December 20, 2009 08:18am
THE State Government has raided a farm and dug up dead seals after = a tip-off that the protected mammals were killed.
Huon Aquaculture, which is near the farm near Dover where the seals were found, denies killing the seals, which it says drowned in the fish farm's = nets years ago.
The salmon farm's chief executive Peter Bender said Parks and Wildlife = staff had arrived unannounced at the farm at Hideaway Bay a few months ago.
He said that without being told where to dig, they unearthed three dead = seals on his father's nearby farm.
"I think they'd been there a long time," Mr Bender said.
"They don't decompose. It's sand.
"Certainly they [the carcasses] would have been seals that have got = tangled up in the net and drifted up on the shore."
The investigators interviewed Mr Bender and some of his staff.
Gary Davies, of Wildlife Management, has confirmed the Parks and Wildlife Department is investigating an allegation seals have been illegally killed. =
"As part of the investigation, a number of carcasses have been recovered," = he said.
"All seals are protected in Tasmania and it an offence to harm them.
"Persons convicted of harming protected wildlife face penalties up to a maximum of $12,000."
Huon Aquaculture is Australia's second-largest atlantic salmon grower and = has been operating for more than 20 years.
Mr Bender said it was the first time Parks and Wildlife had raided the = farm.
"I think someone has rung them. I suspect a disgruntled ex-employee," he said.
"We certainly don't condone the killing of seals. To the best of my knowledge, none of my employees would do that."
Fish farms have a constant battle to keep seals out of their fish pens. =
Seals chew through nets and jump into the pens to feast on the salmon, costing the farms millions of dollars a year.
Tasmanian Conservation Trust seal expert Jon Bryan said the mammals loved salmon.
"If you're a seal, a fish like a salmon or trout is like a mixture of the best fast food you've ever had and heroin," he said.
Mr Bender last month told the Sunday Tasmanian seals had reached plague proportions and called for a targeted cull.
He said seals cost the business $9 million a year in lost stock and cages. =
"I don't support an overall cull," he said last month.
"What I do support is a program where seals that have been identified as repeatedly causing problems are destroyed."
Mr Davies said the deliberate harming of seals was an ongoing threat for = the species.
He said that between 1998 and 2005, 25 seals had been identified as being shot in Tasmanian waters, accounting for 6 per cent of all reported and investigated seal deaths.
A further 4 per cent of recovered seals died of "injuries consistent with firearm wounds" and were "likely shot".
Mr Bryan said a seal cull would be extremely cruel.
"If you're on a moving platform such as a boat or a cage at say a fish = farm and you're aiming at a seal that is 50m away, you have to be a pretty good shot," he said.
"If the animal is lucky it may bleed to death quickly, but it may survive = for weeks, in agony."
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