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Research conducted by the University of Oxford claims that the rapid expansion of fish farms in the Mediterranean Sea is killing wide swaths of Posidonia oceanica, a seagrass that’s endemic to the Mediterranean and vital to biodiversity and carbon sequestration in the region.

A University of Oxford study has documented ecological degradation of Posidonia oceanica meadows in Poros, Greece, linked to long-term fish farming impacts extending up to 14 years after farm removal and as far as 900 metres from former sites.

In April, scientists published the first-ever open-source map of fishmeal and fish oil factories around the world. Fishmeal and fish oil production is controversial because it can incentivize the overexploitation of ocean ecosystems, depleting marine food webs, and negatively impact coastal communities that rely on fish for nutrition and livelihoods. 

The Department of Environmental Health hosted a film screening of the award-winning documentary, Until the End of the World, which examines the environmental and community impacts of fish farming. The screening was followed by a panel discussion and lively Q&A featuring filmmaker Francesco De Augustinis, as well as Alessandro Bocconcelli, Matthew Hayek, Doug Frantz, and Catherine Collins, and moderated by Eva Douzinas, President of the Rauch Foundation.  Petros Koutrakis, Professor of Environmental Health, introduced the film, drawing a parallel between the rise of industrial agriculture in the last century, and this century’s growth of aquaculture.

Thousands of Tasmanians are demanding the government stops multinational salmon corporation Petuna from installing fifty open-net pens off Yellow Bluff in Storm Bay. The Tasmania community are concerned about the threat industrial aquaculture operations pose to the diversity of these wild marine waters. By Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP