HOW WE CARE SALMON

How We Care for Our Fish  

The cool waters of Tasmania is the home of our Atlantic salmon. We care about the health, welfare, and quality of our fish. We have a dedicated welfare team for our salmon that follow a comprehensive welfare management plan. 

Pictured below is one of our veterinarians in fish health. He is performing a routine gill check to monitor the health and wellbeing of our salmon. 

Our Salmon feed is formulated by specialised aquatic nutritionists and contain vitamins and minerals. Our feed does not contain any growth hormones.  We provide different diets to the fish based on their needs, to ensure they always have enough energy for our salmon to thrive whilst also supplying all the essential nutrients for healthy growth. 

We don’t dye the salmon. Salmon get their flesh colour from their diet, whether wild or farmed. Wild salmon consume other marine life in their diet which contain a healthy antioxidant called astaxanthin. For our responsibly farmed salmon, we add this ingredient to our fish feed to mimic the diet of wild salmon and provide the healthy antioxidant they need.  

How We Care for The Environment 

We take pride in ensuring our operations place value on healthy oceans and waterways in our commitment to growing healthy and nutritious salmon responsibly. 

The health of the seabed underneath our pens is important to us. 

We have extensive monitoring programs in place to assess the impact of salmon farming on the seabed. As part of our compliance programs, we undertake inspections of the seabed conditions, and we provide our regulators with video footage for assessment.   

We have a dedicated feed centre in Hobart (pictured below) with advanced capabilities to optimise the feeding of the fish, including the amount of feed, which is an important part of caring for the seabed. The feed centre staff are trained to monitor fish behaviour and water quality. 

How We Care for The Wildlife 

We have a strong and ongoing commitment to the wildlife in the environments in which we operate.
As the environments in which we operate are home to a diverse range of wildlife including seals, penguins, and birds. One of the ways we protect wildlife, is the pens that house our salmon. The pens are sanctuary salmon pens and purposely designed to keep the wildlife safe, our fish safe and our people safe.  

We know people are concerned about the future of the Maugean Skate in Macquarie Harbour. So are we. That’s why we’ve been leading calls for action from Governments for several years. The salmon industry has spent more than $500,000 on skate research in recent years and has just announced a $6 million project to improve the dissolved oxygen levels in the Harbour. 

To read more about Tassal’s Sustainability Report, please see our 2023 report  here. We have been proudly releasing Sustainability Reports since 2011 and this is the 13th edition.