Guilty verdict in barramundi farm court case
Environmental Act
The Killaloe barramundi farm on Captain Cook Highway north of Port Douglas unintentionally allowed the toxic substance copper sulfate to flow into two creeks in 2022 and 2023, a Cairns Magistrates Court judge has stated when handing down guilty verdicts for a range of environmental-protection charges.
Magistrate Jakub Lodziak last Friday found then fish farm owners Mainstream Aquaculture and managing director Boris Musa guilty on 16 counts relating to releasing water from barramundi ponds into Muddy Creek and Packers Creek.
The Mainstream charges include unlawfully depositing a prescribed substance in local waterways five times, twice failing to comply with a directions notice and carrying out an environmentally relevant activity without authority.
And managing director Boris Musa was found guilty on eight occasions of failing to ensure a corporation complies with the Environmental Protection Act.
Magistrate Lodziak told the court there was no suggestion the company was introducing copper sulfate directly into Port Douglas waters, but was depositing it into ponds in the farm for legitimate reasons and some of it had made its way into the waterways.
The actions did not necessarily damage or hurt the environment and the company did not necessarily wilfully set out to break the law, he stated.
But Mainstream did not take all reasonable measures to minimise the harm of depositing copper sulfate - often used by aquaculture companies to control algal blooms - into its ponds.
Magistrate Lodziak found the company was not testing for copper levels where the water was being discharged, which also fell short of taking all reasonable and practical measures.
The company argued the release of the prescribed substance did not break the law because the water was going into prawn ponds before first entering drainage channels, and then the two creeks.
The charge of carrying out an environmentally relevant activity without authority related to Mainstream’s actions to switch from stocking the ponds with prawns to barramundi without the relevant environmental clearances from the State Government Environment and Science Department (DESI), which brought the charges against the company.
The company was not approved to farm barramundi at the former prawn farm between September 2022 and March 2023.
No sentences have yet been handed down, with the matter adjourned so the parties can prepare sentencing submissions. The next appearance is set down for October 7.
Originally a small family venture, Mainstream bought the barramundi farm in 2021.
In November 2024 the farm management apologised to surrounding residents for a stench wafting towards Port Douglas, saying it was working hard to fix the issue while investing in equipment to prevent it happening again.
Mr Musa said at the time the smell was the result of a mass fish die-off and algae developing in a pond.
“It’s not as simple as us draining the pond,’’ Mr Musa said.
“If we were able to drain the pond, the odour would have dissipated but clearly we don’t want to be releasing that water into the environment so it has been a process of treating the pond,” he said.
Mr Musa, who has a background in financial services, is both the managing director and chief executive of Mainstream.
He was appointed director in 2010 and took on the twin MD and CEO roles in 2012.
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