WEBVTT - A bizarre and frankly gross thing happening

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<v Speaker 1>So Mike, to start with, can you tell me what

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<v Speaker 1>the locals in southeast Tasmania discovered recently?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, it was about nine p thirty on Sunday morning,

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<v Speaker 2>a little over two weeks ago when Jess Coglin, who's

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<v Speaker 2>a campaigner with Neighbors of Fish Farming or NOF, she

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<v Speaker 2>got a phone call and it was a local calling

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<v Speaker 2>her to say that thousands of these oily, stinky globs

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<v Speaker 2>had washed up on for Ona Sands Beach, which is

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<v Speaker 2>about sixty kilometers south of Hobart. The caller suspected it

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<v Speaker 2>was fish food from one of the salmon farming pens

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<v Speaker 2>in the area. You know, there are scores of them,

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<v Speaker 2>and he said that his dogs as well as flocks

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<v Speaker 2>of guggles were quote in a frenzy eating it. So anyway,

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<v Speaker 2>Jess grabbed Ajar hastened down to the beach to grab

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<v Speaker 2>a sample and see for herself this massive amount of

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<v Speaker 2>gobs that were scattered along the entire length of the beach.

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<v Speaker 2>And she collected samples, intending to send them off to

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<v Speaker 2>the state's epa inter alia. She rang a contact of

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<v Speaker 2>hers who was a retired diver and he said, break

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<v Speaker 2>open some of the larger clumps, and she did, and

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<v Speaker 2>inside was pink flesh and fish scale. So it wasn't

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<v Speaker 2>just fatty stuff, it was actual chunks of fish.

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<v Speaker 3>She realized pretty quickly.

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<v Speaker 2>I guess that it wasn't fish food, obviously, it was

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<v Speaker 2>dead rotting salmon.

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<v Speaker 1>That's just gross spike.

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<v Speaker 3>Well it is. There were thousands of these things.

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<v Speaker 2>There were small blobs of fatty stuff and there were

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<v Speaker 2>larger chunks that were actual fish flesh.

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<v Speaker 1>From Schwartz Media on Daniel James. This is seven am.

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<v Speaker 1>Warmer waters, disease and antibiotics have pushed tasimani As salmon

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<v Speaker 1>farms into crisis. But it's not just an environmental disaster.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a political one. Now, with an election looming, the

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<v Speaker 1>Albaneze government is pouring millions into salmon farming, hoping to

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<v Speaker 1>save jobs and votes in the process, even as rotting

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<v Speaker 1>fish littered the shore. Today National correspondent for the Saturday paper,

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<v Speaker 1>Mark Second on what is happening in Tasmanian waters and

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<v Speaker 1>why it might impact the upcoming election. It's Monday, March three. Mike,

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<v Speaker 1>You've been looking into the salmon industry in Tasmania and

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<v Speaker 1>how it's likely to impact the upcoming election, So can

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<v Speaker 1>you tell me what you specifically set out to investigate?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, funny story. I actually started to look at the

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<v Speaker 2>Albanesi government's recent announcements of funding to prop up salmon

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<v Speaker 2>farming at Macquarie Harbor on the west coast of Tasmania,

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<v Speaker 2>where Labor is trying to win the seat of Bratton,

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<v Speaker 2>but events very quickly redirected mealswhere down to the southeast

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<v Speaker 2>corner of the state and to the seat of Franklin.

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<v Speaker 2>The southeast of Tasmania produces the bulk of farmed salmon

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<v Speaker 2>in in Tasmania and in the nation. It's a billion

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<v Speaker 2>dollar industry. It produces roughly eight hundred thousand tons of

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<v Speaker 2>fish a year. We hear a lot about Macquarie Harbor

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<v Speaker 2>because of the threat of extinction of the more Gan skate,

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<v Speaker 2>but it only counts for about ten percent of production.

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<v Speaker 2>The southeast has hundreds of pens floating around holding millions

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<v Speaker 2>upon millions of fish. And the seat that I wound

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<v Speaker 2>up being more interested in is the seat of Franklin,

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<v Speaker 2>which is one of the few labor held seats being

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<v Speaker 2>targeted by a climate two hundred in this election. Mostly

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<v Speaker 2>they go after liberal health seats, and Franklin is also

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<v Speaker 2>the only one held by a current cabinet minister, that

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<v Speaker 2>is Julie Collins, the Minister for Agriculture and importantly Fisheries,

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<v Speaker 2>and against her is running a number of candidates, including

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<v Speaker 2>a Green but the interesting one is Peter George. He's

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<v Speaker 2>got a bit of a profile. He's a former senior

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<v Speaker 2>reporter for the ABC. A lot of people would remember

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<v Speaker 2>him from Four Corners and Foreign correspondent. He's also the

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<v Speaker 2>founder of a group called Neighbors of Fish Farming, which

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<v Speaker 2>is a group that's been campaigning against the industrial fish

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<v Speaker 2>farming in Tasmania for about a decade and that's essentially

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<v Speaker 2>what's going to be George's pitch running as an independent

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<v Speaker 2>for this election. That was one of the interesting things

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<v Speaker 2>that shifted my focus. But the bigger one was that

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<v Speaker 2>I started hearing about a bizarre and frankly gross thing

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<v Speaker 2>that was happening on some beaches in the southeast in

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<v Speaker 2>the electorate of Franklin.

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<v Speaker 4>A shoreline discovery causing.

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<v Speaker 2>A stinct There were chunks of what appeared to be

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<v Speaker 2>salmon flesh partially broken down at very very well.

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<v Speaker 1>So it became pretty clear pretty quickly that this was

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<v Speaker 1>dead rotting salmon, So where were these globs coming from?

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<v Speaker 2>They're the result of what happens when salmon die. They

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<v Speaker 2>sink to the bottom of the pens, they rot, and

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<v Speaker 2>then their flesh an oil rise back up to the surface,

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<v Speaker 2>and that appears to be what happened here. As to

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<v Speaker 2>where they came from, Jess Coglan and her other activist

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<v Speaker 2>friends suspected they came from a farm being operated by

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<v Speaker 2>Huon Aquaculture, which is one of the two big producers

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<v Speaker 2>of Atlantic salmon in Australia, and sure enough, later that

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<v Speaker 2>day workers from Huon Aquaculture turned up at the beach

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<v Speaker 2>and began cleaning it up.

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<v Speaker 3>Although she says they didn't actually identify themselves.

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<v Speaker 2>They weren't in uniform or anything, and they wouldn't answer

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<v Speaker 2>any questions that the locals put to them. But it

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<v Speaker 2>wasn't just Forona's hands. Remains continued washing up on other

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<v Speaker 2>beaches too, both on the mainland side of the channel

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<v Speaker 2>and also on Bruney Island, which is just across the

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<v Speaker 2>other side of the channel, and there employees from the

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<v Speaker 2>other big aquaculture company, Tassel, were witnessed cleaning up the mess.

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<v Speaker 1>Right, So there might have been something bigger going on

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<v Speaker 1>here than just an accident one particular seven farm.

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<v Speaker 2>It would appear to be the case, and it would

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<v Speaker 2>appear that it wasn't just fish in one of the

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<v Speaker 2>scores of pens that doted the channel. It was more

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<v Speaker 2>widespread than that. But even before then there were signs

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<v Speaker 2>that something major was going wrong, because a week prior,

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<v Speaker 2>hugh On Agriculture had revealed that it was using antibiotics

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<v Speaker 2>at one of its sites near Bruney Island, and then

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<v Speaker 2>on February fourteen, our Brown Foundation released drone footage of

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<v Speaker 2>hundreds of dead and decomposing fish being vacuum pumped from

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<v Speaker 2>a pen well to the north near the Tasmanian Peninsula.

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<v Speaker 2>By then was pretty obvious that some kind of major

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<v Speaker 2>incident had happened, probably a disease outbreak. But for a week,

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<v Speaker 2>maybe longer, neither the Tasmanian Environmental Protection Agency nor the

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<v Speaker 2>companies involved, you know, provided much in the way of

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<v Speaker 2>detail about what was happening.

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<v Speaker 1>So when did we start getting answers.

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<v Speaker 3>Mike Well, it took a while.

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<v Speaker 2>Under pressure from environmentalists and the media, the Tasmanian EPA

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<v Speaker 2>put out a statement on the Friday after the Sunday

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<v Speaker 2>when the fish started turning up, and it was pretty anodyne, frankly,

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<v Speaker 2>it just said they'd start an investigation into how quote

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<v Speaker 2>a quantity of biological material had washed up at Arana Sands.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's not much of an answer at all.

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<v Speaker 3>No, it's not so.

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<v Speaker 2>I put some questions to the EPA and they provided

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<v Speaker 2>a little more detail. They said that there had been

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<v Speaker 2>unusually worn over recent months, and there had been a

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<v Speaker 2>proliferation of pest species that can irritate salmon gills. But

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<v Speaker 2>the thing that appears to be actually killing the fish

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<v Speaker 2>is something called reck Rickettsia, which is a bacteria. It

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<v Speaker 2>appears to have broken out in one or more pens

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<v Speaker 2>and quickly spread, And according to the EPA, the particular

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<v Speaker 2>strain of this bacteria that's affecting the salmon is endemic

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<v Speaker 2>to Australia, and for that reason they say it's not

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<v Speaker 2>a danger to native species. But opponents of the industry

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<v Speaker 2>aren't so sure about that, whether it is in fact

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<v Speaker 2>an endemic species, and in any case, whether having these

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<v Speaker 2>millions upon millions of salmon there as a sort of

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<v Speaker 2>pull potentially of the bacteria couldn't still lead to deaths

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<v Speaker 2>among native species. The other that they confirmed was that

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<v Speaker 2>the companies were dumping large quantities of dead fish into landfills,

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<v Speaker 2>which is significant because in the usual course of events,

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<v Speaker 2>when there are deaths in the fish pens, the dead

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<v Speaker 2>fish get turned into either pet food or fertilizer. But

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<v Speaker 2>in this case there were clearly too many for that purpose,

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<v Speaker 2>so they had to go to the last resort, which

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<v Speaker 2>was just dumping them.

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<v Speaker 1>What do we know about the scale of his frozen

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<v Speaker 1>die off?

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<v Speaker 3>It's huge.

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<v Speaker 2>The peak body for the Tasmanian salmon industry, which is

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<v Speaker 2>called Salmon Tasmania, I found actually more forthcoming than the EPA.

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<v Speaker 2>I spoke to its CEO, Luke Martin, and he confirmed

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<v Speaker 2>that they were dealing with, and I'm quoting him here,

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<v Speaker 2>unprecedented mortalities in the southeast. He didn't give exact numbers,

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<v Speaker 2>but he did say that the normal, as he put

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<v Speaker 2>at some immortality rate for salmon farms was about five percent.

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<v Speaker 2>Given the scale of production in Tasmania, that equates to

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<v Speaker 2>several thousand tons of dead fish. Activists, not surprisingly, have

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<v Speaker 2>been more keen to hazard estimates of the numbers. The

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<v Speaker 2>Bob Brown Foundation's Alistair Allen, who's not only a campaigner

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<v Speaker 2>for Bob Brown Foundation but also a Greens candidate for

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<v Speaker 2>another seat in Tasmania. He said that industry sources had

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<v Speaker 2>told him that two million fish had died in just

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<v Speaker 2>a couple of weeks. I also spoke to Peter George.

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<v Speaker 2>The boat that his contact worked on had pumped seventy

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<v Speaker 2>tons of dead fish and fish parts and that it

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<v Speaker 2>was just one of thirteen pump boats working in the

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<v Speaker 2>area at the time. So based on those numbers he estimates,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, hundreds of thousands of fish were being removed

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<v Speaker 2>on a daily basis.

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<v Speaker 3>These are astonishing.

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<v Speaker 1>Numbers after the break the political.

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<v Speaker 4>Wash up, Hi Ruby Jones. Here, seven am tells stories

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<v Speaker 1>Mike, this is all happening in the lead up to

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<v Speaker 1>an election, and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanez he visited

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<v Speaker 1>Tasmania to cement his support for the industry, even enjoying

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<v Speaker 1>a plate of grilled salmon at a community barbecue. So

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<v Speaker 1>how is all this playing out politically.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, first observation, exquisitely bad timing on Albanizzi's part. I

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<v Speaker 2>suppose you couldn't foresee that there would be this kind

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<v Speaker 2>of catastrophe in the industry. But you're right it is

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<v Speaker 2>becoming a big political issue in a couple of ways.

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<v Speaker 2>We're talking about two electorates here, quite different electorates. There's Franklin,

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<v Speaker 2>a large progressive cohort there. I think the Greens at

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<v Speaker 2>the last election got fifteen sixteen seventeen percent of the

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<v Speaker 2>vote and Labor holds it by what appears on paper

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<v Speaker 2>to be a reasonably comfortable margin. And of course there

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<v Speaker 2>Peter George is running as a community independent against Julie Collins,

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<v Speaker 2>Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

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<v Speaker 5>We're getting a two party system that has delivered an

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<v Speaker 5>environmental mess, has delivered us with an environmental crisis, and

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<v Speaker 5>has delivered us a cost of living crisis.

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<v Speaker 2>Peter George could potentially have been a threat to Julie Collins.

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<v Speaker 2>Even before this, the fish started washing up on the beaches,

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<v Speaker 2>one would have to think that his vote probably goes

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<v Speaker 2>up proportionate to the number of fish that turn up

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<v Speaker 2>riding on the beaches. That's the southeast. Then we have

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<v Speaker 2>Bradden up in the Northwest, which is a much more

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<v Speaker 2>conservative seat. It's currently held by a Liberal member, but

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<v Speaker 2>he's retiring at the election and the government is hoping

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<v Speaker 2>they can flip it. They're running a pretty high profile candidate,

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<v Speaker 2>Anne Urkhardt, who's currently a Senator for Tasmania. She's hoping

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<v Speaker 2>she can make the shift to the lower House. And

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<v Speaker 2>of course Albanezi was in Bradden tucking into the salmon

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<v Speaker 2>and potatoes even as the fish were turning up dead

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<v Speaker 2>on the beaches. In the Southeast, he was announcing a

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<v Speaker 2>further two point nine million dollars in funding for a

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<v Speaker 2>captive breeding program for the more Ga skate, which is

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<v Speaker 2>in danger of extinction. And of course one of the

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<v Speaker 2>key reasons why the more g and skate is endangered

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<v Speaker 2>is because of salmon farming in Macrori Harbor. Essentially, there

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<v Speaker 2>were two principal problems affecting the skate. One was low

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<v Speaker 2>oxygen levels and the other was large quantities of fish pooh,

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<v Speaker 2>which both affect the skates which feed at the bottom

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<v Speaker 2>of the harbor. So the government has been spending money

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<v Speaker 2>not only on this captive breeding program, but also on

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<v Speaker 2>technology that pumps what they call microbottles into the water

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<v Speaker 2>to try and lift the oxygen levels. And in total,

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<v Speaker 2>so far this support has cost thirty seven million dollars.

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<v Speaker 2>And to be fair, there's some evidence that there's been

0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.000
<v Speaker 2>a bit of success. A recent study found that oxygen

0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.480
<v Speaker 2>levels had increased and that the skate population had stabilized,

0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.480
<v Speaker 2>although still at pretty low numbers. But anyway, Albanizi was

0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.080
<v Speaker 2>down there and he was portraying the thing as a

0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.199
<v Speaker 2>win win situation. The skate was being protected, as were

0:12:57.240 --> 0:12:59.360
<v Speaker 2>local jobs in the industry.

0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.600
<v Speaker 1>The Commonwealth money subsidizing this industry. So how many jobs

0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:04.880
<v Speaker 1>are we talking about here.

0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.320
<v Speaker 2>Mike, Not a lot, About seventy If you want to

0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.560
<v Speaker 2>divide the amount of money the government's kicked in by

0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.240
<v Speaker 2>the number of employees, that's roughly half a million dollars

0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.800
<v Speaker 2>per employee. So anyway, I spoke to Andrew Wilke. He

0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.760
<v Speaker 2>represents another seat in Tasmania, the seat of Clark. He

0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.880
<v Speaker 2>makes the point that Macquarie Harbor, where Escape lives only,

0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.480
<v Speaker 2>it counts for about ten percent of Tasmanis salmon production,

0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.400
<v Speaker 2>five percent of the jobs. He sees what Albanize he's

0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.400
<v Speaker 2>doing as purely an exercise in shoring up Labour's hopes

0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:35.120
<v Speaker 2>of winning the seat.

0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.960
<v Speaker 1>So there's a calculation here that if the Albanezy government

0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.040
<v Speaker 1>is wanting to win seats in Tasmania, they need to

0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.400
<v Speaker 1>appease this industry. But do you think it will pay off,

0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.640
<v Speaker 1>particularly when people are seeing these images of rotten fish

0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:48.160
<v Speaker 1>washing up on beaches everywhere.

0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.120
<v Speaker 2>Well, the government is certainly making the political calculation here

0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.840
<v Speaker 2>that there's a seat to be picked up in the

0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.840
<v Speaker 2>northwest of Tasmania, but it could potentially cost them the

0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.760
<v Speaker 2>seed of Franklin. When I asked ull Collins office for

0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.680
<v Speaker 2>a comment about the outbreak about this crisis unfolding in

0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.959
<v Speaker 2>her electorate in the salmon industry, a spokesperson declined to

0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.160
<v Speaker 2>talk about it. The only thing they would say was

0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.040
<v Speaker 2>they stressed that salmon farming is regulated by the Tasmanian

0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.800
<v Speaker 2>State government. One might have thought that as the local member.

0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.320
<v Speaker 2>If not as Fisheries Minister Collins would take an interest,

0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:26.040
<v Speaker 2>but apparently not. There is a bigger picture here too,

0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.400
<v Speaker 2>I think a global picture, and that is that around

0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.760
<v Speaker 2>the world we see offshore salmon farming starting to look

0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.280
<v Speaker 2>like a sunset industry. You know, across the world, from

0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.960
<v Speaker 2>Chile to Scotland, they've experienced big, big disease outbreaks. In

0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.560
<v Speaker 2>the United States, Washington State has just banned salmon farms

0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.800
<v Speaker 2>because of the environmental damage they do. And all around

0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.880
<v Speaker 2>the world there's money going into actual onshore fish farming,

0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, which can be done and apparently billions of

0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.400
<v Speaker 2>dollars of being spent on it, and that avoids a

0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.680
<v Speaker 2>lot of the environmental damage that is done by offshore farming. Frankly,

0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.520
<v Speaker 2>it's particularly dirty industry, huge amounts of fish poo apart

0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.880
<v Speaker 2>from anything else, and I think it may be losing

0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:07.840
<v Speaker 2>its social license.

0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.000
<v Speaker 1>Mike, I hope we haven't put too many people off

0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:11.600
<v Speaker 1>their breakfast.

0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:23.560
<v Speaker 6>Thanks for your time, Thanks mate, cheers.

0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.040
<v Speaker 1>Also in the news today, an extra fifty billing urgent

0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.720
<v Speaker 1>care clinics will be in operation by mid twenty twenty

0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.480
<v Speaker 1>six if Labour wins reelection. The government has announced. The

0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.000
<v Speaker 1>plan will cost six hundred and forty four million dollars

0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.040
<v Speaker 1>and deliver extra clinics in every state and territory, with

0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.720
<v Speaker 1>eighty percent of Australians being able to access one within

0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.240
<v Speaker 1>a twenty minute drive. At the last election, Laborer announced

0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.760
<v Speaker 1>fifty new urgent care clinics, but went on to open

0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.200
<v Speaker 1>eighty seven at this term of government, and Britain will

0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.960
<v Speaker 1>lend Ukraine four point five billion dollars to spend on

0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.640
<v Speaker 1>military procurement, with the money coming from the profits of

0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.160
<v Speaker 1>frozen Russian assets. British primary to Kirs Starman met with

0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.360
<v Speaker 1>Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski over the weekend to design the

0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:08.320
<v Speaker 1>deal and emphasize his country's ongoing support for Ukraine. The

0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.920
<v Speaker 1>show of support comes after an explosive meeting at the

0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.360
<v Speaker 1>White House on Friday where US President Trump and Vice

0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.800
<v Speaker 1>President j d Vance accuse the Ukrainian president of not

0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.040
<v Speaker 1>being grateful for their support. We'll have a full breakdown

0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.080
<v Speaker 1>of that meeting and the implications for the war in

0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.800
<v Speaker 1>Ukraine on seven AM tomorrow. I'm Daniel James. This is

0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:28.360
<v Speaker 1>seven am. Thanks for listening.