by MSN
Aquaculture company Petuna says its farm at Rowella experienced a temperature spike in an unusually short time frame, followed by a prolonged period of long, hot days.
It is not known how many fish have died, but Environment Protection Authority (EPA) director Wes Ford says the number is in the thousands.
He said higher temperatures started about a week ago and increased mortality “progressed over the course of the last seven days”.
“At the moment they’re having to take fish out on a daily basis and send them to disposal. It’s not a small loss,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
Petuna says temperatures are now decreasing and disposal of fish will be managed in line with EPA regulations.
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Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 8 February 2022
Shocking Tasmanian Fish Farm Deaths
Environmental organisation Bob Brown Foundation has condemned the toxic fish factory industry in Tasmania after another mass fish death episode.
“It beggars belief how many hundreds of thousands of fish need to die before Tasmania cleans up its disgraceful toxic salmon industry,” Bob Brown Foundation Fish Farm Campaigner Rebecca Howarth said.
Shocking reports of 60,000 salmon dying at Petuna’s Rowella lease in Tasmania’s north, is the latest in a string of mass salmon deaths at industrial fish farms.
“This is at least the sixty-ninth reported mass fish death since 2019 and demonstrates that Tasmanian coastal waters are not suitable for an expanding salmon industry in the face of warming waters and the climate crisis. This is an animal welfare disaster,” said Rebecca Howarth.
“Tasmania’s three salmon companies have reported 68 mass fish death incidences since 2019. Many of these events have been caused by low oxygen linked to high water temperature, and/or disease. As Tasmania’s waters continue to warm on the trajectory they are predicted to, Atlantic salmon mortality events will undoubtedly become more common.”
“Change to this destructive salmon industry is urgently needed. The frequency of these mass fish death events is alarming and penalties for such animal cruelty are non-existent. Salmon are sentient beings and experience stress and pain. They suffer distress as they die from suffocation en masse,” concluded Rebecca Howarth.
Media release – Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection, 8 February 2022
Major Salmon Kill – Highlights dangers of industry in coastal and fresh waters
News of tens of thousands of dead salmon in Tamar River feedlots reveals once again that the salmon industry needs to get out of Tasmanian coastal waters and rivers..( https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/elevated-mortality-at-tas-salmon-farm/ar-AATA6g6?ocid=entnewsntp)
The news comes as no surprise to the Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection which has been urging the industry to transition to land-based production before Tasmania becomes a burial ground for millions of salmon.
The latest fish kill is of particular concern to Tamar River Valley producers, whose national and international reputation for top-quality dairy and wine is highly prized. It has been clear for a long time that the Tamar River is no place for huge industrial salmon feedlots owned by a foreign multinational, Petuna.
TAMP calls on the EPA to be absolutely honest in revealing the details and cause of the fish kill particularly in light of recent reports of other major salmon kills in the south of the state. The EPA needs to declare whether the kill has impacted local marine life, ecology and water quality.
Tasmania’s waters are warming far faster than anywhere else in Australia and the entire industry is already struggling with temperatures rising to towards levels in which salmon cannot survive.
Increasing temperatures, diminishing oxygen, regular algal blooms and more jelly fish infestations – all fatal to non-native species like Atlantic salmon – should be incentive enough for the industry to follow the worldwide trend towards land-based production.
The currently-pursued alternative is to cram more feedlots and more fish into coastal waters in the hope that profits can be made before the marine environment is so damaged that the industry collapses.
Government plans to exploit the Bass Strait where industrial salmon production will be out-of-sight and out-of-mind is no answer to the looming crisis.
Orderly, government supported, highly regulated transition to land-based should be the obvious move, following the worldwide trend by salmon producers and major investors.
Media release – Neighbours of Fish Farming, 8 February 2022
Statement on Fish Kill
As many as 60,000 salmon have asphyxiated in the Tamar River as water temperatures rise – an ‘event’ that amounts to more than just a drop in profits for multinational-owned Petuna.
And this terrible death toll is more than just bad news for the salmon industry – it’s shocking news for producers whose reputations for great wine and dairy products rely on the valley’s reputation for beauty, quality and a clean environment. The reputation is crucial to the valley’s economy and a huge drawcard for national and international tourists.
Polluting and damaging enterprises like industrial salmon have no place in the Tamar Valley – and their hold is increasing tenuous as river and sea waters around Tasmania increase faster than anywhere else in Australia, guaranteeing more mass deaths.
As NOFF has urged so often, the future lies in close-loop land-based where good regulation can ensure a healthy environment for the fish and for Tasmania. The future for the industry is laid out clearly in the 2020 Dennes Point Declaration. (https://neighboursoffishfarming.org.au/dennes-point-declaration/)
The mass die-off also raises serious questions about animal welfare in an industry that claims to ‘farm’ livestock and to care for it.
What the industry describes as an ‘elevated mortality’ event is, more bluntly, the fact of tens of thousands of salmon dying slowly and painfully of asphyxiation.
