RSPCA silent on salmon endorsement

RSPCA Australia refuses to detail what financial benefit it receives from endorsing Huon Aquaculture.

A Huon Aquaculture fish pen moored at its Yellow Bluff lease in Storm Bay. Picture: Huon Aquaculture

The RSPCA is refusing to detail what financial benefit it receives from endorsing Huon Aquaculture, one of the country‘s largest salmon farm operations, despite providing contradictory explanations about the payments.

The Australian reported on Friday that WWF Australia had privately conceded the Tasmanian farmed salmon industry was not environmentally sustainable, despite the charity’s long support for Huon’s rival Tassal.

WWF Australia, which ended its deal with Tassal in 2018, also concluded certification schemes used by the salmon operations did not actually prevent harm.

The RSPCA, which has raised more than $7.7m in revenues from a scheme allowing companies to label their products RSPCA-approved in the past five years, has declined to outline payments it has received from Huon.

In 2018, the charity’s then-chief executive Heather Neil said the organisation would receive a licensing fee dependent “on the amount of fish that is sold”.

Sources who had discussed the payments with the charity, however, said that one official had said the company paid $4000 per audit, or about $72,000 a year based on 18 inspections.

Despite the RSPCA’s endorsement – and the lapsed approval of WWF Australia – environmentalists have significant concerns about the farmed salmon industry, which has grown in the past decade to produce more than 65,000 tonnes of fish a year.

Prominent Sydney businessman Geoffrey Cousins said the RSPCA’s chief executive, Richard Mussell, had later told him it was actually a fixed – undisclosed – licensing fee.

More than one million farmed salmon have died from oxygen depletion and disease over a 10-year period, while monitoring shows the local ecology has been poorly affected.

Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said the RSPCA’s good name was “being used by Huon Aquaculture to cover a multitude of sins”.

“For example, the faecal pollution from industrial fish farming is impacting the marine ecosystems and that means a range of native fish and other ­species,” Dr Brown said.

Mr Cousins, part of a high-profile group concerned about the impact of salmon farming in Tasmania, said the endorsement ran contrary to the RSPCA’s charitable status and commitment to fight animal cruelty.

“There are really now a number of conflicting stories and they are not being transparent,” Mr Cousins said. “As a charity, commercial-in-confidence arrangements are not appropriate.”

As the former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Mr Cousins said he did not believe the RSPCA should be ­endorsing fish farming, which has seen mass fish deaths, localised pollution and disease, and fatal wildlife interactions. “It’s a bit like me putting the ACF brand on a coalmine,” he said.

The RSPCA did not respond to requests for comment.

Huon, which is the target of a takeover bid from Brazilian beef processor JBS, said the licensing fee with the RSPCA covered only the “costs of ongoing audits, ­management and promotion of RSPCA Approval”.

“The RSPCA subjects Huon Aquaculture to rigorous and ongoing assessment to ensure it is meeting the highest animal welfare standards,” a Huon spokeswoman said.

“RSPCA conducts scheduled and unscheduled assessments at Huon farms throughout the salmon breeding cycle. As well, salmon harvests are recorded by CCTV and can be reviewed anytime at the request of the RSPCA.”

Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association spokesman Julian Amos said accreditation schemes were “rigorous” and the industry environmentally sustainable.

“The industry produces healthy food for millions of Australians while providing highly skilled jobs in a well-regulated, Tasmanian industry,” he said.