Details have emerged describing the extreme conditions in which thousands of sheep died en route to the Middle East in July last year, prompting calls from Western Australia's Agriculture Minister to enforce stricter penalties on exporters when mortalities occurred.

Documents have revealed up to 3,000 sheep died from heat stress aboard the Al Messilah vessel, run by export company Emanuel, as a result of extreme humidity experienced over several days.

The documents further describe how the exporter lost track of what sheep had died, because they decomposed so rapidly.

"The reason for any inaccuracy in counting of the daily death toll is that there was such a short time to collect and dispose of the bodies ... before reaching Doha port, after which it was not possible to dispose of any of the ever increasing number of dying animals and bodies, for the next three days, while there," the report stated.

While the news of the deaths was documented in Parliament at the time, the veterinarians' report documenting the cause of death was not in the public sphere.

These details, which would usually remain confidential, emerged after activist group Vets Against Live Export requested them through freedom of information laws.

According to the report ,1,741 sheep died during the long-haul voyage bound from Fremantle, but a further 1,286 sheep were unaccounted for.

Emanuel managing director Graham Daws described the event as "absolutely tragic" and said it had happened due to a period of hot weather near Doha.

Minister calls for stricter penalties

WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said the conditions in which the stock died were "horrific", and to make sure the public backlash and subsequent live export ban of 2011 did not happen again, there needed to be community support for the system.

She said she did not believe the current penalties would promote this.

"As far as I can see, all that did happen [in this case] was that on [Emanuel's] next shipment they were required to load to a lower level," she said.

"I think there's a question mark as to whether or not that really is an adequate deterrent or response to such an extreme event."

Ms MacTiernan said there were two steps that needed to be taken: financial penalties and an independent governing body of the livestock industry.

"There is evidence that [the Federal Government] can apply cruelty to animal provisions in these situations. It's just whether or not they can be overridden by federal guidelines," she said.

"But I think what I'd much rather see happen is that we look at the Productivity Commission report that was released recently into agriculture.

"One of the key recommendations was that we need to have an independent statutory body that is not captured by the agricultural industry or the animal welfare lobbyists."

Sheep inside a live export vessel. ( Supplied: Vets Against Live Export )

Live export ban not on agenda

The Agricultural Minister's reaction has peaked the interest of local livestock producers because of her historic stance against long-haul live export voyages.

But Ms MacTiernan said a live export ban of any sort was not on her Government's agenda.

Pastoralist and Graziers Association vice president Digby Stretch, who runs sheep at his Kojonup property, said he was confident Ms MacTiernan would make a considered response and not replicate the "knee-jerk reaction" the industry had seen in 2011.

But he did not entirely agree that stricter penalties were necessary.

"Whenever an unfortunate incident like this occurs you learn from that and you improve from it, and our industry has done that regularly," he said.

"Whether there is the need for more draconian penalties in there will be something for the Minister to consider once she's got all the facts in front of her."

Overall decline of live export mortality rate

Mr Stretch said the confidence within the community could only come from what was presented through the media, referencing an overall reduction in the mortality rate of livestock on board live export vessels in the past 20 years.

According to figures from the Department of Agriculture and Food's Shipboard Performance Report 2016, mortality rates of sheep during sea transport have rapidly declined since the early 1990s, and have been on a steady downward trend since 2006.

Ironically, the same statistics have been referenced by the Vets Against Animal Livestock in their argument to ban long-haul live export to the Middle East during summer months.

Spokesperson Susan Foster said the proposed changes from Ms MacTiernan were "a step in the right direction".

"But I still don't think any amount of penalties are going to stop the increased mortalities that are documented every year in government reports on Australian ships taking livestock to the Middle East," she said.

"Every year, every ship board performance report ... has documented increased mortalities due mainly to heat stress.

"That happens when Australian livestock leave southern Australia on long haul voyages to the Middle East [during the summer periods]."

Ms Foster said what was also clear, following the incident, was that the space was not sufficient.

"This ship sailed with 10 per cent extra space and they made even more space by emptying sheep out of pens into alleyways and they still had a 4.36 per cent mortality rate," she said.

"It follows that the space requirements are inadequate and that the heat stress risk assessment analysis performed by the Government is inadequate."