Positive Results from Yellow Bluff

Here at Huon we undertake a vast amount of environmental monitoring to meet our regulatory requirements. One such requirement is to complete an annual Broadscale Environmental Monitoring Program (BEMP) survey for our Yellow Bluff lease in Storm Bay.

The BEMP was undertaken by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and saw a total of 28 sites surveyed over a nine-month period from August 2019 to April 2020. Adam Smark, Huon’s Marine Environment Manager, said the purpose of the annual BEMP is to provide knowledge about the impacts of fish farming within the Storm Bay waterway. “The goal of the annual Yellow Bluff survey is to understand the potential impacts of salmon farming on the western side of Storm Bay. “There is no evidence to suggest that farming at Huon’s Yellow Bluff lease has had a system-wide influence on the water quality, soft-sediment, and inshore reef habitats of Storm Bay,” said Adam.

–Key results showed a healthy canopy cover at all reef sites, and a wide range of sponge colours and morphologies can be seen including finger, cup-shaped, arborescent and encrusting. –

“Just under 15 fish species were observed including butterfly perch, both the rosy and blue throat wrasse and velvet leatherjacket.” Adam said that observations from the remotely operated vehicle surveys in 2020, indicate that the three deep reefs surveyed in Storm Bay had not changed since previous baseline surveys. “One of the reefs is 3kms east of Yellow Bluff at around 32 metres deep. This site had a range of sponge colours and an abundance of fish.”

While the BEMP showed there were elevated levels of nutrients and chlorophyll a, these appear to be linked to the movement of medium scale water bodies into Storm Bay, rather than any farming influence. In future, the BEMP will be expanded to allow for a broader understanding of the influence of multiple operations within the Storm Bay system. A BEMP has been running in the Huon and Channel since 2009 allowing for the impacts of fish farming in the region to be well understood. –“The impacts of farming are well understood both beneath our pens, 35 metres outside the leases, and within the broader farming area. The transient nature of these influences have been subject to an extensive amount of scientific investigation. –

“We ground our operations in science, and the science is saying that what we doing in Storm Bay is not having a detectable broadscale influence,” finished Adam. The Yellow Bluff BEMP can be found on the EPA and Huon websites.

–Fish observed during a reef survey –

–A deep reef surveyed –