Fish Welfare

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Image source: Corin Smith

Industrial salmon has immense animal welfare issues.

salmon farming fish welfare

Tasmania’s Atlantic salmon are selectively bred to grow rapidly, resulting in frequent deformities. This causes abnormal behaviour, stunted development and blindness.

Caged in high-density, parasites and disease are common. The treatment involves salmon violently sucked through a pipe into the hold of a ship, “bathed” in chemically-treated water, then spat back into a cage through another pipe. It is a painful, stressful process with thousands dying unreported every year. In some years the process may be repeated several dozen times.
In two years, 127,809.4 tonnes of salmon were reported as dying of disease and asphyxiation.
The true numbers will never be known as regulations do not demand reporting of all deaths.
Freshwater bathing for Amoebic Gill Disease mitigation is painful to the salmon, and occurs many times in a grow-out cycle.

 

Our wildlife also suffers

Warming waters mean fish suffer constant noise, as air is constantly pumped into the water to raise oxygen levels.
Underwater explosives, lead-weighted projectiles and blunt darts are legally used against protected fur seals to deter them from salmon cages. As many as 23 seals are reported to be killed each year— though many deaths may not be reported.
Many sea birds die each year entangled in nets.

 

seal explosive and salmon farming

EPA protection for the salmon industry

The Tasmanian EPA protects the salmon companies from disclosing the full extent of the deaths by only requiring them to report those deaths when they involve a large number of fish dying daily for more than three days running. The EPA is not obliged to report these figures publicly.

As consumers we are entitled to know the food we buy, the food we are served and the food that is supposed to nourish us is healthy, clean and actually good for us and the environment. Sustainable farming is needed - but those producers have an obligation to ensure not only the health of our food but also the environment.
Jonathon Leonard
Jonathon LeonardAdvocate
As an east coast Tasmanian local I have personally witnessed the toxic impact of industrial salmon farming on the health of our onshore waterways since the mid 1990s. The shallow reefs and marine life surrounding fish farms are choking under a layer of pollution. We choose marine biodiversity over second rate salmon and don’t serve farmed salmon on our Tasmanian produce menu.
Ben Rae
Ben RaeTasmanian E-bike Adventures
We live on beautiful Bruny Island. We source fresh, local produce for our business - Bruny Island Wild. We have watched the destruction and protested the growth of outdated, Salmon Feedlot practices for years. We continue to actively inform our customers about caged Tasmanian Salmon and why such a product will never be served at our restaurant.
Kris and Ray Jones
Kris and Ray JonesOwner and Chef at Bruny Island Wild
Open net fish farming in Tasmania is unsustainable. Salmon and ocean trout are farmed in coastal waterways using industrial farming practices and come at a significant cost to the environment. As a chef, I believe I have a responsibility to serve produce that has been farmed ethically and sustainably, and to educate and promote the importance of small-scale, local and sustainable farming.
Stephen PeakHead Chef, The Agrarian Kitchen
It’s time we all woke up and really started investing in our seas, to see where our seafood comes from and how it is farmed or caught! People buy the best premium farmed grass fed organic ethically raised beef , pork , sheep why not fish.
Simon FurleyChef, Embers Wood Fire Dining
We have never used farmed salmon or ocean trout at McHugos. The industry has outgrown what may have had potential to be a well managed resource. Failure to protect the environment is my primary concern. The arguments regarding these products being a sustainable source of protein to feed the world need to be reevaluated, there needs to be more accountability for impacts on wild fish populations and the waterways used for recreation.
Tom WestcottChef and Owner at Tom McHugo's, Hobart
I actively boycott all Tasmanian farmed salmon and ocean trout. These ‘frankenfish’ are inhumanly farmed, have very little nutritional value and are having a devastating and irreversible impact on many of lutruwita’s marine ecosystems. The scale is already unsustainable and set to grow exponentially.
Adam JamesRough Rice, Nipaluna
We have refused to use farmed salmon or ocean trout for the last ten years.
Martino CrippsOsteria Petty Sessions
There is nothing sustainable about the exploitation of any product, especially knowing that the farming of said product is destroying the environment it’s farmed in. The only salmon served at Vanbone restaurant is cocky/australian a wonderfully sustainable school fish which in my option is a wonderful eating fish if treated correctly.
Tim HardyChef, Van Bone, Tasmania
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“I discovered that an industry parading as clean, green and healthy is in so many ways the exact opposite; that it’s claims of world’s best practice and high environment standards are no more than slick marketing to hide a legacy of environmental destruction, bullying, grossly-inadequate regulation and questionable political influence, in service of producing a highly-artificial but profitable protein.”
Richard Flanagan
Richard FlanaganAuthor of Toxic
Eating Atlantic salmon from open net salmon farms is the wrong choice for our health and the health of our environment. Responsible consumers should avoid these inhumanely, unsustainably raised fish.
Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins
Douglas Frantz and Catherine CollinsAuthors of Salmon Wars
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Time is up for global industrial salmon marine feedlots

Worldwide, communities are rejecting an arrogant, unsustainable and polluting industry wreaking havoc on ecosystems.

It’s time to end it in Tasmania

What can you do?

NOFF (Neighbours of Fish Farming)

ABN 473 096 904 52
Tasmanian Incorporated Association Number IA11921

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Australian version adapted by Halcyon Daze

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