Ticking Timebomb: SAFE Calls For Urgent Action For Salmon Ahead Of Marine Heatwave

SAFE is calling for urgent action to protect vulnerable farmed salmon, ahead of what NIWA has predicted to be a "significant" marine heatwave this summer.

Marine heatwaves can have a devastating impact on marine ecosystems and animals. Without urgent action, millions of intensively farmed salmon across the country will suffer, and hundreds of thousands are expected to die.

SAFE Campaigns Manager Anna de Roo said with the scale of the impending problem, the Government must urgently action a ban on fish farming in New Zealand.

"Salmon are sentient animals, as capable of feeling pain as pigs, cows, or any other animals. They are recognised under the Animal Welfare Act and are owed protection."

In the last marine heatwave, New Zealand King Salmon, Aotearoa’s largest salmon producer, made 160 trips to the landfill to dump 1,269 tonnes of dead salmon. The company is predicting a mortality rate of 38.8% over the next financial year.

"It’s barbaric to allow hundreds of thousands of animals to die of heat stress. Farmed salmon, who would in the wild migrate thousands of kilometres, are trapped in sea cages. They have no way to get themselves to cooler water and safety."

"If cows or pigs were experiencing preventable mortality rates this high, there would be prosecutions. The government must protect salmon’s legal rights and bans fish factory farming - as Argentina did last year.

If not, we’re facing an animal welfare disaster on an incomprehensible scale - especially as climate change worsens conditions for farmed fish," said de Roo.

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