Salmon: Clean, green super-food or battery hens of the sea?

Connor Duffy
December 8th, 2009
ABC News

It's being served up on plates all the way from Sydney to Shanghai and the entrepreneurs driving the Tasmanian salmon industry have predicted it will become a billion dollar industry.

It is amazing growth for a product that only started in Tasmania 20 years ago, when the first Atlantic salmon eggs were shipped in and hatched in local waters.

Farmed Tasmanian salmon is on its way to becoming the most popular table fish in the country and is now worth $350 million a year.

Salmon farmers have relied on marketing Tasmania's clean, green image to spearhead their assault on mainland and overseas markets.

Advertisers use phrases like "grown in the pristine oceans off Tasmania" and the industry has acknowledged that this association has been crucial to salmon's success.

But a growing number of critics say the marketing is a sham and that the waters of a salmon farm are more likely to be swirling with chemicals and waste.

A battle is being waged over whether salmon are a clean, green omega-rich super food or the battery hens of the sea.

Canadian environmentalist Dr David Suzuki is one of the industry's detractors. 

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