How many salmon farms are there in Tasmania — and who owns them?

If you have driven along Tasmania's coastline, you may have spotted collections of black circular pens floating just offshore and thought to yourself: 'what are those?'

They're salmon farms.

And there are a lot of them, dotted around the state's waters.

Tasmania's salmon aquaculture industry started in the 1980s — it's since grown to become a billion-dollar force in the state, producing almost 75,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon for the 2022-23 financial year.

The state has become the largest producer of Atlantic salmon in the country, and according to the Tasmanian government, employs more than 1,700 permanent staff.

WARNING: This story contains video content depicting animal cruelty, which may cause distress.

But it's not all been good news.

The industry has faced accusations of environmental contamination, contributing to the decline of an endangered prehistoric species of fish — and alleged instances of animal cruelty.

It has also now become a touchpoint in federal politics, with the Albanese government introducing new laws to protect salmon workers on the state's west coast.

Even Leonardo DiCaprio weighed in on the debate urging action to stop fish farming in Macquarie Harbour.

So, where are these farms located?

They're located in marine farm leases across the state, but most are in the south-east.

Each lease can contain dozens of pens, but in order to carry out aquaculture, each lease holder also needs a "salmonid marine farming licence" from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE).

There are, as of March 2025, 47 active licences across the state, according to Tasmanian government data.

Each salmon-pink dot on the map above represents a licence.

All of those licences are shared between eight companies.

The biggest three are all foreign owned — Brazilian multinational JBS (Huon Aquaculture), New Zealand's Sealord (Petuna) and Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke (Tassal). 

The other licence holders are subsidiary companies of the big three. 

Those subsidiaries are Mercury Passage Pty Ltd, which holds a licence at Okehampton Bay but is operated by Tassal; Aquatas, whose leases are operated by Tassal; and Russfal, which holds licences for leases operated by Tassal and Huon.

The sole salmon aquaculture licence holder in the state's north is Van Diemen Aquaculture, which is owned by Petuna. Its licence is for a marine lease on the Tamar Estuary, just south of Bell Bay.

South East Aquaculture — formerly Alstergren Aquaculture — also holds a salmon aquaculture licence on Satellite Island, in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

Salmon farming is most highly concentrated in two areas of Tasmania — on the west coast and in the south-east.

How many are out west?

All of the west-coast salmon farming happens in Macquarie Harbour, near the small town of Strahan.

Salmon Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin said the industry employs about 120 people in the region, as well as a further 250 in the north-west who work in "logistics and processing".

There are 10 leases and active licences in Macquarie Harbour, spread across 11 locations (two sites share a licence).

Salmon farming in the harbour has become a contentious political issue over the past few years, with scientists determining salmon aquaculture has contributed to a decline in the endangered Maugean skate population.

It's led to millions being invested to try and remediate the harbour's environment and save the skate.

Last December, it was revealed about 10 per cent of salmon farmed in Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour died between September 2023 and March 2024.

The future of farming in the harbour was in doubt after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said she would review the approvals that allowed salmon farming to expand in the harbour in 2012.

New legislation, passed March 26, 2025 has ended Ms Plibersek's reconsideration.

What's happening in the south-east?

This is where most of the industry operates.

There are several farm licences dotted near Nubeena and in Long Bay near Port Arthur — both on the Tasman Peninsula — and four in Storm Bay.

However, the lion's share of salmon marine farming leases and licences are in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, between Bruny Island and Dover.

It's this stretch of water that made headlines in early 2025.

A mass mortality event has plagued Huon and Tassal farms in the channel following a breakout of Piscirickettsia salmonis bacteria in February.

That was followed by the Environment Protection Authority confirming more than 6,300 tonnes of dead salmon were dumped in a waste facility in February — about 8 per cent of the industry's annual production.

It is the worst-ever disease outbreak the industry has experienced and was described by the industry as "unprecedented".

Pieces of rotting salmon and globules made of "fatty fish material", along with low levels of antibiotics, then began to wash up at Verona Sands beach and on Bruny Island in February.

Environment group the Bob Brown Foundation released vision in early March of Huon salmon workers putting live diseased fish into tubs with dead fish and sealing them.

The drone footage led to the RSPCA suspending its 'RSPCA approved' certification of Huon Aquaculture.

What's next for the industry?

It aims to expand.

Storm Bay, south-east of Hobart, has long been flagged as a potential area for salmon farm expansion due to what Petuna says on its website is the "optimum farming conditions to enable maximum fish health and welfare in a best-practice farming environment".

In 2019, Petuna was formally approved to access a marine farming lease in Storm Bay and three years later new biosecurity standards were enacted requiring adult and juvenile fish to be separated by at least 4 kilometres.

Mr Martin said the expansion will be informed and regulated by science, telling ABC Radio in February there had been "about eight years of work on understanding what the potential carrying capacity of Storm Bay may be".

That proposed expansion has faced opposition from the local community.

Tasmania-based research company Blue Economy CRC has also proposed a research trial for salmon aquaculture in Commonwealth waters in Bass Strait, about 12 kilometres from Burnie.