Correspondence Regarding Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Macquarie Harbour; And The Maugean Skate.

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 28 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The Bob Brown Foundation and Australia Institute wrote to UNESCO in April 2024 requesting international intervention regarding threats to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area from marine farming operations in Macquarie Harbour. The letter identifies the endangered Maugean skate (*Zearaja maugeana*)—the world's only skate species known to primarily inhabit brackish waters and found exclusively in Macquarie Harbour—as facing urgent threat from salmon farming. The Maugean skate is listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act, with the Threatened Species Scientific Committee currently reviewing uplisting to Critically Endangered. The harbour contains approximately one-third of the 1.58 million hectare World Heritage Area. In December 2023, Tasmania's Environment Protection Authority renewed ten Environment Licences authorising salmon farming operations until November 2025 despite Conservation Advice from DCCEEW identifying urgent action as necessary to