Happy Monday! Have you learned anything spicy this fine day? Because today I discovered the Tasmanian salmon industry throws anti-seal explosives and bean bag rounds at the gorgeous beasts to spook them away.
Yes, you read that correctly: anti-seal explosives, which are also known as “seal crackers”. TBH I don’t know which one is worse, but for someone whose knowledge of fishing extends to catching carp in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, consider me absolutely shook.
But despite sounding like some sort of cruel torture device designed by Sid Phillips (the child toy abuser) in Toy Story, the explosives are actually sort of well-intentioned.
They’re meant to scare seals away by making a loud noise and emitting a flash of light, so the furry folk don’t swim into the pens that catch the salmon.
If I were a big, beautiful seal, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’d be swimming into a cube filled to the brim with fish so really, can you blame them? Since when was a neatly contained seafood feast a crime?
Per The Guardian, Department of Natural Resources and Environment data (shared under Right to Information laws) showed Tassal, Huon Aquaculture and Petuna used more than 15,200 explosives against seals between January 2021 to June 2022. A truly astonishing figure, if you ask me.
Sadly though, the explosives have killed 25 seals within that 18-month period. Please join me in weeping over this statistic.
Bean bag rounds are also used to frighten the stunning slippery sirens. They’re not the classic, rinky-dink bean bags that were a staple in every primary school classroom, but rather fabric-coated plastic shells that contain a non-lethal lead shot. In all honesty, they sound utterly barbaric.
Tassal is the only salmon producer that uses the method, having fired more than 270 bean bag rounds at seals from January 2021 to June 2022.
Neighbours of Fish Farming’s Jessica Coughlan told The Guardian the practice should be banned.
“In Tasmania, two out of three companies don’t use bean bag rounds, so there is no reason we shouldn’t outlaw the practice here.”
Earlier this year, the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania put forward a review of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s seal deterrent framework in a report. In response, the government said it planned to replace the framework by introducing new aquaculture standards that were less harmful.
Fingers crossed a more humane solution that doesn’t include explosives or firing non-lethal ammunition is implemented.
