Nothing but upside for Australian salmon farmers

When I left British Columbia to visit Tasmania a couple of years ago, I was struck by the amount of public support that the salmon farmers "Down Under" enjoy. Everywhere you went, people were happy to order farmed Atlantic salmon from the menu of a roadside cafe or a white table-cloth restaurant. The salmon farmers are considered an important part of the country's fabric. When we announced to the owner of a remote pub that we were in the salmon farming business, his eyes lit up and we embarked on a lenghty conversation about the benefits of having access to a home-grown, fresh seafood product that not only tastes good, but that also brings with it a long list of benefits to human health.

A local fisherman complained that one of the salmon farming companies near his home had failed to inform him of a small escape of farmed Atlantic salmon. His complaint was not due to the environmental concerns raised so often in other parts of the world, but rather due to the fact that the longer it took for him to find out, the slimmer his chances of catching one to put on his dinner table would be!

The widespread support for salmon farming in Australia was recently highlighted by the following article provided by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - ABC;

Tasmania's salmon farmers are investing $23 million in two new hatcheries to meet growing demand.

Salmon farmer Tassal has announced plans for a $16 million hatchery, while Huon Aquaculture has just commissioned a $7 million plant near Huonville. Peter Bender, from Huon Aquaculture, says its hatchery uses a new closed-loop water recirculation system, and will provide an additional one and a half million young salmon a year. With annual growth of 15 per cent, he says the industry is now a big contributor to the state economy. "It would be well in excess of $300 million, which would put salmon probably as the biggest agribusiness sector in Tasmania."