Salmon farmer Huon Aquaculture slams accreditation scheme

Huon Aquaculture says the accreditation scheme that underpins much of salmon farming’s environmental credentials does not operate properly.

An indoor tank at Huon Aquaculture. Picture: Robert Heazlewood

Huon Aquaculture, one of the country’s largest salmon producers, says the accreditation scheme that underpins much of the industry’s environmental credentials does not operate properly.

The company, which is in the midst of a takeover battle between Brazilian meat processor JBS and billionaire Andrew Forrest, told The Australian that the program – an Aquaculture Stewardship Council certification – suffered from a “lack of third-party rigour in their auditing process”.

It is the second attack on the ASC program, which certifies the environmental credentials of many of Tasmania’s salmon farming operations, in under a week.

WWF Australia last week released a report which found the program did not stop “adverse environmental outcomes”.

The Australian has also reported that WWF Australia chief executive Dermot O’Gorman had privately admitted Tasmania’s entire salmon industry was not environmentally sustainable.

Huon and its main competitor, the ASX-listed Tassal, have used ASC endorsements – and those from WWF Australia and the RSPCA – to ease concerns about the environmental impact of farming salmon when marketing their products to consumers.

Huon quit the ASC program in 2019 and switched to the RSPCA while Tassal continues to use the accreditation scheme.

Salmon farming, particularly in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour – partly ­located in a World Heritage Area – has been blamed for massive fish deaths, oxygen depletion in the water and bacterial mats.

Environmental groups are also concerned the farming operations subject the fish to constant stress from a lack of oxygen and harm seals through the use of deterrence technologies that include deploying underwater explosives.

The endorsements and accreditation from the RSPCA and WWF Australia are accompanied by undisclosed payments from the salmon farming companies.

The Australian has confirmed that the ASC allows companies it is accrediting to pick – and pay for – the firm which will inspect its compliance, an arrangement that the organisation admits “potentially” creates a conflict of interest.

“That’s why we have all these checks and balances in place,” said Duncan Leadbitter, who represents the ASC in Australia.

“The draft audit is in the public arena for public comment so people can see what information the auditors has taken account of,” Mr Leadbitter said on Monday.

“The auditor has to demonstrate they have taken on the public comments, and if there are still people who are unhappy about that they can object to the certificate being issued.”

Mr Leadbitter said he was “perplexed” by criticisms from Huon and from WWF Australia. “If they’d sent that submission in to us and said, ‘hey, we’ve seen all of these issues down there and we’d like to have a conversation with you’ … that would be welcome at any time,” he said of the charity’s review, which specifically examined certification of farms in the Macquarie Harbour, the site of a mass fish kill in 2018.

The ASC recertified Tassal’s Macquarie Harbour operations in September 2017, despite earlier that year finding the major noncompliance in the company’s salmon farming in the area.

Tassal and another local producer, Petuna Seafoods, later decided against continuing with the certification, Mr Leadbitter said.

On Monday, a Huon spokesman said the company had “opted to discontinue ASC accreditation due to the lack of third-party rigour in their auditing process”.

“During its time within the ASC accreditation system, Huon did not select the auditors but ­covered the cost of audits, which is standard practice for certification,” the spokesman said.

“Huon does not run its operations in the same manner as other salmon producers … The company is proud of its environmental, farming and safety record, which reflects the company’s decades of experience in the industry and the commitment of its workforce to maintain the highest standards.”

Mr Leadbitter said he disputed that characterisation, and the companies being audited were required to source the inspectors.

Richard Flanagan, the Booker Prize-winning novelist who most recently published an investigation into the salmon industry, last week said that “highly destructive practices” had prevailed as the ­sector had rapidly expanded.

“A sea-based salmon farm is a floating sewage works – except the sewage is left to pour raw and untreated into our oceans,” he said.

“Just the industry’s … Storm Bay development alone will see the nutrient pollution equivalent to building a city of three million on the shore of Bruny Island and have it spew its raw waste into that beautiful waterway.”