Fresh or smoked, more salmon is consumed around the country than any other farmed fish, and most wild species. Research puts it as the first choice of restaurant and dinner party fish dishes, and nearly a third of Australians eat it regularly.

Taking the bait ... Aquatas farmhand Adrian Smith with some of the prime product of the North West Bay fish farm, south of Hobart.
Photo: Roger Lovell

Salmon farming began in Australia in the early 1980s when a group of Tasmanian and Norwegian businessmen realised the cool, deep waters of the island's far southern river estuaries replicated the fish's northern hemisphere habitat.

Since then the circular pens of marine farms have spread across hundreds of hectares of these sheltered waterways. The first Tasmanian harvest of 55 tonnes in 1985-86 has grown to about 13,000 tonnes of salmon and ocean trout in 2001-02. Another 3000 tonnes, mainly of trout, is harvested in mainland states.

Riding the global aquaculture boom of the past decade, salmon and tuna sales have led national fish farming to a point where the Australian Bureau of Statistics says it accounts for 30 per cent of total fish production. But while farmed tuna is exported, salmon growers have turned their focus to domestic consumers.

"There's no doubt about it, it's got a very high recognition around Australia," said Nick Ruello, the principal investigator for the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation's seafood consumption study.

"It has a prestige, top-of-the-range image, but it is also found in any supermarket that has a fish section."

His 2002 study put wild caught trawl fish such as shark and blue grenadier above salmon as best sellers, but he said: "[Salmon] is definitely now among the top-selling table fish." His study found salmon to be clearly the favourite fish for out-of-home fish consumption in the Sydney survey area.

As Australians eat more fish, Atlantic salmon, rich in omega-3 oils, is seen as a particularly healthy alternative. Research by the growers themselves found that 30 per cent of Australians ate Tasmanian salmon at least once a month, and many bought small portions weekly.

To reach this point, the industry has seen off a series of challenges including damaging warm water seasons, seal attacks on fish pens, a long political fight to prevent the entry of foreign fish diseases, and growing competition for export markets.

The costs of this process climaxed last June when the largest producer, Tassal, was put into receivership with $30million debt. But continuing strong sales kept the business going, and yesterday it passed a milestone in recovery when a deal was signed for Tassal's purchase of its competitor, Nortas.

The combined business, accounting for 65 per cent of Tasmania's salmon industry, is to go on the market itself on March4. Receiver Mark Ryan, of KordaMentha, said there was strong interest in its purchase. "People think of salmon as a sexy product," he said.

Potential purchasers include the foreign companies Sealord and Nutreco, along with the Australian company National Foods, and several financial institutions. Websters, the owner of Australia's next largest salmon company, Aquatas, has also expressed interest.

The sale could be seen to threaten price rises for consumers, but Rob Woolley, the managing director of Websters, said he was confident of persuading the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that salmon eaters need have no fear of that.

Hundreds of tonnes are imported from Denmark and New Zealand, and global supply, particularly from Chile, is growing rapidly.