Newly released undercover footage has revealed severe animal cruelty in a Cooke Aquaculture facility in Maine, USA. The footage shows fish being beaten, asphyxiated and covered in infection. Cooke Aquaculture is the parent company of Tasmania factory fish farm company Tassal.
Tassal is no stranger to animal cruelty, having previously faced criticism after thousands of bean bag rounds and underwater explosive ‘seal crackers’ were used against native seals in Tasmanian waters, with documented cases of seals suffering severe injuries and deaths.
Bob Brown Foundation is calling on global certification scheme Best Aquaculture Practice ( BAP ) to immediately decertify all Cooke Aquaculture operations globally, including Tassal.
“Cooke Aquaculture who owns Tassal, was kicked out of Washington State, USA due to the environmental impacts they caused there. Now new footage, yet again, shows awful animal abuse in their facilities. This very same company is now in Tasmania’s waters shooting native seals with riot control rounds all while being certified by supposedly Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP). It’s a disgrace,” said Alistair Allan, Antarctic and Marine Campaigner at Bob Brown Foundation.
“Despite the inherent cruelty of jamming tens of thousands of salmon together in cramped cages, and the fact that Tassal still shoots and in some cases kills native seals, it somehow remains certified by both BAP and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). ASC even issued an exemption to Tassal over its use of seal crackers despite having a supposed ‘zero tolerance’ policy on their use.”
“If you are buying factory farmed salmon then all this cruelty and environmental damage is being smoke screened from your view by these certifications. It’s time for both BAP and ASC to stop certifying Tassal and Cooke Aquaculture.”
“The fact that both Federal Labor and the Tasmanian Liberals were so willing to let a company with such a bad record come and run their cruel and polluting operations in Tasmania is outrageous. It’s time for fish farms to be shut down,” said Alistair Allan.
Guardian article:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/14/seafood-company-abuse-claims-fish-farming
NGO investigation into Cooke Aquaculture:
Photo from Animal Outlook.
