In a first for Tasmania-based Huon Aquaculture, the biggest hatchery-grown salmon in the southern hemisphere are being transferred to sea.
The salmon will be in excess of 1kg, matching the size of a small proportion of salmon grown on-land by salmon companies based in Norway and the Faroe Islands.
David Mitchell, Huon Aquaculture’s freshwater general manager said, “Huon is setting a new benchmark for salmon farming in Tasmania.”
“This has only been possible as a result of Huon’s new $43M Whale Point nursery – by growing the salmon on land to this size in larger tanks, we are significantly reducing the time the fish will spend at sea, further improving the company’s environmental performance allowing longer fallowing and improving biosecurity.”
The production trial will monitor fish performance as they grow to harvest size at 5-6kg. “The salmon have been on-grown at Whale Point for seven months which will result in a reduction of time spent at sea by between 30-40% from an average of 14 months, to 9 to 10 months,” said Mr Mitchell.
Whale Point uses water recirculation technology that cleans and re-uses 98-99% of the freshwater in which the fish are grown and the nursery has zero discharge to the environment due to the collection and composting of the fish nutrients for use by farmers.
