The Bob Brown Foundation says that it is time for the RSPCA to act, with shocking numbers of farmed salmon dying in Macquarie Harbour and around Tasmania.
Yesterday a document published by the Department of Natural Resources revealed that in just 7 months, 1,149,795 kg, or approximately 250,000, adult salmon died in the oxygen starved waters of Macquarie Harbour alone.
This represents a mortality rate of 10 per cent of the salmon these factory farms cram and overstock in battery hen-like cages in Macquarie Harbour.
Bob Brown Foundation is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Liberal government of Tasmania to release the exact numbers of dead fish for the whole state which, so far, the EPA has refused to release.
RSPCA
Bob Brown Foundation is also calling for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) to immediately stop certifying all Tasmanian salmon.
This level of death, with 66 mass mortality events occurring around the state between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, represents millions of dead fish which no society for the prevention of cruelty to animals can continue to condone.
‘Salmon farming is the factory farming of the sea,’ said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine Campaigner at Bob Brown Foundation.
‘This is proof that salmon farms could care less about their salmon, the environment, or the survival and welfare of living creatures. Intensive factory farming of chickens in battery cages, a practice that is reviled, has a yearly mortality rate of 4 per cent.
‘In Macquarie Harbour, factory-farmed salmon recorded a 10 per cent mortality rate in just 6 months, which is just appalling.
‘It’s no wonder that the Maugean Skate is so close to extinction. Salmon farms don’t even care about the welfare of their fish, let alone a unique, wild animal. The RSPCA must immediately revoke certifications of Tasmanian farmed salmon or they will lose all credibility,’ said Alistair Allan.
‘They cannot condone such huge loss of life, primarily caused by overstocking, disease and all manner of cruelty inflicted upon these creatures,’ he said.
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