouling our oceans from which most of the oxygen we like to breathe comes. The Antarctic ice is melting- that ice plays an important role in our climate. It deflects some of the heat back into space. Did you see the latest instalment by Mr Attenborough where baby penguins stood, shivering ,in a layer of water on the Antarctic ice as it was melting?
The current salmon industry is exploitative and unsustainable. Oxygenation, using diesel engines, to “improve” water quality for the skates is unsustainable, polluting and absurd. Governments who support unsustainable businesses that pollute the environment, which we all use and own, should be voted out of office.
It should not just be the Maugean Skate we’re trying to save but to end the cumulative impacts from the salmon industry which are destroying entire ecosystems.
The Tas State government won’t lift a finger to help the environment, so the Federal government must act or admit it will follow the State example and abandon pretense of working to preserve the remains of our natural world we depend upon.
The Maugean scare is as old as the Dinosaurs.
Please Tanya Plibersek don’t let it become extinct on your watch.
Please intervene to save this amazing creature
Its time Australia pulls itself out of the 1970’s/1980’s and create some environmental laws and protection. We are half a century behind Europe but call ourselves a “western country”. Environmental laws equal those of most African and Asian countries though. Time to change this
The cruelty of industrial fishing is similar to the cruelty of factory farming, though at least with the latter humans produce the creatures to slaughter. The sheer lack of care that comes into the use of a trawler is mind boggling. Please, think about the results of your actions.
Help save the skate in Macquarie Harbour
These Skates need all of the protection in the world.
Are we really going to be responsible for the extinction of more Tasmanian animals when we can do something about this?
Hi, I’m writing to express my concern for the Maugean Skates of Macquarie Harbour.
It seems the salmon farming industry is once again causing problems for endemic species this time in Macquarie Harbour.
We need to protect our native wildlife not sacrifice them for a short term gain for the few.
Thank you regards M Connolly
Will this be yet another unique Australian creature added to the extinct list because of neglect and indifference? Hopefully not, but action required NOW!
Salmon industry must be controlled and environmentally viable. Plunder will not suffice
The Maugean skate is one mass die-off away from extinction. How can we let this happen? Consumers don’t even want farm salmon if we knew where it came from. Rampant factory fish farming will destroy more than the skate one day.
I’m disgusted after hearing about this. Please do something to protect them. I stopped eating Tassie Salmon a long time ago.
stop the salmon farming. Stop destroying habitats.
For goodness sake Tanya have some integrity in your decision making.
As a Tasmanian living on the mainland I am appalled that government ignores the best advice from its own scientists to pander t the whims of multinational corporations with track records of corruption and environmental vandalism and pollution. Tasmania does not own its own salmon industry. With Tourism the mainstay of the economy, what is the environment ministers response to a significant extinction event on her watch? Save the skate – save Tasmania’s reputation.