Licence to party!
Social Licence. It sounds like approval to have a good old knees-up with friends, doesn’t it? A bit of a bash with those you know are likely to make you feel good. A party. And it’s not that not far off the mark…
But more about that party later.
Social Licence is defined as ‘existing when a project has the ongoing approval within the local community and other stakeholders, ongoing approval of broad social acceptance…’ (www.SociaLicense.com )
Under that definition, and within the parameters of the community vs ocean fish-farming, fish-farming companies may not have that all-important social licence.
A further definition says: ‘A level of acceptance or approval continually granted to an organisation’s operations by a local community and other stakeholders’ (http://accsr.com.au/news/category.australia) It says it’s a notion of legitimacy, favourability. ’Think of reputation as ‘affective’ – more of an emotional like and dislike.’
So going back to the party, would you invite people that you didn’t like or who didn’t like you?
Of course not.
Along with social licence, social capital is also important. From the same article above, ‘it’s talking, trusting and thinking.’
Companies like Tassal are required to seek that social licence, that social capital where they ‘talk, trust and think’.
Do they do that by inviting favourite friends to the party?
Then what about lesser stakeholders? Have they pursued ‘social licence’ with those?
Did they ask what the recreational fisherman who tows his tinnie from Hobart, sets up camp at Orford and has a weekend of fishing planned might feel? Where does his freedom to fish in sheltered waters in a nor-easter go when Okehampton Bay is filled with salmon pens?
Did they ask the wife whose favourite fish is flathead what she feels about the possibility of that flathead being as diseased as those fish caught in the Huon region?
Did they ask the surfers who come from all over to surf a swell at Shelly Point what they think? It’s well known that Mercury Passage is a shark hatchery. Is there available science to prove that the seals that haunt salmon pens won’t enlarge the numbers of sharks in the Passage?
Did they ask the retiree how he feels about his property? He has sold up in the city and moved to the coast to spend the last part of his life living his dream. The value of his property could potentially drop if the area becomes filled with 28 large fish pens and all the infrastructure that goes with the industry.
Have they asked the twitcher who comes from NZ especially to see the endangered fairy terns at Orford how he or she feels? There may be an increase in predatorial birds around the pens. Will this affect the shorebirds’ amenity?
Did they ask the accommodation suppliers what they feel?
Did they ask the local fuel suppliers what they feel? Those hundreds of recreational fishermen who currently fill up at Buckland and Triabunna may not bother filling up anymore, because their fishing amenity has the potential to be drastically altered.
Did they ask those who love walking along the beach at Okehampton how they will feel about being confronted by massive pens and what they will feel when they find the detritus from the industry on the beach. It’s well known that walking along the coast of the Huon, one can find large pieces of buoys, rope, nets and dead seals.
Not once has Tassal assured lesser stakeholders (that’s Mr. and Mrs. Average, like you and me) that there will be no degradation of the sea-bottom or of our wild-fish population, as has happened in the Channel region.
Not once has Tassal offered open and transparent viewing of what the floors of the Channel and Macquarie Harbour have become beneath the pens. So Mr. and Mrs. Average have no faith in the true transparency of this whole process.
So then…
Back to the party analogy – you invite those whom you know will react well to your invitation. You don’t invite those who may disagree with your values.
It is possible to measure social licence by Rejection, Acceptance, Approval and Co-Ownership. One could pretty well guarantee that the last three indicators would exist across the board if World’s Best Practice (like the Danish Model of closed-loop farming) was planned. But it’s an expensive investment. Is Tassal prepared to make that sort of groundbreaking, job providing investment?
As it stands, it is most likely that the 1500 petitioners from Change.Org and the 500 plus (and growing) from the local handwritten petition, and all those who have visited No Fish Farms in Tasmania’s East Coast Waters, will continue to object vocally.
Might that not equate to rejection?
Great article,thanks Wendy.I would also like to ask Tassal (having read their press release last week)why they have not decided to continue to expand their operations in the channel and Huon areas if it is all SO good and their claims about NO Eco environmental damage has occurred there over the past couple of decades.
And another thing (don’t start me!)The absolutely devastating environmental effect of the failed Solis project continues every time there is a decent rain event (as now) has not been addressed at ALL by the owners,supporters (including Greg Norman),local and state government instruments all of whom have turned a blind eye.Go try and catch a fish in Spring Bay at the present time.The only successful fishers out there are the squadron of feral shags that are getting fat on those bait and other small fish that have somehow managed to survive the vandalism that has been created by Solis(If you don’t believe me put your gum boots on ,jump the fence and have a look at the mess .Take a camera and take out insurance so someone will collect if you drown in the mud.
Thanks Geoff. Exactly the questions that the No Fish group want everyone to ask of Tassal, I believe.
As to Solis. In a way it’s connected. They require water don’t they? Ask Council and Tas Water where the water will be coming from and who might be part-funding it. If it’s us the ratepayers, don’t we need full transparency? According to No Fish in East Coast Waters, it’s all connected.
Very well put Prue
Thank you, Libby.
Well put Prue,
As an ex abalone diver and Board member of the Tasmanian Abalone Council, I have been involved with trying to limit the spread of salmon farms into productive abalone habitat for several years, with very little success. This government can see no wrong with the salmon industry, and allows them to expand pretty much where they want. It will take a massive campaign to limit their development on the East coast.
Keep up the good work. John Hoult
Thanks, John. As an official social media group, the No Fish campaign has only been going a week, and in the last week, Tassal have had four media releases about their plans and then Jeremy Rockliff talking tonight on the news about changes in the monitoring of the salmon industry from DPIWE to the EPA. Do you think No Fish might have rattled the cages of politicians and Tassal?
Even so, they are still not listening enough. I don’t recall any consultation with residents in the Spring Bay region other than Triabunna. And I repeat, why can’t we see actual evidence from underneath their pens from completely independent scientists? That’s the bottom line.
I’ll send a personal message to each of the 1500 Seals on white rock, that all their Christmas might be coming,
Last Wednesday and Friday,there was about 300 dolphins with about 150 seals in the passage feeding on bate fish, a wonderful sight,
Once the bate fish have gone like in the Channel their will be only one place for the seals to go, then the shooting will start.
All this summer we have seen on our sounder juvenile squid and bait fish that the Dolphins and seals have been feeding on, this food only hatches and ( survives ) in pristine waters
Seals have a right to life too.
J C C
Hi John. Good to hear from you. Insightful words, too. Were you consulted by TASSAL? Did they ask you how this will impact on your tourism business/ferry service?
If so, what was your answer?