{"id":13885,"date":"2026-05-19T01:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13885\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:53:13","slug":"shallow-burials-landfill-where-tonnes-of-tasmanias-dead-salmon-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13885\/","title":{"rendered":"Shallow burials, landfill: Where tonnes of Tasmania’s dead salmon went"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a waste crisis that Tasmania hadn’t planned for: too many dead fish.<\/p>\n

In early 2025, farmed Atlantic salmon were dying from a bacterial disease at such a high rate that it had exceeded the state’s capacity to deal with them.<\/p>\n

WARNING: This story contains images of dead animals.<\/p>\n

Regulators were having to approve emergency solutions \u2014 documents released under right-to-information provisions show \u2014 and there was a sense of frustration, including from chief veterinary officer Kevin de Witte:<\/p>\n

“I look forward to the day when we can have a government [and] industry discussion exercise on the issue of emergency mortality disposal.”<\/p>\n

Before that discussion could happen, the waste contractors, local councils and the state’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) had a worsening backlog to deal with.<\/p>\n

\"Dead<\/p>\n

The mortality event, caused by a bacterial disease, peaked in February 2025 in salmon pens in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel south of Hobart. (Supplied: Bob Brown Foundation)<\/p>\n

There was one major problem, however: the EPA was unsure of where all the dead fish \u2014 or ‘morts’ \u2014 were ending up.<\/p>\n

A broad email was sent out, titled: “Salmon \u2014 chasing the trail of mortalities”.<\/p>\n

“Questions are coming \u2026 around exactly where these morts are going,” the EPA’s environmental regulation director wrote.<\/p>\n

“We’re starting to try to get a feel for where all these mortalities have gone, and where there are gaps.”<\/p>\n

Some of these “gaps” were identified over the course of the next few weeks, including pressure on processors, compliance issues, and how some fish were being “disposed of”.<\/p>\n

‘Lumpy’ landspreading a sign of pressure<\/p>\n

More than 3,000 tonnes of salmon died at salmon producer Huon’s sites in one month during the mass mortality event.<\/p>\n

Almost three-quarters of this was processed through an ensiler \u2014 machinery that breaks fish down \u2014 to create material for landspreading at several properties near Oatlands in the state’s midlands, a form of fertiliser intended to improve farm yields.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Oatlands is an agricultural area in Tasmania’s southern midlands. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Keeping track of this largely fell to Southern Midlands Council environmental manager Grant Finn, who estimated that about three months’ worth of fish was processed in just two weeks.<\/p>\n

During his checks, he noticed the material was being spread on a new piece of land, writing:<\/p>\n

“The odour is something else.”<\/p>\n

It was deemed to be unauthorised, and the operator \u2014 Spectran \u2014 was later fined $2,020.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fish pieces were clear to see in the landspreading material, indicating a rushed process, the EPA says. (Supplied: Environment Protection Authority)<\/p>\n

“The \u2026 material was sourced from another facility, so, in short, it wasn’t Spectran’s own,” Mr Finn said.<\/p>\n

“The particle size was significantly larger than what had previously been received, which indicates a shortened process given their increased mortality rates.”<\/p>\n

Mr Finn visited the site with the EPA and Biosecurity Tasmania, finding multiple issues.<\/p>\n

An EPA file note stated that the material was spread within metres of a temporary watercourse.<\/p>\n

“The lumpiness of the landspreading material may reflect that the ensiler is not processing the fish waste sufficiently,” it reads.<\/p>\n

“It is preferable that the ensiler processes the fish in four hours. However, due to pressures of the fish kills, they had reduced this to two hours.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A pit of salmon mortalities at a property near Oatlands, prior to being processed. (Supplied: Environment Protection Authority)<\/p>\n

There were other concerns, including a fish pit with “spillage along the edge”.<\/p>\n

A Spectran spokesperson said improvements to processes have since been made, and the company was having to handle a significant amount of waste during the period.<\/p>\n

Guidelines for salmon material lacking<\/p>\n

The issue at the property pointed to a larger issue facing councils and regulators, according to Southern Midlands mayor Edwin Batt.<\/p>\n

He said that, unlike other forms of waste, there are no set guidelines for landspreading fish material.<\/p>\n

“You’d get a better outcome if there was an approved management monitoring of this, which mapped out precisely what the requirements were and applied some science around those requirements,” Cr Batt said.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Southern Midlands mayor Edwin Batt says there’s still a lot of unknowns about how to deal with salmon waste material. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

Landspreading has increasingly become the chosen method to respond to seasonal mortality peaks, as a method of replacing the use of synthetic fertiliser.<\/p>\n

The council is satisfied with how third parties, such as Spectran, are responding to the demand, and that issues from the mass mortality have been dealt with.<\/p>\n

But Cr Batt said there were concerns that salmon companies were shifting the risk.<\/p>\n

“The responsibility for the salmon, the morts, finishes for the farm once they’re in the trucks,” he said.<\/p>\n

An EPA spokesperson said they are working with councils to support them in regulating landspreading.<\/p>\n

Spectran said it had developed its own guidelines in consultation with the EPA, councils and Biosecurity Tasmania, similar to guidelines for biosolids.<\/p>\n

The company landspread 16,200 tonnes of material during the mortality event, up from its average of 7,200 tonnes.<\/p>\n

Shallow burials to clear ‘backlog’<\/p>\n

By the end of February 2025, salmon producer Tassal’s processes appeared to have reached capacity.<\/p>\n

Its rendering site at Triabunna had been processing 90 tonnes of dead fish per day, attempting to generate reusable products.<\/p>\n

The ensiler was no longer operating because there were not enough tanker trucks to transport it.<\/p>\n

\"Dead<\/p>\n

Dead salmon floating in a pen in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel during the mortality event. (Supplied: Bob Brown Foundation)<\/p>\n

Landfill at Copping, east of Hobart, could take no more because the trench was “full”, EPA documents show, and 315 tonnes of dead fish went to landfill.<\/p>\n

Tassal contacted the EPA for approval for several shallow burials of the fish on fields near Sorell. It involved digging a shallow trench, laying down sawdust, then the fish and then woodchips.<\/p>\n

“These shallow burial properties could cover their 250 tonne backlog,” an EPA email reads.<\/p>\n

That appeared to ease the immediate pressure, but in another part of the state, the use of a shallow burial for Huon’s waste was heavily questioned.<\/p>\n

Odour made neighbour’s property ‘unliveable’<\/p>\n

The EPA visited a property near Ouse in the central highlands in late March, where 491 tonnes of Huon salmon had been placed in shallow burials.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A trial of salmon shallow burial near Ouse in 2020, used to guide further burials. (Supplied: Environment Protection Authority)<\/p>\n

They struggled to find approvals and described an earlier environmental protection notice as “very badly written”.<\/p>\n

There were other issues, as discussed in an EPA file note.<\/p>\n

“At the first mount an odour was detected approximately five metres from the mound,” it reads.<\/p>\n

“In my view, the case for beneficial reuse is very questionable and looks more like disposal.”<\/p>\n

Despite this, the EPA later said that “100 per cent of salmon mortality waste [was] beneficially reused” for March 2025.<\/p>\n

That statement has since been removed from the EPA website.<\/p>\n

\"Dirt<\/p>\n

The site of a shallow burial of salmon on a property near Ouse in central Tasmania. (Supplied: Environment Protection Authority)<\/p>\n

The shallow burial had also resulted in a complaint from the neighbour.<\/p>\n

“There were offensive odours for at least two weeks that made their house unliveable,” an EPA note reads.<\/p>\n

“Burial that has occurred on the northern slope has a high potential to cause runoff to waterways that feed his farm.<\/p>\n

“No one contacted him prior to disposal, as required in the environment protection notice.”<\/p>\n

The use of shallow burial has almost entirely ceased in Tasmania.<\/p>\n

\"Fish<\/p>\n

Shallow burials continued to be used up until last summer. (Supplied: Environment Protection Authority)<\/p>\n

More processing capacity, but more deaths likely<\/p>\n

In assessing the mass mortality event, the EPA found that the scale of the deaths had exceeded Tasmania’s mortality retrieval systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 5 per cent of the mortality waste went to landfill.<\/p>\n

The three major salmon producers \u2014 Huon, Tassal and Petuna \u2014 were required to write new waste management plans.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Salmon in bins, prior to being processed or disposed of during the mortality event. (Supplied: Bob Brown Foundation)<\/p>\n

Huon’s plan points out that the Tassal rendering site at Triabunna remains the first destination, but that it has “limited capacity”.<\/p>\n

After that, it must ensile its own dead fish material to then be spread at several properties in the midlands and highlands.<\/p>\n

Expanding the composting facility at Copping was also identified as a solution.<\/p>\n

\"Waste<\/p>\n

Salmon companies support the expansion of composting facilities at Copping. (Supplied: Southern Waste Solutions)<\/p>\n

Huon is spending $2.1 million to improve its ensilage capacity and to have additional tanker capacity.<\/p>\n

It has the capacity to handle a scenario where 50 per cent of its fish in a lease die over an eight-week period.<\/p>\n

But it has modelled worse potential disease outbreaks \u2014 such as infectious salmon anaemia virus \u2014 which would see a significantly larger amount of fish die compared with the recent bacterial disease, again overwhelming the waste system.<\/p>\n

More mass mortalities could occur<\/p>\n

The documents were obtained by the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF) under right-to-information legislation.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Alistair Allan from the Bob Brown Foundation says it will be difficult to avoid further mass mortality events in the salmon industry. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)<\/p>\n

BBF marine campaigner Alistair Allan said the lack of planning for the mass mortality was concerning.<\/p>\n

“You have senior members of the government saying, ‘we wish we had a plan with how to deal with this properly’,” he said.<\/p>\n

“All evidence suggests it will happen again.<\/p>\n

“But even this summer where it wasn’t as catastrophic, we still had over a million fish die, and that’s with antibiotics being used and cooler water temperatures.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a waste crisis that Tasmania hadn’t planned for: too many dead fish. In early 2025, farmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14278,14282,22,21,14283,14277,3683,14279,4824,10945,14276,14281,14275,5951,5247,14280,9943],"class_list":["post-13885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-aquaculture","tag-atlantic-salmon","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-biosecurity-tasmania","tag-burial","tag-environment","tag-environment-protection-authority","tag-huon","tag-management","tag-mortalities","tag-petuna","tag-salmon","tag-tas","tag-tasmania","tag-tassal","tag-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}