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- In short: Tasmania's three salmon producers are now all foreign-owned and face the challenge of winning over locals opposed to industrial farming practices
- What's next? One anti-fish-farming community group says it is gearing up for a campaign to convince consumers on mainland Australia to not eat Tasmanian farmed salmon
About 400,000 people visit Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) every year, but they won't find Tasmanian salmon on the menu at any of its restaurants.
"Why would we take a risk with a product that's ever expanding … the risk to our environment is so great," said MONA's executive chef Vince Trim.
Farmed salmon has not been served at MONA since 2017.
Mr Trim said customers have been supportive of the move.
"I think that you'll find that there's quite a few dining rooms in Hobart in Tassie where they are in the same position, where they are not doing it [serving salmon] for the same reasons, because they are unsure," he said.
Tasmanian Atlantic salmon has become an increasingly controversial ingredient as the fish farming industry has expanded around Tasmania's coastline over the past four decades.
The now $1 billion industry has sparked the ire of activists and locals living near salmon farms.
Fish waste, cruelty to seals, an influx of algae, destruction of the marine environment and a lack of regulation are just some of the concerns surrounding the industry.
Backlash against salmon farming has become such an issue that at a recent launch for a long-term plan for salmon growers, the state's primary industries minister pleaded for the industry's social licence to be returned.
"This is an industry that desperately wants the Tasmanian people's approval," Jo Palmer said at the time.
Mr Trim rejects the Tasmanian government's assertion that it's a "very small" but "very noisy" group of people campaigning against the industry.
"I think the vocal minority might be bigger than everyone thinks," he said.
Mr Trim said a social licence could only be regained if salmon growers were more open about their operations, "when it's transparent like the water should be".
The stance on salmon has led MONA to remove farmed beef, pork and chicken from its menus and instead serve wallaby, feral deer and rabbit.
Salmon sushi still a favourite
Raw salmon sushi rolls are a popular choice for customers at David Painter's Hobart sushi business, despite the growing campaign against the product.
"Some people come in and they're quite vocal and they tell us we shouldn't stock it, some people come in and ask us where we get it from," he said.
Mr Painter said concerns about the salmon industry prompted him to change to a smaller producer in recent years.
"My personal feeling about the local production of salmon is that it is an issue of scale, I think that it can be done sustainably if it's done on a local scale."
He said he has a good relationship with his salmon supplier, but thinks the industry as a whole needs to be more transparent to regain community support.
Backlash gathers pace
When Atlantic salmon made its debut at a Hobart restaurant in the mid-1980s it was hailed as speciality dish, with a main course costing between $25 and $35.
These days it can be bought in a supermarket for less than $10 a portion and is promoted as an easy-to-cook and healthy protein source.
Booker Prize winning author Richard Flanagan's 2021 book Toxic presented a different view.
"I was shocked what a disturbing foodstuff salmon is," he said.
"A 200-gram portion of salmon will contain as much fat as a Big Mac and medium serve of fries. How on earth this can be marketed as a health food is beyond me.
"I actually started ringing friends in Sydney and Melbourne and saying 'You may not care about the environment but for your own health, don't eat it'," he said.
In the book, Flanagan wrote how fish feed contains waste from chicken farming, including "macerated battery hen intestines, skulls, feathers and rendered chicken fat".
Community meetings were held around the state after the book's release.
Salmon company Tassal told the stock exchange the book had been unsettling but did not detail its impact on sales or consumption of their product.
Flanagan believes the book gave communities the courage to speak out against neighbouring fish farms.
"It broke the fear because there was such fear about speaking out," he said.
While salmon farming is being banned in other parts of the world, he said, the Tasmanian government was facilitating its growth.
"We've got terrible standards of governance … regulation in name only and you can pretty much do whatever you want here and the government will give you the seas — which are our seas — to destroy," he said.
Foreign ownership raises transparency concerns
According to the Tasmanian government, the industry has grown from a 56-tonne salmon harvest in 1986–87 to 83,000 tonnes in 2020-21.
The industry and government have dropped talk of "growth targets" but it's on track to become a $2 billion enterprise by 2030 regardless.
More fish farming will be planned for Storm Bay in Tasmania's south-east and into the Tasman Sea.
The Tasmanian government will encourage, but not compel, companies to switch to farming further offshore and says it will protect more than 2,000 jobs.
Those jobs are now under the control of foreign-owned companies, after takeovers of all three companies which were founded in Tasmania.
Tassal was bought by Canadian seafood giant Cooke in 2022. Huon Aquaculture was acquired by Brazil's JBS Foods in 2021 and Petuna was taken over by New Zealand's Sealord in 2020.
Flanagan believes transparency will become even more of an issue now the companies are no longer reporting to the Australian Stock Exchange.
A social licence would only be returned, he said, if the salmon companies moved onto land-based farming with "proper, strong, independent regulation".
Social licence not lost, say west coasters
Dianne Coon operates a Huon pine shop at Strahan on Tasmania's west coast. In nearby Macquarie Harbour, all three salmon companies operate fish farms.
She said while she doesn't make any money from aquaculture she is supportive of it.
"I get a bit sick of people coming from Hobart and telling us that we're unhappy with fish farms," she said.
"On the west coast they have not lost their social licence."
Ms Coon is the chairwoman of the Strahan Aquaculture Community Forum which was established nearly 10 years ago after community concerns about the fish farm trucks travelling through the town.
"The aquaculture industry approached us and said your problem is ours, so we ended up with a community forum that has morphed over the years," she said.
Half the attendees at the regular meetings work for the salmon companies.
"The aquaculture industry is far more responsive to its community than mining, which is the other major industry we have here," she said.
She said while the aquaculture industry is "nowhere near perfect", companies were willing to share information with the community and continue to work on improvements like reducing marine waste.
Concerns slogans hurting tourism
In 2016, the environmental condition of Macquarie Harbour deteriorated, with patches of the harbour floor described as being "devoid of life", resulting in a reduction in the amount of fish which could be farmed in the harbour.
Ms Coon said years on she's still hearing talk about "catastrophes in Macquarie Harbour" and that the "harbour is destroyed".
She said such slogans were hurting the west coast tourism industry.
"That destroys the largest industry in the town and the one that employs me and most other people in the town and it's not true."
Opponents to target mainland consumers
But if west coast locals like Ms Coon — and the industry — were hoping for an end to the activism around farming salmon in Tasmania they're likely to be disappointed.
Peter George, president of Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF), said plans were underway to change the minds of Australian consumers.
"We believe the companies are going to have to change their ways and in the end this is what it's all about," he said.
The bulk of the market for salmon is not Tasmania, but the rest of Australia, with 65 per cent of the fish sold domestically.
"The vulnerable underbelly of this industry is the Australian consumer from the mainland," Mr George said.
NOFF is hoping to have an impact on consumer sales, with "films that are ready to go … we've got plans for social media campaigning".
He said the organisation was also recruiting chefs interstate "to say publicly they will not buy, they will not serve Tasmanian Atlantic salmon".
"Eating salmon is killing Tasmania … that is a campaign which we are launching and will go nationwide sometime in the not distant future," he said.
Industry defends track record
A spokesman for the industry body Salmon Tasmania said millions of dollars were being invested each year to make it more sustainable.
"We are extremely proud of the fact we are Tasmania's biggest primary industry, supporting [direct and indirect] jobs for over 5,000 people," the spokesman said.
"We know that all primary industries have their critics and we know there are many people who are just as passionate about sustainability as we are.
"That's why we are focused on continually improving what we do and we have a strong track record of that."
Tasmania's salmon companies declined to be interviewed for this story.