ENVIRONMENTAL LICENCE #9957 FOR GREEN HEAD PERMIT 18093 Final Broadscale Monitoring Report 24th April 2019 Report to EPA TASMANIA/ HUON AQUACULTURE COMPANY PTY LTD BY AQUACULTURE, MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT PTY LTD EL 9957/Permit 18093 Final Report April 2019 Document Distribution Document Date Name Company Version Copies Type 8/4/2019 Various Huon Aquaculture Draft V1.1 1 Mark Churchill/Stephen 9/4/2019 EPA Draft V1.2 1 Gallagher/David Horner DISCLAIMER: The present report is provided for the exclusive use of EPA Tasmania/Huon Aquaculture Company P/L as part of the requirements for the Monthly Broadscale Reporting as part of the conditions of the Environmental Licence for the operation of Emergency Permit 18093 under the Living Marine Resources Act 1995. Aquaculture, Management & Development P/L disclaims all liability for any adverse consequences arising from the use of information contained within this report by any third party. Dr. Dom O’Brien Managing Director. AMD 24th April 2019 EL 9957/Permit 18093 Final Report April 2019 Contents 1 Environmental Licence (EL) Holder .......................................................................................... 1 2 Operational Summary ............................................................................................................. 1 3 Summary of Activity ................................................................................................................ 3 4 ROV monitoring surveys ........................................................................................................ 10 5 Broadscale Water Column Characteristics ............................................................................. 17 6 Seagrass surveys (provided by Aquenal) ................................................................................ 32 List of Figures Figure 1 - One of the pens in-situ within the Permit, showing the four internal ‘pods’ with individual feeder systems, with a white Dissolved Oxygen string marker buoy in the foreground .......................................................................... 4 Figure 2 - Mooring and pen layout in the 4-pod grid ................................................................................................................ 4 Figure 3 - General location and bathymetric map (taken from Navionics website) of the Green Head/Lime Bay area also showing lease areas 117 (East) and 128 (West). Note the pens were located in depths greater than 20m (white shading). ............................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Figure 4 - Map of the Permit area (ABCD) showing approximate location of harvest pens. Black outline -lease boundary, Red outline - zone boundary. Co-ordinates GDA94 Zone 55. ......................................................................................... 6 Figure 5 - Spot bathymetry survey results superimposed onto the Navionics chart confirming predicted depths for the Permit area. ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 6 - Current speed at 6m depth in the Permit area ......................................................................................................... 7 Figure 7 - ROV location maps, showing all ROV survey sites. Top left, November sites with incorrect IF5 site. Top right, detail of final survey (December) pen sites. Bottom left, baseline sites showing triplicate ‘compliance’ sites and controls. Bottom right, December All final survey sites ................................................................................................12 Figure 8 - Map of actual handfish ROV tracks with reference to EPA transect start points..................................................16 Figure 9 - Map of the water quality monitoring stations associated with Environmental Licence 9957/1. ........................17 Figure 10 - Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen and conductivity averages for individual sites (at 5m depth) ........................19 Figure 11 - Temperature and conductivity for different depths for all sites..........................................................................20 Figure 12 - Graphs of NOx, Ammonia and Total Kjeldahl N concentrations at surface, midwater (labelled 10m) and seafloor depths ................................................................................................................................................................21 Figure 13 - Graphs of DRP, Silica and Chlorophyll a concentrations at surface, midwater (labelled 10m) and seafloor depths ..............................................................................................................................................................................22 Figure 14 - Ammonia levels vs fish biomass in Permit area (dotted line represents fish biomass) ......................................23 Figure 15 - Comparison of integrated sample lab analysis with Sonde probe measurement for Chlorophyll a at all sites for the survey period. ......................................................................................................................................................25 Figure 16 - A. Abundance of Phytoplankton groups by mean cell count for all surveys, B. Relative abundance of groups for all surveys by mean cell count ..................................................................................................................................26 Figure 17 - A. Total cell abundance of Phytoplankton groups for all surveys, B. Relative total cell abundance of groups for all surveys ...................................................................................................................................................................28 Figure 18 - Total number of phytoplankton cells at each site when the fish pens were stocked. There is no data for NB5 as integrated samples were not taken during these surveys........................................................................................29 Figure 19 – Dissolved oxygen (saturation and concentration) and temperature at sites DLS1 & DLS2 for the period of stocking of the permit area. ............................................................................................................................................31 Figure 20 - Representative imagery from December 2018 Seagrass surveys (frame grabs) on following 3 pages .............39 EL 9957/Permit 18093 Final Report April 2019 List of Tables Table 1 - General velocity statistics for ADCP deployment ....................................................................................................... 7 Table 2 - Stocking biomass, harvest biomass and feed fed to Fish Pens .................................................................................. 9 Table 3 - Dive position summary for all ROV surveys ..............................................................................................................11 Table 4 - Interpretation summaries for all ROV surveys. ........................................................................................................13 Table 5 - Laboratory Limits of Reporting for the water analytes ............................................................................................20 Table 6 - Comparison of nutrient maxima against EPA Bruny Bioregion DGV's. ...................................................................24 Table 7 - Epiphyte coverage qualitative scale ..........................................................................................................................32 Table 8 - Summary of seagrass observations. Seagrass and Caulerpa coverage estimates represent average assessed across ten replicate frame grabs per dive. Average epiphyte scores represent average assessed across ten replicate frame grabs per dive. See ................................................................................................................................34 Table 9 - Survey coordinates for December 2018 seagrass surveys, based on the Mapping Grid of Australia Zone 55 (Datum GDA94). ..............................................................................................................................................................35 Table 10 - Frame grab analysis of December 2018 seagrass footage ...................................................................................36 EL 9957/Permit 18093 Final Report April 2019 1 Environmental Licence (EL) Holder Huon Aquaculture Company P/L. EL 9957 2 Operational Summary Contractor: AQUACULTURE, MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT PTY LTD (AMD) ACN 079 618 385 Phone 0421 331797 e-mail: [email protected] Client: EPA Tasmania 134, Macquarie St, Hobart. TAS 7000 Liaison: Stephen Gallagher; Mark Churchill Field work: Huon Aquaculture Company (Huon) and EPA Tasmania. Personnel: Adam Smark, Bill Joyes, Darryl Boothey (all Huon), Dom O’Brien (AMD) Dates of fieldwork: Baseline Environmental Survey – July 2018 Water quality monitoring -Huon surveys from August 2018 through to February 2019. ROV monitoring surveys – July, October, November and December 2018 Laboratory Analysis: Nutrients in water - Analytical State Laboratories (AST), Hobart, TAS. Phytoplankton description and counts - Analytical State Laboratories (AST), Hobart, TAS. Monitoring Equipment for Huon surveys: A Getac