Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775:reg:18:p22
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 18 (pt 22/152)
Character Range: 99901–102983

for various types of aquaculture may have adverse consequences for a number of species. Few major problems have yet been experienced in Australia, but in South-East Asia, where aquaculture is a major industry, species such as cormorants become regarded as pest and integrated land-use planning is essential (White 1984).
In Australia, the largest aquaculture industries are present in Tasmania and South Australia. The tuna aquaculture venture using cages off Port Lincoln in South Australia has been attributed to increases in the number of Silver Gulls through the provision of food (Ross et al. 1996). Bacteriological discharges from aquaculture facilities may cause adverse problems if concentrations of pathogens are too high. Deaths of seabirds from sewage discharge have been documented in North America (Ankerberg 1984).

Wildlife Conservation Plan for Seabirds 35

 Threats

 The spread of the herpes virus in wild stocks of pilchards, causing mortality impacted
 Little Penguins in southern Australia (Murray et al. 2003; Chiaradia et al. 2010).
 The herpes virus is thought to have originated in feed used in aquaculture
 (Gaughan et al. 2000).

 Low levels of entanglement of seabirds and bird strikes (primarily gulls and cormorants)
 occasionally resulting in low numbers of mortalities are known from Tasmania.
 Current and proposed moves to offshore locations off southeast Tasmania may see
 an increased level of interaction with Southern Ocean species such as albatrosses
 and petrels.

The Australian Government has developed industry guidance for offshore aquaculture (DEH 2006), which provides specific guidance to the marine-based aquaculture industry to assist proponents to decide whether or not actions which they propose to take require assessment and approval under the EPBC Act.

 Disease

 Throughout their lifecycle, seabirds can contract a range of diseases such as
 Newcastle disease (caused by avian paramyxovirus), avian influenza, avian cholera, and avian pox (Morgan et al. 1981; Weimerskirch 2004; Grimaldi et al. 2011;
 Uhart et al. 2018). Infectious diseases have the potential to cause rapid decreases in seabird populations and pose a potentially major conservation problem for small or already declining populations.
Because seabirds spend large amounts of time at sea, the impact of diseases on seabirds is perhaps more difficult to detect than in terrestrial environments. Fortunately, in Australia no major disease outbreak causing mass mortality has been reported. Elsewhere, the global spread of avian cholera has been partly held responsible for the decline of Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche carteri) and could be threatening other seabirds on Amsterdam Island in the Southern Ocean (Weimerskirch 2004).
Malaria-like blood parasites have been detected in some Little Penguin populations in Western Australia (Cannell 2013) and South Australia (Colombelli-Négrel, 2016), and noted worldwide in penguin populations (Grilo et al 2016). In Little Penguin colonies monitored across the Gulf St Vincent, South Australia,