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
Please stop Salmon Farming destroying the environment
Please, keep up the good work, I’m 10 years old and I want to see the skate when I am 20!
Please help the Maugean skate. It is not right to allow any animal species to become endangered and then extinct. Have a conscience and an empathy towards our wonderful natural world. PLEASE
Tanya Plibersek & Labor government need to address this issue so the Maugean Skate can survive & thrive! I HAVE stopped & WILL NOT eat Tasmanian salmon anymore farmed in Macquarie Harbour
I’m writing to the minister to reconsider her decision around Salmon Farming in Macquarie Harbour as the Maugean Skate needs to be protected. Numbers are dropping rapidly as a direct result of these farms. This is the only known habitat that these Skates live in, it is their home and we are not entitled to destroying it for the sake of some meat on our plate. We don’t need these salmon to survive however the Skates need their home restored or they’ll go extinct. For me this seems like a clear, simple decision. Is the salmon on our plate more important than the lives of a whole species? If you were faced with watching the Skates suffocate to death would you want to ear the salmon on our plate? If you don’t care for the Skates directly, then maybe care about the way it’ll affect you. With the mass waste, antibiotics and diseases from Salmon farming, the whole ecosystem is brought out of balance which in turn exaccerbates the heating of the planet, mass extinction and catastrophic consequences for all of earths inhabitants including you. Please listen to David Attenborough and the vast undeniable research from all over the world and reconsider your decision.
Look after the habitat of wild (endangered now) fish!
Hate the reality of farmed fish anyway 😥
Each species has taken millions of years to evolve and is irreplaceable.
Clean up Fish farming because soon there will be only jellyfish and plastic bags left in the sea
Please protect the skate!
Salmon farms are a disaster.
I am concerned about the collapse of ecosystems and the alarming extinction rate in our unique country. Intensive farming practices need to change to be in balance with our ecology and ensure our survival.
protect the maugham skate. review salmon farming. i’ve boycotted buying salmon for environmental reasons for many years and this skate reinforces my commitment.
It certainly does need assessment. Profit isn’t the only concern, a decline marine population needs addressing.
Marine Preservation Society recommends not eating fish. That’s how bad it is!
We have stopped buying Tassie Salmon for environmental reasons and this is one of them
The only place in the world! And you’d let it become extinct!! Really? What are your values?
Of course assessment under conservation legislation is needed, for a narrow endemic whose entire natural distribution is wholly within Australian territory. How could it possibly be otherwise.
Mendacity seems to be the default mode of contemporary politicians whenever there is contention between conservation and private commercial gain. They appal me.
This magnificent animal needs to be kept alive, we can’t afford to see it disappear. Every creature is important to the pattern of the earth
Please stop Salmon farming in the pristine Maugean skate’s territory. They are as old as the dinosaurs
Save the maugean skate. The animals that live in their natural homes need to be protected rather than protecting human businesses and farming. We need to look at the bigger picture and the long term goals for our future and the planet.
Salmon farming has been shown to have significant harmful effects on local habitat, on water quality and on wild salmon populations.
Salmon farming uses about 7kgs of wild caught fish in order to create 1kg of supermarket salmon.
It is an awful solution to an over fished ocean. It is in fact no solution at all and should be stopped by the minister.
It is absolutely abhorrent that this beautiful creature, which has survived from the time of the dinosaurs, is being pushed to the brink of extinction by the salmon industry, heavy metal contamination from nearby copper mining & anthropogenic climate warming. Corporate profits fluctuate like the tides but extinction is forever. In view of the crashing population numbers & the fact that this animal is found nowhere else in the world the government has an obligation to act & do whatever it takes to protect the precious few Maugean Skates that we have left.
Please listen and save them !!
Please don’t destroy the natural environment!!!
I need to start seeing a positive change in aquaculture practice before i lose faith in my government
Please stop farming fish in the skate’s habitat. We should CARE more! Are you willing to sit back and let the skate population disappear? Action is needed NOW!
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.
Make a stand and save a marine species, we don’t have to wipe out another creature just to satisfy the salmon farming industry.