Environment groups have called on the federal government to rule out the use of explosives and guns loaded with “bean bag” rounds to scare seals at a proposed salmon farming trial in commonwealth waters off the north-west coast of Tasmania.
Under Tasmanian laws, the companies are allowed to use underwater explosives, known as “seal crackers”, to deter predators at farms in state waters. Other authorised measures include shooting seals with fabric coated plastic shells containing lead shot, known as bean bag rounds and darts with blunt tips known as “scare caps”. Official documents show some seals have been killed.
Conservationists expressed alarm that the federal government may allow similar measures during a three-year trial in commonwealth waters to be overseen by the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), a government-funded not-for-profit company that lists the salmon companies Tassal, Petuna and Huon Aquaculture as partners.
Seals in commonwealth waters are protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. It is an offence to kill, injure or move them without a permit.
“The minister for environment must ban all cruel seal deterrents,” said Bec Howarth, a fish farm and marine campaigner with the Bob Brown Foundation. The foundation opposes the trial, describing it as a “sea grab”.
The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, referred questions about the use of explosives and other deterrents in the offshore trial to the assistant minister for forestry and fisheries, Tasmanian senator Jonathan Duniam. Duniam said the offshore salmon farming operation was still being planned.
“Should that process identify a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance under the [EPBC] Act it would be referred through the appropriate channel,” he said.
After the passage of amendments to fisheries legislation through the Tasmanian parliament two weeks ago, the state government is seeking federal approval to allow it to grant and manage permits in commonwealth waters adjacent to Tasmania.
Under a September 2021 memorandum of understanding (MOU), the Tasmanian and federal governments agreed to amend state and commonwealth legislation to facilitate the development of an offshore industry.
Tasmania’s minister for primary industries and water, Guy Barnett, did not rule out the use of underwater explosives and other deterrents in the trial.
“Animal welfare has always been and will remain very important,” Barnett said. “There is a seal management framework already in place and animal welfare guidelines must be complied with.”
Documents provided to Environment Tasmania last year under the Right to Information Act revealed that in the three years to the end of January 2021, the three salmon companies had used underwater explosives 75,339 times to scare seals away from fish farm operations.
The documents also revealed severe injuries and deaths of seals at or near fish farms.
In a separate document, the department estimated there had been 70 seal deaths at salmon farms between January 2018 and May 2021. In may cases the cause was unknown but entanglement in netting was the most common factor identified.
In one document released under RTI and reported by the ABC, a wildlife biologist from the state environment and primary industries department wrote that salmon company estimates of seal deaths due to the use of approved deterrents were “probably a large underestimate”.
Deterrent devices were the primary cause of several seal deaths.
The Tasmanian government has refused to ban the shooting of seals and the use of underwater explosives but in some cases the salmon companies have sought to reduce their reliance on the practices.
Huon Aquaculture has not used seal crackers or bean bag rounds since August 2018, but continues to use scare caps. In response to detailed questions it pointed to the information on its website about wildlife deaths.
Tassal’s senior manager for responsible business, Angela Williamson, said the company had spent $90m on “world leading exclusion infrastructure”, and as a result its use of bean bag rounds and seal crackers had dropped by 80% and 90% respectively in the 2021 financial year. The company stopped using scare caps in 2020.
“We have designated wildlife officers on sites that support the monitoring and mitigation of wildlife interactions,” Williamson said. “Our deterrent users are trained, abide by our wildlife policies, and adhere to our regulatory and internal reporting systems.”
The company did not respond to a request for the number of seal crackers and bean bag rounds used.
Petuna says on its website that it uses deterrents against seals. It did not respond to a question about what specific measures it uses.
Jilly Middleton, a marine campaigner for Environment Tasmania, said she was “deeply concerned” that allowing the use of existing measures against seals offshore “would likely lead to an increase in animal welfare breaches”.
“The salmon industry needs independent observers and real-time, whole-farm footage going to a regulator who’ll actually regulate, whether it’s near-shore or not,” Middleton said.
Right-to-Information advocate Rick Snell, an honorary associate professor in law at the University of Tasmania, said he was concerned the MOU between the governments did little to ensure public transparency. One clause says the state and federal governments will not make any public statement about “details of activities undertaken” unless both parties agreed in writing. An exception is if one of the parties is legally required to disclose information.
“Unfortunately, it does place a pro-secrecy frame or response attitude over the activities of the parties in this area,” Snell said.
This article was republished with permission from the Tasmanian Inquirer.