RSPCA Australia has revoked its accreditation of Tasmanian salmon company Huon after the release of a video that it said showed the inhumane handling of live fish.
The withdrawal follows an initial 14-day suspension after the Bob Brown Foundation published drone video that showed writhing live salmon being siphoned into a tub containing dead fish.
The fish were killed by a major disease outbreak at south-eastern Tasmanian fish farms earlier this month. In the video, the tub was then sealed.
Huon Aquaculture said it was “extremely disappointed” about the RSPCA decision after a “single incident of non-compliance” during an “unprecedented, challenging period”.
The RSPCA’s chief executive, Richard Mussell, said no Tasmanian salmon companies were certified as meeting the RSPCA-approved standard after the decision.
“While we acknowledge this was a single incident following many years of certification, the decision to withdraw a certification reflects how seriously we take incidents like this that compromise animal welfare,” he said.
“Fish, including those farmed for human consumption, are sentient beings and, like other animals, can experience pain and suffering. When they’re farmed for food, the welfare of fish must be front of mind.”
The announcement adds to the pressure on the state’s salmon industry after a month in which more than 1 million salmon died during an outbreak of an endemic bacterium, Piscirickettsia salmonis.
More than 5,500 tonnes of fish were dumped at landfill and rendering plants in February. Fatty chunks of fish have washed up on beaches in the Huon Valley and on Bruny Island in February and March, prompting public protests.
The industry is also at the centre of a political storm over Anthony Albanese’s plan to rush through legislation next week to protect salmon farming in Macquarie harbour, on the state’s west coast, from a legal challenge over its impact on the Maugean skate, an endangered fish species.
Mussell said salmon was one of the most intensively farmed animals and it was “important that we can demonstrate the measures needed to ensure their welfare is considered”.
Huon’s general manager of stakeholder and government relations, Hannah Gray, said the company acknowledged the seriousness of the “extremely distressing” incident and that it had put steps in place to ensure contractors upheld “high animal welfare standards”.
She said Huon had been farming “to a standard of animal welfare that no other Australian salmon farming company has been able to achieve” for the past seven years. “We will continue to farm to this standard,” she said.
Bob Brown Foundation campaigner Alistair Allan said the RSPCA decision was “the correct one” and that the drone video showed the “grim reality of factory-farmed Tasmanian salmon”.
Allan said the incident showed Albanese’s support of salmon farming was “out of touch”. “He needs to walk back his support of the industry,” he said.
The federal Coalition and the Australian Greens wrote to Albanese on Thursday asking to see the legislation to change national environmental law to protect the industry in Macquarie harbour that will go before parliament on Tuesday.
Albanese said “people will see the legislation next week”. “We’ll be introducing it and we expect it to be carried,” he said.
It is expected the bill will be designed to abruptly end a long-running legal review by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, into whether an expansion of the salmon industry in the harbour in 2012 was properly approved.
• This article and headline were amended on 20 March 2025. An earlier version misspelled RSPCA.
