Aquaculture giant Tassal has confirmed 30,000 fish died at the company’s new Okehampton Bay site on the East Coast.
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The company attributed the incident to human error rather than environmental factors. The fish represented roughly 3 per cent of Tassal’s Okehampton Bay stock.
A Tassal spokesperson said the fish were juvenile and their deaths were caused by a single employee.
“There was a minor, one-off mortality issue … just before Christmas during a standard bathing operation as a result of human error that was resolved immediately,” the spokesperson said.
“Survival after this issue is still tracking better than the forecast 83 per cent survival rate.”
Environment Tasmania condemned the incident, saying it showed the site was “an incredibly stupid place for an industrial salmon farm”.
