GIANT fish-farm pens in the sea off Port Stephens will ruin the region’s pristine nature and threaten the welfare of migrating humpback whales and other marine life, critics have warned.
The NSW government has partnered with Tasmania-based Huon Aquaculture to establish a fish farm within marine park waters 4km south of Broughton Island, with the first two 40m diameter research pens hauled into place and anchored to the sea floor this month.
Tens of thousands of yellowtail kingfish fingerlings have been released into the pens and will be monitored over the five-year research lease.
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READ NOWIf that phase proves successful, Huon Aquaculture will then seek to begin commercial fish-farming, which could see up to 24 pens anchored offshore, each almost 60m in diameter.
Conservation groups and local tourism operators say the potential impact of a fish farm in the middle of a marine park outweighs any benefits it would provide.
Marine Parks Association spokeswoman Jeanie Lawson said that while her group was not opposed to the idea of a fish farm, the problem was its location.
“This is right in the middle of a biodiversity hotspot, with a lot of wildlife and some endangered species,” she said. “We’re talking about the habitat protection zone of a marine park and we really don’t think those two things should go together.”
Various measures will be put in place to try to prevent problems with whales and other creatures, including barriers to stop dolphins and seals jumping in and thick, taut, high-visibility anchor ropes to minimise the risk of entanglement.
However, marine mammal rescue and research group ORRCA said those measures were inadequate, given the site’s location within a whale migration corridor.
“It seems like a bit of an oxymoron to put a commercial venture in a marine park,” President Ronny Ling said.
A DPI spokeswoman said the lease’s operations would be reviewed annually, but observation of the pens showed no “negative interactions”.
“The project will deliver increased local employment, more information on the potential of aquaculture in NSW as well as potentially doubling the total current output of the aquaculture industry,” she said.
But whalewatching cruise operator Frank Future, who flew The Daily Telegraph over the site this week, likened the offshore activity to recent coal-seam gas exploration on land.
“The farm looks industrial and so far most of our guests have been shocked when they see it on a whale cruise,” Mr Future said.
“The Department of Primary Industries is supposed to manage the marine park but they’re the ones driving industry into it, so I think there is a moral issue there.”
Huon Aquaculture said independent scientists had done a “rigorous” baseline study to determine the development’s environmental impact.