Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The Tasmanian Government is a strong supporter of our world-class salmon industry which provides thousands of direct and indirect jobs, many in regional areas.
We are supporting industry to grow to $2 billion a year by 2030 through our Sustainable Industry Growth Plan, and a second progress report on the plan will be developed to ensure it is tracking on target.
The salmon sector was valued at $838 million in 2017/18, leading the State’s agri-food industry by value and we want to ensure it can continue to grow so that the entire state can benefit.
The progress report will include a contemporary marine spatial planning exercise and explore ways to identify potential sustainable growth areas for new offshore finfish marine farms.
This review will involve a science-based re-evaluation of the current map of ‘grow’ and ‘no grow’ zones, using lessons learnt from the Pilot Marine Spatial Assessment Tool that was developed by the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies in South East Tasmania.
The work will be completed in early 2021 and any proposed changes will be released for public comment.
