If you’ve driven down Rothesay Avenue recently, you’ve likely noticed a new billboard calling for an end to the use of explosives in the Australian fishery.
You may have also wondered why someone would pay to target Saint Johners, of all people, with a message about a very specific activity happing very, very far from Saint John.
But while the industry in question might be on the other side of the world, a New Brunswick company will soon have a massive stake in it.
Cooke Aquaculture is on the verge of completing a $1.1-billion takeover of the Australian seafood company Tassal Group Limited. While Cooke will inherit Tassal’s vast business assets, those assets also come with the ire of environmental advocates who are furious with the company.
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Angus Wong is a representative of SumOfUs, the advocacy group behind the Saint John billboard. His group bought the ad to bring awareness to what it calls the “cruel” methods Tassal uses to drive wildlife from its farms.
Seals can be a menace to salmon farms. The predators kill fish and damage equipment, which all eat into company profits. In Tasmania, where Tassal has its salmon farms, operators drop acoustic deterrent devices (often called “seal crackers”) and fire projectiles at seals to keep them away.
These deterrents are effective but can also be quite harmful to marine life. This year, Scotland effectively banned ADDs, comparing them to “sonic torture” for some animals.
‘Seal blood on their hands’
Wong says SumOfUs has been trying to meet with Cooke about Tassal’s use of seal deterrents. It wants Cooke to stop the practice once it takes over the Australian company.
“People don’t want to buy salmon from companies that have seal blood on their hands. Cooke has an opportunity to lead from the front,” Wong says.
He says his group has tried several different ways to reach Cooke but has never heard back. They bought the Saint John billboard to spur conversation about the issue.
“Now it’s in the public that this is the kind of company that Cooke is buying into. We hope that Cooke when they do eventually take over, will stop using these types of seal deterrents,” Wong says.
Huddle reached out to Cooke but no one from the company agreed to an interview. However, Cooke representative Joel Richardson wrote in an email that his company is aware of SumOfUs and its campaign.
“We fully anticipated these fearmongering activists would ramp up their rhetoric and disinformation during the acquisition process of Tassal,” Richardson wrote.
“These groups ignore the fact that farm-raised Atlantic salmon is one of the healthiest and most efficient ways to feed the world’s growing population with a minimal environmental footprint. The aquaculture industry works closely with world-renowned scientists from academia, government, and the private sector to develop rigorous standards and implement best practices for fish health and environmental protection.”
Huddle was unable to identify any clear-cut “disinformation” in SumOfUs’s claims. However, research into ADDs is ongoing and still contains gaps.
Deterrent use dropping, but still frequent
One thing that is clear-cut is how frequently Tassal uses deterrents and how many dead seals have been discovered as a result of Tassal’s operations.
Recent data from the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources shows the use of seal deterrents is falling off in the region but is still quite frequent.
From January 2021 to March 2022, Tassal used so-called “seal crackers” 2,259 times. It also fired 201 projectile “bean bags” at seals over the same period. During that time, five seals died on Tassal leases.
The data doesn’t specify how each animal died, only that the deaths were caused by “an interaction with marine farming activities, operations and infrastructure.” That could mean deterrents, but could also mean things like entanglement, boat strikes, sedation, and human killings.
Cooke’s Joel Richardson did not clarify the exact cause of the seal deaths that happened on Tassal’s lease.
He argued that the company’s projectiles and crackers are “non-lethal and are only used as a last resort to scare away seals.” Between January 2021 and March 2022, Tassal used seal crackers at a rate equivalent to about five times a day.
Murky research
There is some dispute about how severely seal crackers affect or kill animals. Gaps in research make it tough to draw firm conclusions, however, ADDs can be quite harmful to seals and other wildlife.
In Scotland, where Environmental Standards Scotland effectively banned ADDs this year, government officials called the devices “sonic torture.”
Research shows that the devices can cause hearing damage, stress, and can mask other important sounds from seals. The devices also harm and disturb other marine animals like dolphins and whales.
In his email, Richardson pointed out that seal interactions with marine activities have “decreased significantly over the years” in Tasmania.
“This is the reality at Tassal, where the company has invested heavily in exclusion of the seals with fortified sanctuary pens to separate farm workers and the salmon from seals to minimize risk of possible interactions,” he wrote.
‘In accordance with all applicable laws’
With Cooke on the verge of taking full control of Tassal, SumOfUs’ main question remains whether the company will continue Tassal’s deterrent practices.
Richardson wouldn’t say if Cooke will continue Tassal’s use of seal deterrents. However, his answers appear to suggest the company will.
“In our view… Tassal and the Tasmanian salmon farming industry conducts practices in a responsible manner that causes minimal alterations to the surrounding wildlife – by using non-lethal deterrents and limiting interactions through innovative infrastructure design and technology,” he wrote.
“While the acquisition of Tassal has not been completed, we intend to operate the company with the local employees in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
Despite that, Wong says SumOfUs is holding out hope Cooke will stop the practice.
“We’re hopeful. We’re cautiously optimistic that they will do the right thing,” he says.
Trevor Nichols is the editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
