Harmful Algal Bloom Response STATEMENT 

23 July 2025 

The Harmful Algal Bloom currently impacting South Australia represents a crisis of unprecedented scale for the seafood industry. 

This event is not only widespread—affecting multiple key regions—but also unpredictable in its duration, severity and immediate and long term consequences that may last across several seasons. 

We risk long-term damage to the state’s seafood economy, the viability of marine-based industries, and the communities they sustain. 

This large scale impact is affecting employment, the sole source of income for many operators, and the long term viability of the sector. 

South Australia’s fisheries and aquaculture contribute an estimated $788 m in gross state product (GSP) and directly employs more than 6,250 South Australians. In scale, Port Lincoln seafood industry is an employment scale similar to Whyalla Steelworks – and the HAB extends beyond Port Lincoln. 

The unknown duration of this event may severely impact not only current production but retention of operators, workforce and biomass. 

We acknowledge that the government cannot address or mitigate the algal bloom itself. However, like a bushfire or other natural disaster, there is a role for government in providing coordination, information, surveillance and monitoring, response and recovery. 

We welcome the commitment of $28 million towards a support package. 

We strongly support the commitment to improving the coastal monitoring network and local brevotoxin testing, which are key requests from our industry. We welcome the availability of financial and mental health supports, and hope to ensure that they are easily able to be accessed by affected parts of the seafood industry. 

However, we seek additional commitments that better support resilience, capability and mitigation in our industry, and secure our long-term future. 

We acknowledge the action already taken by the SA Government in providing relief from commercial fishing licence fees for affected operators, but we have not yet seen the end of the impacts. 

We note that given the unknown size, scale, duration and impact of the consequences for the commercial fishing sector (including aquaculture, wildcatch, and seafood processing and consumption), additional funds will be needed to support the industry with response and recovery over coming years. Tools like natural disaster declaration makes clear the enormity of the impact, the ongoing need for (financial) support, and ensures the right level of focus of the significance of this marine catastrophe. Care will need to be taken in any such declaration to ensure all affected operators are supported. 

We call upon support from the government in the short-term for: 

BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND RESILIENCE 

  • Additional fee relief  The current fee relief does not capture all affected licence-holders, nor for the full period of the impact (which is still unknown). 

  • Building capacity in industry Fund SISA to develop and deliver a financial counselling program for affected operators, identifying opportunities to diversify or adapt business models, manage debts and assets, and retain staff. 

  • Business continuity support  For operators who rely on seafood for their primary or exclusive source of income, some may require targeted income support to manage debts due and costs of living. 

  • Workforce retention  Affected operators are at immediate risk of shedding skilled and experienced staff. This has a serious impact in particular coastal regional communities. Long-term recovery will rely on retention of skilled and experienced staff in seafood businesses. 

  • Proactive risk mitigation support To address a pervasive risk into the future, we need to incentivise and bring forward industry investment that protects biomass and revenue through risk mitigation investments (such as carbon filtration). 

  • Mental Health Support Fund SISA to deliver mental health support with a program similar to the drought-based Family and Business Mentors in Kangaroo Island, Yorke Peninsula and Eyre Peninsula, to be delivered in partnership through the highly successful Stay Afloat program. 

INDUSTRY COORDINATION AND CONFIDENCE 

  • Communicating that seafood is safe to eat, and that not all of SA seafood production has been impacted 
    Fund SISA to deliver a campaign to provide consumer certainty and confidence about the safety of South Australian caught seafood, and avoid damage in national and international markets to our reputation for premium seafood. 

  • SISA HAB Project Manager 
    To support the delivery of these programs, additional funding to support the engagement of a HAB Project Manager within Seafood Industry SA. 

SURVEILLANCE AND MONITORING 

  • Industry-led data collection 

    Fund SISA to rapidly develop an industry data collection platform with real-time information on impacts on yield, quality, species behaviour. This will be shared with industry and government. 

Long term 

Given the unknown scale, duration, implications and consequences of the HAB on future seasons, we seek the support of the government to work with Seafood Industry SA to develop a longer-term recovery plan to position industry for growth. This may include market re-entry support, research programs about increased resilience approaches, and other longer-term recovery strategies, depending on long-term impacts on biomass. 

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