Go ahead, you might as well just wrinkle your nose right up front. For weeks now, as Tasmanians have looked on in disgust at the mass mortality event occurring at salmon farms across the south-east of our state, circumstantial evidence has been mounting, suggesting that diseased fish are being harvested for human consumption. Ewww, gross!

A bit of curiosity, a bit of clever sleuthing, and a collaboration of people who joined forces a little over two weeks ago, and who still haven’t met face to face on this, but who share a love of the truth, and voila!

Here’s how it happened…

In 2018-2019, a particularly huge mass mortality event left critics pondering the question: Where do you put a million and a half dead fish? Implausibly, as conversations explored options, “in the refrigerated section at Woolies and Coles” started seeming possible.

In late February, even as the fatballs were still washing up at Verona Sands and Bruny Island, aquaculture industry insiders started leaking information suggesting that they do indeed harvest what are apparently known in the industry as ‘flappers’. That is, if a fish shows any signs of life, such as gill movement or fin movement, it is processed for human consumption.

Other leaked information suggested that they check the gills: if the gills are still pink, they go for human consumption; if not, they are rendered down for pet food, or fish meal or fish oil.

ABC Radio National host Sally Sara asked Darryl Cook, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA)’s Director of Finfish Compliance on breakfast 28 February 2025, about harvesting diseased fish, and he gave what Andrew Wilkie later described as ‘an unconvincing answer’. You be the judge:

Sally Sara ABC RN
Does the EPA know whether any disease, dying or dead fish have been processed for human consumption during this incident?

Darryl Cook Director Fin Fish EPA
Well, the dead fish are processed for other things, such as they can be rendered to the fish oil and the fish meal, or they can be converted in compost or spread on land as a fertiliser. But certainly, the dead fish are not going for anywhere, for for human consumption.

Sally Sara ABC RN
Do you monitor that? [long pause]

Darryl Cook Director Fin Fish EPA
Do we monitor that? No, the company … we, we’re the Environment Protection Authority, so we’re looking after the environmental side of things, not the not the food side of things

On 6 March 2025, Minister Eric Abetz expressed a similar level of certainty.

Taken from Hansard, he stated, “In answer to Mr Garland from the Minister for Primary Industries and Water, Ms Howlett, salmon harvested for human consumption must meet all the usual food safety requirements. Moribund or dead fish are not harvested for human consumption.”

Don’t unwrinkle your nose just yet.

Following these slippery moments, the EPA revealed that 5,500 tonnes of dead fish were sent to landfill in February. But piecing together various statements from a range of government and industry officials, it became clear that landfill is only a last resort for the fish that can’t be processed.

And whilst we are still waiting on the EPA for an official announcement, leaked insider information is suggesting while the salmon ‘waste’ in February 2025 is going into landfill, the number of fish dying from the disease is far  greater than the 5,500 tonnes first advised. It is instead being reported as a massive 15,000 tonnes for February alone.

So, one must wonder, if that is just a fraction, what might be the total number of fish diseased and dying in the water, and where did they go, let alone what may now be an additional 10,000 tonnes?

Another piece to the puzzle was found in a peer-reviewed scientific paper, which gave two interesting facts relating to the illness in question, identified by the Chief Veterinary Officer as Pisciriskettsiosis.

According to this paper, “the incubation period for piscirickettsiosis under natural conditions has been estimated to be 10–14 days”, and “during acute infections, mortality may occur without any gross signs of disease.”

So, it seems that the fish may be infected for up to two weeks without showing outward signs of disease, suggesting an even higher probability of harvest of diseased fish.

But the smoking gun came late on Monday night of this week, during what had affectionately become known as our ‘pyjama party’, where three otherwise normal people, had taken to gathering on a private Messenger chat, egging each other on as they researched and shared their findings and refined their searches.

And then, there it was.

Bam! wrote one of our group at 10:39pm. We all knew its significance as soon as it was posted. It was an operating procedure found on the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE) website, which outlines the harvesting procedure for a mass mortality event.

This truth is unavoidable as unsuspecting consumers, thinking they are buying healthy fresh fish may in fact be buying a serving of disease that should have gone into the other bin.

This raises a squeamish question.

Recall the horrific drone footage supplied by the Bob Brown Foundation, showing the dead and still flapping salmon being sealed into  big bins.

The animal cruelty implications were so disturbing that it led the RSPCA to this week cancel their endorsement of Huon Aquaculture. In light of new knowledge, new questions arise. Were these binned fish, as assumed, going to the tip… or were they going for processing for human consumption, or for rendering into animal feed and fish oil?

Salmon oil, incidentally, is also for human consumption.

So, one may wonder, what’s wrong with eating diseased salmon? Really?

With fish, more than most things we eat, freshness matters. Tasmanian salmon is marketed as a clean green premium healthy choice. But are consumers paying the same price for diseased fish as for healthy fish?

And is there more in our raw salmon sushi or smoked salmon than meets the eye?

Tasmanians have a right to know. Are we being duped?

Let’s us leave the last word and her views on our clean, green, image of Tasmania with Jacqui Lambie (credit Ellen Coulter ABC 7.30 19 March 2025)