Thousands of dead salmon at Oakhampton Bay fish farms
13/12/2023
Activists have captured footage of thousands of dead salmon being pumped out of Tassal's Okehampton Bay industrial fish farms. Also seen on the surface were rotting dead fish, partially eaten fish and algae. With a marine heatwave warning currently issued for the East Coast of Tasmania this may be the cause of the die-off.
With a tip-off that Tassal have been pumping dead fish for days, it is unknown whether they have reported this die-off event to the Environmental Protection Agency.
"This industrial farm at Okehampton bay should have never been allowed to go ahead, and with waters only going to get warmer in the future, it needs to be permanently shut down, " said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine Campaigner at Bob Brown Foundation.
"Die-offs like this are simply unheard of in any other form of agriculture. It is simply not acceptable to have so many fish, crammed together in pens, and dying en masse"
"As climate change accelerates and Tasmania's waters get warmer and warmer, this is going to become a constant issue. This is not just a problem for these east coast industrial fish farms, it is exactly the kind of thing scientists are warning about occurring in Macquarie Harbour, where a hot summer could be enough to push the Maugean Skate to extinction."
"The harrowing images show not only rotting dead fish on the surface but also thousands and thousands of fish crammed into these pens with algae everywhere. This is the reality of farmed salmon – it's not clean and green, it's intensive factory farming in our once pristine waters," said Alistair Allan.