SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2015

across all sites. This program is implemented to avoid and
mitigate fish suffering during farming, transport and slaughter
procedures.
Continued training and education is an important aspect of
our new Zero Harm for Fish program, and Tassal strongly
believes that it will assist in promoting the right culture through
the dissemination of knowledge. To support our program,
training with the assistance of Seafood Training Tasmania was
conducted at our marine sites on the following:
• Finfish husbandry and stress: physiological stressors for fish
and mitigation
• Finfish feeding and nutrition, and
• Disease identification: normal versus abnormal observations.
The Zero Harm program drives continual improvement across
all of our sites and has highlighted the biophysical constraints
of regions and leases, the main causes of mortality in our stock
and allowed us to design potential mitigation strategies.
Sitting underneath the Zero Harm program is our fish health
strategy that outlines our approach to the use of vaccinations,
stocking densities and health surveillance. Smolt are given
vaccinations to protect them from potential disease threats.
In addition, Tassal places restrictions on stocking densities to
reduce the risk of stress on our stock. Due to the unique nature
of several of our farming regions, stocking densities range from
less than 15kg/m 3 to no more than 17kg/m 3 .
We undertake regular checks and health surveillance for
what diseases may be present. Sampling is undertaken on a
monthly basis across all of our leases. Tassal has not isolated
mycobacteria in any of our sampling at Macquarie Harbour.
Fish health professionals are present on each site, and
our Veterinarian undertakes quarterly visits to each site. All
mortalities are classified and recorded for each production
cycle and Tassal is compliant with the OIE Aquatic Animal
Health Code.
Preventative medicine is Tassal’s fish health philosophy,
and our company has a structure vaccination plan for smolt
depending on the inputting site. Fish between two and five
grams are vaccinated by dip vaccine for Yersinia – a bacterial
disease that is endemic to freshwater hatcheries. Fish stock
that are destined for Macquarie Harbour that are 40 grams in
size receive an intraperitoneal vaccine for Vibrio anguillarum
and Aeromonas salmonicida which are both disease agents
present in the Macquarie Harbour region.
Tassal Sustainability Report 2015 59