Salmon industry critics claim diseased salmon wiped out by a recent bacteria could be making their way to supermarket shelves. It comes as a 2014 Huon Aquaculture protocol surfaces which directed workers, in the event of mass deaths, to recover as many fish as possible for harvest and processing. The salmon industry says it only harvests live fish for human consumption, but will not say if diseased ones are. Authorities say the bacterial strain in the fish does not pose a human health or food safety risk.
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00:00The salmon industry processes thousands of tonnes of fish every year.
00:07Now critics claim customers should be concerned about what's on the shelves.
00:12What they're now consuming is diseased Tasmanian farmed salmon.
00:18A bacterial outbreak has wiped out at least 5,500 tonnes of fish in the state's south east over the past month.
00:26Opponents claim dead and diseased salmon are still being processed.
00:31That's partly based on Huon Aquaculture's 2014 Standard Operating Procedure.
00:36Which says that in any large mortality event as many fish as possible should be recovered for harvest and processing.
00:43And that any fish in which the gills can still bleed is potentially recoverable.
00:49Huon says the documents are outdated.
00:52However it would not provide the ABC its current procedure.
00:56And I do not accept that these are historic documents and are no longer valid.
01:02Because they are entirely consistent with what whistleblowers are telling us today.
01:08Salmon Tasmania declined an interview but said in a statement the industry only harvests live fish for human consumption.
01:16It did not respond to questions about whether diseased fish are sent to the market.
01:20But scientists say there's nothing to worry about.
01:23There's no evidence that it causes disease in humans.
01:26So I mean it's obviously quite toxic, it's quite nasty to fish.
01:29But in humans it doesn't seem to have any effect.
01:31As anger bubbles over in the south, the federal opposition has confirmed it'll support the Albanese government's amendments
01:38to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
01:42Ensuring the future of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.
01:46We've absolutely, we've proposed it.
01:48We've been months and months and months ahead of the game in relation to the salmon industry.
01:53We have stood with the salmon industry, with workers.
01:56The support coming before details of what the legislation will do.
02:00We can have strong environmental regulation and controls.
02:04And we can also have an industry that supports regional jobs and regional towns.
02:10With the Liberal's support, the legislation will sail through Parliament.