Dead fish-farm salmon and bits of salmon have been washing up on beaches in the Channel, including on Bruny, with the EPA cautioning people to take care handling any material or coming in contact with it.
.Jess Coughlan from Neighbours of Fish Farming submitted a carcass washed up on Conleys Beach for viral and bacterial testing and posed the question whether the material could pose a biosecurity threat not only to fish farms, but to biodiversity and people more generally.
In reply, the EPA noted that: “the current Department of Health advice is not to handle the material, to wash your hands if you do, and not to undertake recreational activities where the material is obviously present. This advice is based on what is known about the material to date, and the general principle of not handling dead animal parts that encountered in the environment.”
Read the press release from the EPA below.
