Truck driving twins Porcha, left, and Piper appear in one of the videos giving a voice to Tasmanians who depend on the salmon sector for employment or for the health of their business.
Salmon Tasmania emphasises economic importance to state's rural communties
Residents who rely on sector defend industry in series of short videos
Salmon Tasmania has launched a video campaign which it says gives a voice to the thousands of Tasmanians who rely on the sector to make a living.
The industry body’s “Tasmanians depend on salmon” campaign includes seven 90-second videos for use on social media, featuring a wide range of people who emphasise the importance of the sector to themselves and the Australian island state in the wake of sustained criticism from some who oppose the sector.
The public debate about salmon farming rarely includes the voices of the thousands of Tasmanians whose livelihoods depend on the industry, and we think their stories deserve to be heard.
“The public debate about salmon farming rarely includes the voices of the thousands of Tasmanians whose livelihoods depend on the industry, and we think their stories deserve to be heard,” Salmon Tasmania writes on its website.
“Every person featured is a real Tasmanian who works with or alongside the salmon industry: truck drivers, a hardware store owner, a minister, a photographer, a lawn mowing business. No scripts, no casting agents.”
Supporting more than 5,000 jobs
Salmon Tasmania represents the state’s three Atlantic salmon producers – Huon, Petuna, and Tassal – and points out that a report by Deloitte found the industry supports 5,103 full-time equivalent jobs, with nine out of ten of them in rural areas.
“Suppliers and businesses who rely on the industry are found across the state, from the Huon Valley and D'Entrecasteaux Channel in the south, to Westbury in the north and communities along the west coast,” writes Salmon Tasmania.
“Salmon workers live in, spend in, and contribute to their local communities. Businesses in towns like Port Huon report that aquaculture workers make up the majority of their morning and lunchtime trade. The industry also sponsors local football clubs, funds food banks, supports school programmes, and invests in conservation partnerships with Tasmanian ecologists and researchers.”
Salmon Tasmania says the sector supports a wider range of employment than most people realise. “Think electricians, veterinarians, marine scientists, food processing workers, hatchery technicians, and the local teachers, doctors and service providers whose communities only exist because the industry does.”
Twin truckers
One of the videos (see main picture) features identical twins Porcha and Piper, who both work as drivers for haulier De Bruyn’s Transport, which employs around 350 staff and operates around 180 trucks.
“We live in northwest Tasmania, a little place called Latrobe. Without the Tasmanian fish farms, De Bruyn’s would really suffer, and people like me would have to look elsewhere for a job,” says Piper.
Losing aquaculture would be devastating for the business and for the young people it employs, says company owner John De Bruyn.
Earth moving contractor and church minister Kevin John Bailey features in one of seven videos by Salmon Tasmania.
Another of the videos features Kevin John Bailey, an Anglican minister and earth moving contractor who built the original road for the salmon farms in Strahan, and still does a lot of earth moving work for the sector.
“As an Anglican minister, we are called to tell the truth and that’s what I’m doing right now. I believe that the information that’s being fed to people [by opponents] about our salmon industry in incorrect,” Bailey says in the video.
He added: “The whole west coast get a spin off the farms, people have built their lives on it, and if they lost their income, that’s a tremendous mental pressure. Young people, they would move on, and this town [Strahan] would not survive.”
Cafe owners Roz and Brett, who employ 15 people, say their business would be unlikely to exist without salmon farming.
Another video features Roz and Brett, a couple who run a takeway café in the Huon Valley, employing 15 staff and largely catering for fish farmers.
“There’s hundreds of them. It’s constant, all day, every day,” says Brett.
“The doors open, they’re coming before 5am getting coffees, egg and bacon rolls are on,” says Roz.
“We have two sons who work for fish farms. One is a diver and he employs 10 blokes of his own. It just creates so many jobs for our kids and their kids. If it wasn’t for the salmon farms, this business would probably not exist. We get a lot of our produce locally from the IGA goods shop, veggie man; it’s a ripple effect. If we lose salmon, we lose regional Tasmania. I’m bloody proud to be a part of it all.”
See all seven videos here.
