More than a million salmon dumped after ‘unprecedented’ mass mortality at Tasmanian fish farms
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At least 1 million salmon died at Tasmanian fish farms and were dumped at landfill sites and rendering plants in February in what authorities and the industry described as an “unprecedented” mass death triggered by a bacterium outbreak.

The revelation that waste facilities in Tasmania’s south received more than 5,500 tonnes of dead salmon last month – equivalent to about 1.07 million full-grown Atlantic salmon, or 8% of total annual production in the state – followed weeks of reports of fatty chunks of fish washing up on beaches in the Huon Valley and on Bruny Island.

The figures do not include the number of salmon that died from the outbreak in earlier months.

Fresh questions about the treatment of salmon were raised on Thursday when environment organisation the Bob Brown Foundation released drone footage from above a salmon farm appearing to show workers pumping writhing live salmon into a tub carrying dead fish and then sealing it. It sparked accusations of cruelty and calls for the RSPCA to stop  Huon Aquaculture.

On Saturday the RSPCA  it had suspended certification for 14 days while it investigated further, saying the “inhumane handling of live, sick or injured fish as shown in the video being circulated is completely unacceptable”.

The acting chief executive of the state Environment Protection Authority (EPA), Cindy Ong, told ABC radio the mass mortality was “the largest event we have ever seen” and “not quite past the peak yet”.

The figures do not include the number of salmon that died from the outbreak in earlier months.

Fresh questions about the treatment of salmon were raised on Thursday when environment organisation the Bob Brown Foundation released drone footage from above a salmon farm appearing to show workers pumping writhing live salmon into a tub carrying dead fish and then sealing it. It sparked accusations of cruelty and calls for the RSPCA to stop  Huon Aquaculture.

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