Troubled waters

Salmon farming in Tasmania has come under fire recently, with many in the industry feeling the repercussions

It’s said there is no such thing as bad publicity; a saying with which Tasmania’s salmon growers, large and small, would beg to differ.

The state’s salmon industry has had an image problem since

Four Corners had a hard look at it last October. The show took rather a scatter-gun approach but the concerns raised were the environmental impact and sustainability of present salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour by the three big producers, Tassal, Huon Aquaculture and Petuna, and proposed farming in Okehampton Bay by the biggest, Tassal.

Best practice appears to be either growing salmon further out to sea than is the current practice, or growing them on land.

Huon Aquaculture recently spent $200 million inventing and building stronger pens and moorings to be able to have pens a kilometre off Bruny Island’s Storm Bay, where the wave energy means better oxygenated water and quick dispersal of waste.

Several notable chefs have signed a Sustainable Salmon Chefs Charter, an initiative of Environment Tasmania, and some, but not all of the signees, are eschewing salmon for their menus.

This news disappointed Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff, and he supposed the 5200 Tasmanians employed by the industry.

Five industry employees who probably were not in the minister’s reckoning are employed by Ziggy and Angelika Pyka’s small family business 41 Degrees South.

This business is doing everything right by the environment on an inland farm, but has seen a jolting drop in sales, and even a 25 per cent drop in visitors to the farm as a result of being lumped in with the big players, in a concern over salmon that does not pay close attention to the issues in play.

Fair enough, the market cannot discern which of Huon’s salmon have been grown way out to sea. But it is easy to pick a 41 Degrees South salmon – they are babies, sold when they weigh 400g to 700g.

The Pyka’s farm is on the Montana Rd near Deloraine. They have a water allocation from Western Creek that is reticulated by gravity through 20 tanks where as many as 10,000 salmon grow at any one time.

Before the water returns to the creek it runs through a wetland that acts as a biofilter of waste from the fish tanks. By the time the water returns to the creek it is as clean as when it came into the system.

In fact, when there had been heavy rain bringing run-off from farms up river, the water going out of the fish farm actually is cleaner than when it came in.

The farm opened in 2002 and once gorse and willows were removed and the wetlands established, 41 Degrees South opened to visitors in 2006. There is a boardwalk through the wetlands, from which you may well spot a platypus, and a cafe.

Ziggy says they decided to sell baby fish partly because it would take more room to grow the salmon to full size and partly to occupy market niche; to differentiate themselves from the big producers. In the alarm over farmed salmon’s credentials, it seems the buying public has overlooked this difference.

“Best practice appears to be either growing salmon further out to sea, or on land”