Wayne Foley has fished the waters of the Buccaneer Archipelago for decades.
It is one of Australia’s most remote coastlines, situated in northern WA, characterised by its rugged islands that dot bright aquamarine water.
As a Derby local, Mr Foley never thought he would see global seafood giant Tassal on his doorstep.
Canadian-owned company Tassal last year announced its acquisition of Marine Produce Australia (MPA), the company behind Cone Bay Barramundi.
It came after MPA, then under the ownership of Singapore company Barramundi Group, entered voluntary administration in May 2023 following the failed sale of the Cone Bay barramundi farm.
Sitting in the middle of the Kimberley Aquaculture Development Zone, Tassal will be moving into WA waters that have been marked as “investment ready” with environmental checks and management policies already in place.
It means commercial aquaculture operations can set up quickly, without going through lengthy approval processes.
But this doesn’t reassure Mr Foley.
“With the experience of the marine park and some government agencies, a lot doesn’t get said,” he said.
“It’s really hard to be informed.”
He has done his own research into Tassal’s history.
In 2017, the island state’s environmental watchdog ordered Tassal to destock one of its farming leases neighbouring the World Heritage Area in Macquarie Harbour.
The order followed an EPA report showing conditions in the harbour had worsened with increased levels of bacteria and low levels of oxygen surrounding the Tassal ponds.
“We don’t want to see anything like that happen up here,” Mr Foley said.
A different environment
The Kimberley coastline does boast very different features to that of Tasmania.
Most notable are the tides, which at Cone Bay regularly reach 11 metres high and can wash more fish waste out to sea than those in Tasmania.
Tassal’s general manager for corporate affairs, Tom Middleton, said he wanted to reassure Derby locals.
“We certainly have a long history working with the government and the regulators and the scientific community about ensuring the local marine environment is appropriately managed,” Mr Middleton said.
Tassal’s expansion
In recent years, the company’s operations have grown as it moved into prawn farming in Queensland and NSW and now, for the first time, into WA barramundi.
“We’ve now rebranded the organisation from a product perspective so that it’s not just salmon, we’ll have both the barra and the prawns that come under the Tassal banner,” Mr Middleton said.
The previous owners of Cone Bay Barramundi had already submitted plans to expand their Kimberley fish farm more than tenfold, citing the operation’s lack of commercial viability at its current size.
Tassal would not confirm whether it planned to keep with these previous expansion plans.
“We want to try and make sure we can have a clear position that we can communicate with regulators and the community and with traditional owners,” Mr Middleton said.
The ABC reached out a number of times to Mayala Inninalang Aboriginal Corporation and the Kimberley Land Council, which represent the traditional owners of the Buccaneer Archipelago. They declined to comment.
Warning from Tasmanian locals
Peter George is part of the Tasmanian anti-salmon farming campaign group Neighbours of Fish Farming.
A long-time campaigner against Tassal salmon farms, he believed there was a lack of transparency within the company.
“The last thing you want is Tassal as your neighbour,” he said.
“We have tried over 15, 20 years to have conversations with Tassal. They’ll talk to you when it suits them, they won’t when it doesn’t.”
But Tassal pushed back on that notion.
“I think in talking about social licence, the best evidence for us is the communities in which we work,” Mr Middleton said.
“We have so many passionate advocates in those communities, we invest very heavily, we have so many schools and sporting clubs and environmental projects.
“We are determined to do that in the Kimberley as well.”
Wait and see
In a place like Derby, where locals have seen big business wash in and out like the tide, there is a wariness surrounding those that make bold claims.
“I think [Tassal] have the money and the power to push it through and they can promise a lot,” Mr Foley said.
“If they do, let’s hope [Tassal’s promises come] through.”
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