A salmon company is being investigated by a maximum body of animal welfare after a video showed the workers sealing live, counteracting fish in a bathtub.
The footage was taken by The Environmental Group The Bob Brown Foundation on Wednesday in an aquaculture lease contract in the D’Etrectecteaux channel in southern Tasmania.
Salmon farms in the region have experienced high mortality that has largely blamed a bacterial disease.
The video, which shows that the moving salmon is being shaken from a pen and sealed in a bathtub with dead salmon, has caused calls to have Aquaculture loses its RSPCA accreditation.
The company has promised a complete investigation into the matter, telling ABC that the vision does not represent standard operational procedures.
Huon Aquaculture has a certification approved by RSPCA and, according to its website, undertakes to place the health and well -being of fish at the center of agricultural operations.
The RSPCA has described the vision as “incredibly worrying.”
“Inhuman management of living, sick or injured fish as shown is completely unacceptable,” said a spokesman.
“The Certification Corps approved by RSPCA is, as a priority, to look for more information from huon about how something like this could have happened.
“Based on this and any other information provided (we) will consider what action is required in line with our processes.”
The Tasmanian Greens, the Bob Brown Foundation and a community group of anti-Salm Agriculture say that the images question the credentials of animal welfare in the industry.
The Tasmania Environmental Protection Authority recently said that it does not know the exact number of salmon deaths because the industry is not obliged to inform the weight of mortality until later in March.
The leader of the Greens, Rosalie Woodruff, says that credible estimates suggest that millions of fish have died.
The Liberal Prime Minister of Tasmania, Jeremy Rockliff, whose party supports the industry, said that Salmon farms of Parliament are “in warning.”
“I await the greatest possible degree of responsibility and transparency … because it is the interest of the Tasmania brand and the () interest of the industry too,” he said.
“The current salmon mortality event is largely due to endemic bacteria that does not grow in humans and does not present a human or animal food safety risk.
“From an environmental perspective, the critical problem is timely management and the collection of fish waste improved.”
The crop salmon pieces have been washed on beaches in the south of the state in recent weeks.
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