More than 20,000 tonnes of fish died prematurely in Tasmania last year
Tasmania’s salmon farmers reported mortalities amounting to more than 20,000 tonnes of fish last year, figures from the Australian state’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA Tasmania) show.
Production figures for the 2025 calendar year aren’t available, but to put that mortality volume into perspective, the Tasmanian salmon sector produced nearly 68,000 gutted weight tonnes in the 2024-25 financial year.
According to EPA Tasmania, the 2025 mortalities were disposed of by rendering (8,403 tonnes), composting (1,666 tonnes), and ensiling / land spread (8,829 tonnes).
Difficult summers
More than half of the deaths occurred in January to March – the summer – with 6,300 tonnes of fish dying in February, the worst month for mortality, as the sector struggled with disease caused by Piscirickettsia salmonis. Mortality then steadily lessened to a low of 405 tonnes on September, before again following an upward curve to reach 1,250 tonnes in December.
The Tasmanian Inquirer yesterday reported that the EPA has disclosed that Tassal, owned by Canadian seafood company Cooke, has started feeding pellets coated with the antibiotic Florfenicol to salmon at its Great Taylors Bay 2 lease near the south-western tip of Bruny Island. The treatment began on Saturday January 24 and will continue until February 2.
The Inquirer added that salmon companies have used Florfenicol on 13 occasions since early November, when it was approved to control disease outbreaks caused by P. salmonis.
