Rita had the best time this morning at the Tassal Salmon Shop in Salamanca Quarry. David Forrest is the Business Manager there, and doing a wonderful job of talking up the business, and the salmon industry generally. Rita had a lot to do with David in his previous incarnation of main man at Barilla Bay Oysters but these days he’s a great spruiker for Tassal.
The Tassal news is that they have been planning their mainland expansion with the opening of a first salmon shop in Melbourne and hope to be open by the end of this year. This is very exciting, and gives so much more exposure to our venerated salmon product.
David’s obvious passion for his product will sell it in Melbourne if nothing else will!
Down the track, more shops are envisaged on the mainland. This is fabulous news for all of us, as it reflects well on our food credibility as well as providing many more jobs for locals here in the seafood production area.
Well done Tassal. I was seriously impressed with everything I was told today about your products and your intentions.
Now it’s time for my salmon dinner.
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20 comments:
picture a field full of cattle. eating,sleeping and breathing surrounded by excrement and hardly an inch to move. now take that picture and look at what a salmon farm is like,not much of a difference really, except it's under water and out of sight. australia is said to have world's best practice when it comes to fish farming, maybe we do? still it leaves alot to be desired and the fact is it's a industrial mass produced protein that isn't anything like it's wild cousin. at least not where it counts, in the eating.
many issues exist, antibiotic use, effluent, cage breaks, use of bycatch of wild fish to feed farmed fish, artificial colourings, algal blooms and parasites. all these affect farming salmon here in tasmania. do some reading, ask a few questions and see how you feel about this "wonderful industry" after a few facts surface.
Ethically we all have a few issues when it comes to any form of farming. It could be argued that the Earths biggest parasite is man.
But when the world is expanding and we find more ways to help the worlds poor and ill to survive, so we must look at ways to feed them. Or do we just look after the strong. Our ethical dilemas with food will continue, I do not have the answer, but I would say that it makes sense to have some sustainable control, rather than just uncontrolably take from natures bounty.
Anyhow, as a joke, look on the bright side, Fish have a 30 second memory, you think they give a fuck?
Cartouche
the issue is that fish farming is depleting natures bounty from two aspects. first, it requires other wild fish species to be caught and processed for fish meal. second, it promotes disease and breeding difficulties, which further deplete wild fish stocks. there are potentially more sensitive ways to farm fish,but corporate greed makes that goal a long way off. as for feeding the world.....there's more than enough food to go around, it's distribution that's the issue. farmed fish like salmon and ocean trout will never pass the lips of an impoverished person,but the destruction it can cause will impact the waters which may provide their catch. true, man is the cause of the problem, as we are the custodians of the path to a solution. i think it's unfortuate that many a person is informed of the virtues of farmed fish and the
"benefits" to the enviroment. it may not always be this way,but for now it's a product that should be boycotted until it is produced with a much lower impact on the waters which support it. of all the ecosystems that are in danger of collapse, the world's oceans are on the brink and we really can't joke about the memory of a fish, otherwise in 20 years time that's all we'll have.
And whilst I may agree with some of the points that you are raising, it does not offer a viable solution to this problem.
It is true that impoverished people will not be eating this product, but it might stop the less impoverished eating a product that they might. It may also keep us in our own waters, and away from theirs. You know as seafood becomes more scarce those big fleets are going to go further a field. I'm not saying thats right, but probably a fact.
A good friend of mine studied at the Aquaculture centre in Stirling Scotland some years back. He was convinced that research into sustainable farming of fish was vital to our long term futures. He admitted that it was not without its problems, but he also highlighted to me its future importance to the long term sustainability to our natural marine stocks, this was recognised as early as 1941 when the English faced with trawlers being sunk by U-boats started farming flatfish in large onshore tanks with great success in southern England.
Surely a boycot would just lead to more strain on an already stretched resource?
Cartouche
The public line that Tassal take on the issue of antibiotics is that they are not normally part of the diet of their farmed salmon. However should they fall ill, then antibiotics are used.
In 2007 they used a huge amount more antibiotics than the previous year, I cant remember the exact amount but it could have been up to four times more. I wonder what the 2008 amount was. If it increased again it would suggest that those antibiotics are used a whole lot more regularly than was thought.
Sadly for me Salmon has become commodified to the point where it might rival chicken as a 'sauce delivery device', to borrow a phrase from the cigarette industry.
On a menu its sole job is to appease people who dont know what to eat, much the same way as the appearence of chicken used to do.
Have a look at the way we tiredly react to it when it inevitably appears at cook offs like the recent Taste of the Huon or that dreadfull uninspired Mayors great Salmon dish yawn-fest.
Everyone knows the Salmon industry is great employer, that they are leaders in their practices & that they contribute a princely sum for the Tasmania economy, BUT-everyone is bored shitless with it!
I remember the late Jim Bacon at a function saying to all around him as the mains were dropped at a function.
'Thank Christ its not Salmon!'
I totally empathise with everything you say Anon 7.49. I too am pretty well at that stage myself. When I see it on a menu now, I admit I rarely order it. However, that doesn't alter the fact that we DO have a huge industry here based round the salmon farming industry. Huon Aquaculture and Tassal have and are currently putting more than the odd dollar into this. We might totally disagree with it, but they are still forging ahead and doing it, as we sit here doing whatever we do to wile away the hours between sleep periods.
I wouldn't have predicted todays popularity of salmon years back. I knew I myself liked the flavour, and simplicity of cooking it, but that's as far as it went. Now the salmon industry is a major player as far as production, exports and employment are concerned, and whether I like it or not, one can't back away from that.
Yes, I'm pretty over salmon personally, having eaten it at least twice a week for the past 10-odd years, but that doesn't stop me still believing that I would prefer the whole population of Tasmania to eat it in the form of, say, a McDonalds Salmon Burger rather than the crap they consume now. As a fast food, it's right up there, and I'd love to see people leaving a Maccas with fresh salmon in their tummy than whatever goodies are contained in a commercial hamburger.
So, I separate my own personal thoughts on being faced with yet another variation in the form of a salmon meal, with my general thoughts about fish. I think it's pretty well acknowledged now about the long term health benefits of eating fish, hence my belief that I'd rather see people consuming salmon than other questionable products for fast food.
And if you're a time-poor person, or lazy cook, what better product than salmon?
But you're right about the salmon and Taste of Huon! And I hadn't heard Jim Bacon's comment but I like it!
I have always liked salmon, but after hearing David Suzuki (a few years ago now) talk about the environmental damage being done by the aquaculture industry, not to mention the awful conditions the fish are in (even if they only suffer for 30 seconds at a time!) I have tried to cut down on the Tassie salmon. But sometimes there isn't anything else on the menu I fancy..... and I do buy canned salmon from the USA and Canada as that is wild. I was once in British Columbia (Canada) and can vouch for that!
I'll start taking David Suzuki seriously when he stops riding around on all them motorbikes & little cars that he invented. Talk about global warming hypocrite-sheesh!
Hey don't knock Maccas Rita, they use 100% wild caught blue grenadier in those McFish. And guess what - most of it comes from Tasmania!
Still wouldn't touch the shit....
We must join forces & stop Tassals latest plan. I heard from my mate down the pub that they are going to take over the Hobart Aquatic Centre & turn it into a a giant Salmon farm! Thats FUCKED!
Is the Hobart Aquatic Centre big enough to cater for that kind of operation Wayne? I embrace the idea but am wondering, if they wanted to expand, where they could expand to? I suppose they could extend across the road and encompass the ABC, then the take over the Cenotaph. Hmmm, I can see it all now...
Can't wait to see the Salmon leaping up the Freddo frog slide, Reckon that would be cool.
Cartouche
Why is it so hard for chefs-operators to stick it out at the Newtown nursery? whats going on there, is there a toxic workplace cluster or something?
Rita,
I feel a little out of place because; (a) I'm making a comment about Tassal that doesn't regard ethics, (b) unfortunately I can't add to the impressive tally of anonymous posters, and (c) I've never been a fan of nursery cafes.
Anyhow, has David Forrest left Barilla Bay Oysters? I thought he was one of the owners there. When did he move to Tassal (and why)?
OK that's about it... (and keep up the good work Rita).
Erm, who wants to repeat the Barilla Bay saga to our man in Canberra?
Anon 11.23 - not sure about the nursery workplace issue. I don't know why Clare left, and have only heard secondhand about why Steve(cafe operator before Clare) left, but around the time Steve left there, it elicited a HUGE amount of reasonably vitriolic comments on this blog, from both sides of the issue.
Our man in Canberra - To answer briefly and without getting into too much hot H2O, I'll just say that, yes, David has left BB Oysters; yes, he was an owner; not sure how long ago it was that he left but a good while, like, over a year. The 'why' relates to the fact that he DID leave.
Ta Rita,
I did a quick google before enquiring but it didn't come up with much, apart from media releases, industry flyers and Brand Tasmania stuff. No mention of David leaving BB.
Hey Dave why bother going to all the trouble of farming salmon to only sell then frozen or smoked at your shop!!!!!
You are right last anon, Dave should farm it & just keep it all to himself, no one is getting any from now on.
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