{"id":224304,"date":"2026-07-06T20:24:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T10:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/25\/media-release-call-to-close-all-salmon-hatcheries-that-pollute-states-rivers-6-july-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T21:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:05:11","slug":"media-release-call-to-close-all-salmon-hatcheries-that-pollute-states-rivers-6-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/media-release-call-to-close-all-salmon-hatcheries-that-pollute-states-rivers-6-july-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"MEDIA RELEASE \u2013 Call to Close all Salmon hatcheries that pollute state’s rivers, 6 July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MEDIA RELEASE \u2013 Call to close all salmon hatcheries that pollute state's rivers, 6 July 2026<\/h1><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Statement by Peter George, Independent MP for Franklin:<\/span><\/b>
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The\u00a0government must take immediate action to shut down flow-through salmon hatcheries that have been polluting Tasmanian rivers with nutrient overload for years \u2013 and now with antibiotics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The urgency to\u00a0take action\u00a0is highlighted following revelations that Huon Aquaculture\u2019s treatment of diseased fish last summer led to antibiotic residue being found in eels,\u00a0sediment\u00a0and water samples in the Derwent River.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hobart\u2019s water catchment is too precious and too vulnerable to allow salmon companies to pollute waterways with antibiotics.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As reported by the\u00a0<\/span>Tasmanian Inquirer<\/span><\/a>\u00a0today, antibiotic traces were found in eels,\u00a0sediment\u00a0and water samples in the Derwent River after Huon Aquaculture used around 52kg of antibiotics (oxytetracycline) to treat diseased fish at its Meadowbank hatchery.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has got to stop.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The State government has acknowledged\u00a0the State\u2019s\u00a0flow-through hatcheries have to be\u00a0closed down\u00a0but done nothing about it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet again, the salmon companies have shown they make the rules, not the government.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tasmanian Inquirer\u2019s report today is a wakeup call to everyone who lives in the Derwent River catchment that the multinational salmon operations threaten not just the health of waterways but human health as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The salmon companies cannot be allowed to get away with the excuse that they need to protect their diseased fish when human health and the health of critical waterways is threatened in pursuit of profit.\u00a0The World Health Organisation has declared antibiotic resistance\u00a0to be one of the world\u2019s most challenging health issues.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The companies have the capacity to build and\u00a0operate\u00a0hatcheries that recycle their water so\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0no excuse to delay closing their flow-through hatcheries \u2013 or cease operations altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224307,"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224304\/revisions\/224307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petergeorgeforfranklin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}