To expand into new coastal and offshore areas, the Tasmanian Salmon Industry needs to maintain the support of State Government and the Tasmanian community by clearly demonstrating responsible stewardship and sustainable use of the marine environment. For Government agencies to adequately assess the environmental implications of these developments, they need to understand the environmental footprint of the industry, the capacity of the environment to assimilate waste loads, and any other environmental risks associated with aquaculture operations. With this information State Government and Industry can demonstrate best practice in the strategic and sustainable expansion of aquaculture, minimise environmental impacts, and keep the Tasmanian community well informed.
In recent years, the utility of environmental models and decision support tools have been successfully demonstrated for the Huon Estuary and D’Entrecasteaux Channel. For example, the availability of a validated biogeochemical model for this region enabled the development of the marine ecological emulator for rapid assessment of aquaculture operations on water quality.
Expansion of salmon aquaculture into new regions, such as Storm Bay, now requires both geographical extension of these capabilities and more flexible and cost-effective implementation approaches to modelling. In particular there is a need to develop lease scale modelling to predict and assess near scale (lease/cage) effect of aquaculture development.
The proposed expansion of the capabilities and decisions support tools outlined in this project will assist the State Government and Industry to forecast the potential extent and nature of impacts of aquaculture operations on the marine environment at multiple scales (e.g. lease and broadscale) under a range of operational scenarios.