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Seal and cormorants drowned, Tassal’s ASC certification questioned

25/08/2025
Dead seal - Dept of Natural Resources and Environment photo
Dead seal - Dept of Natural Resources and Environment photo

Tassal's ASC accreditation at West of Wedge lease questioned after fifteen cormorants and a seal drowned at a salmon farm in southern Tasmania in June, the Tasmanian Inquirer reports, continuing their history of high quality investigative journalism.

Government records show Tassal staff shot the seal with several sedative-laden darts over a week-long period, after which it was found dead inside the pen.

When Tassal sought approval for the West of Wedge lease in 2018, the company promised that it would deploy "sanctuary pens" that "have proven 100 per cent effective at stopping seals from preying on salmon".

The company, owned by Canadian multinational Cooke Aquaculture, previously reported another seal death in March this year. Since January 2021, 42 seals have died at Tasmanian fish farms and salmon companies have used more than 26,426 underwater explosives against seals.

A week after the seal died, Tassal reported 15 cormorant deaths at the same lease, in a cage which had no bird netting despite the company promising to install it in 2017.

Coles and Woolworths have defended selling Tasmanian salmon on the basis of sustainability assessment schemes accrediting the companies. ASC certifies Tassal's West of Wedge lease. Under this questionable accreditation Tassal must have fewer than nine wildlife deaths on the lease over two years.

"Australia's fur seals are protected by Federal law. It is unclear whether Tasmania's department of Natural Resources and Environment has taken any measures to enforce improvements to prevent this level of wildlife mortality in a primary industry." Says Jess Coughlan, campaigner at Neighbours of Fish Farming.

"Tassal should have its certification revoked by Aquaculture Stewardship Council for its West of Wedge Lease due to the high number of native wildlife being killed in recent months."