Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)

This page was last updated on the 8th April 2008

• Species description

• Atlantic salmon farming

Species Description

Previous Name Salmon   Physical Features Colouring: back ranging from blue to olive, sides silver and belly silvery-white, scattering of small dark spots (often faint) on back and side. Jaws short reaching to underneath the eye, anal fin base short with 9-10 rays, dorsal fin centrally located, with short base.   Size Commonly harvested at 65-75 cm and at a weight of 4-6kg.  However, can grow up to 150cm and weigh 38kg.

Atlantic salmon Photo: Tassal Ltd

Habitat

Mainly marine, breeds in streams, rivers and lakes draining into the North Atlantic Ocean.  Introduced into NSW in 1963, and transferred for aquaculture in Tasmania in the mid 1980s.  

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Atlantic Salmon Farming

Salmonids farmed in Australia are Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout.

Trout are grown in freshwater in all southern States of Australia, of this production (about 4,000 tonnes, worth $25M) the greater portion come from Victoria.
Farming of Atlantic salmon occurs on a small scale in the sea off South Australia, and in freshwater in Victoria for the production of salmon caviar.

Both salmon and trout are farmed in sea-cages around Tasmania, principally on the south-east coast (Huon Estuary and D’Entrecasteaux Channel) and Macquarie Harbour in the west. Over 90% of salmonid production is of Atlantic Salmon. Much of the product is locally processed.

In 2001-2002, the production level of about 16,000 tonnes of fish, with a total value of the order of $160M per annum, and employment of over 3,000 people (direct and indirect) made the salmonid sector the largest producer (by volume) and the largest employer within the Australian aquaculture sectors.

Folowing a period of decline, there has been rapid growth in the salmon industry (GVP exceeded $250M per annum in 2007), as a result of favourable conditions, technological improvements and confidence in the industry’s environmental sustainability.
 

The Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association (TSGA) now represents all the growers of salmon and trout in Tasmania.   Atlantic salmon are reared in freshwater hatcheries where they grow up to about 70 -100g in 9-12 months, and metamorphose into smolts.  Smolts are pre-adapted to life in seawater and are transferred to net cages in the sea. The farm sites are generally in sheltered bays or estuaries. The fish are typically grown out to harvest within 12 to 15 months of transfer to seawater.   For more detail on salmon and trout farming refer to Purser J and Forteath N (2003) “Salmonids” in Lucas JS and Southgate PC (eds) Aquaculture – Farming Aquatic Plants and Animals; Ch 15 pp 295-320 (Blackwell).

Atlantic salmon farm cage Photo: Susan Forbes

Worldwide, salmon farming has expanded enormously over the past decade, with major producers in Norway, Scotland Chile and others. Accordingly, salmon farming has been subject to broad and persistent attack around the world on the basis of perceived risks to ecosystems and even to human health. While questioning such risks is valid and necessary, much of the evidence used has been partial and selective.

The Australian salmon industry has been able to refute many of the criticisms aimed at the industry. This has been possible because of the favourable local conditions, the technical and scientific underpinning of farm practices, and the rigour with which farm licences and environmental monitoring have been administered by the states concerned.

Further development of our understanding of the interactions between environment and finfish farming is a critical part of the research program of Aquafin Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

The global expansion in salmon production has meant that price competition among producers has become fiercer, so that the pressure to produce fish of the highest quality at the lowest cost has become ever more intense. Broadly, this means a continuing need for market promotion, new product development and increased production cost-efficiency.

Opportunities to enhance cost efficiency cover a wide spectrum, including selective breeding, extension of harvesting season by management of the development and maturation of the fish, feeds, feeding strategies and feed delivery techniques, cage technologies and net fouling management, prevention of predation, maintenance of fish health by means of better epidemiology, improved husbandry and development of more cost-effective treatment, vaccines and dietary supplements, and refinement of harvesting and processing methods.

The Aquafin CRC is currently focussing particularly on health management and control of maturation.

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