Oscar-winning American actor Leonardo DiCaprio joined with conservationists recently in their call to end aquaculture in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbor, the only habitat of the endangered Maugean skate, an ancient ray-like fish.
“This week the Australian government will decide the fate of Macquarie Harbor and has an opportunity to shut down destructive industrial non-native salmon farms, protecting the Maugean Skate," DiCaprio said in an Instagram post. “This shallow estuary off the Tasmanian coast is one of the most important places in the world – now designated as a key biodiversity area – which means it’s essential for the planet’s overall health and the persistence of biodiversity.”
The issue of whether salmon farming would continue in the Harbor has been a hot button one for the last 18 months, with Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek facing a legal request from three NGOs to begin a formal inquiry into whether aquaculture in the area had been properly approved initially.
The conservation groups hoped to use the inquiry to protect the Maugean skate, which they said would become extinct if salmon farming continued in the area.
A 2024 report commissioned by the Australian government estimated that there were between 40 and 120 adult skates left in the wild, and stated salmon farming could have played a role in the decline, thanks to lowered oxygen levels in the harbor. Another recent study, conducted by the University of Tasmania, found that the Maugean skate’s population, though low, was on the rise, growing to levels not seen since 2014.
DiCaprio’s post, which brought the issue to the attention of his more than 60 million Instagram followers, shared a link to, and images from, the Bob Brown Foundation’s (BBF) campaign to pressure the Albanese government to protect the skate.
The BBF was also the organization responsible for recent drone footage which showed Huon workers dropping live salmon into bins with dead fish as they cleaned up from a mass mortality event. The fallout from the video included RSPCA Australia withdrawing Huon Aquacutlure’s RSPCA Approved certification.
Despite DiCaprio’s intervention, the campaign against the salmon farming in Macquarie Harbor was dealt a huge setback on 27 March when the Australian Parliament voted to amend environmental laws, officially ending the environment minister’s inquiry and preventing such inquiries in the future.
