Australia’s wild salmon stocks are healthy, but no-one’s biting

The salmon are running in WA, but although stocks are high and healthy, not many appreciate the strong-flavoured fish for its culinary qualities.

Australian wild salmon has an image problem.

Every year, breeding-age salmon make their way from as far as Bass Strait to spawn in the south-western corner of the continent.

According to WA Fisheries, the salmon stock is in good health. But as recreational fishers flock to south coast and South West beaches to catch them, the commercial industry is in decline.

Since the last cannery at Albany closed down in the 1980s, the catch has dwindled from an average of up to 3,000 tonnes a season to between 75 and 300 tonnes in the past five years.

The dominant market for the fish is as bait for the western rock lobster industry with a beach price as low as 50 cents a kilogram.

WA’s Fishing Industry Council and Curtin University are now working together to try to promote salmon as a table fish.

They have been running a pilot program for upper primary school students focusing on 12 low-value, under-utilised fish species.

Janet Howieson, from Curtin’s Centre of Excellence for Science Seafood and Health, said education was crucial.

“I think education is really important, Australian salmon is one of the fish we put into our schools education program,” Dr Howieson said.

“I think educating the chefs, educating the children, educating the consumers, educating the retailers is very important.”

Strong flavour a challenge to market used to snapper, red emperor: chef

One of the chefs helping the program is Peter Manifis, who is also a providore supplying fresh salmon and other seafood to restaurants.

He thinks market resistance to wild caught salmon may be because it is confused with farmed Atlantic salmon.

Its red, oil-rich flesh and strong flavour is also a challenge in a market used to mild, white-fleshed species such as snapper and red emperor.

He said at $15 for a whole fish up to 8kg, salmon was outstanding value and chefs just needed to learn how to best use its strong flavour.

“I want chefs to know how to cook fish with flavour and not be scared of them and not be scared to put them on their menus,” Mr Manifis said.

“We all talk about innovation, this is innovation as far as I’m concerned. If chefs are holding back and not putting this on their menu because they’re worried about what the punters will say, it’s all training and that’s what we’ve got to do, we need to teach the people how to cook it, how to eat it.”

‘Versatile’ fish needs to be prepared properly

At Clancy’s Fish Pub at Dunsborough, wild salmon is a menu staple in season, but chef Jason Taylor said the supply chain was critical.

The fish needed to be humanely killed, bled out and kept on ice.

“It’s very versatile, from curries to Teriyaki burgers, to different styles of grilling, smoking it, it’s one of the most versatile fish you can work with,” he said.

Only a handful of the state’s 24 licensed beach-haul salmon fishers are still operating but there are moves to revive the industry.

Dunsborough-based fisher and processer Alan Miles said the license holders were seeking a guarantee from WA’s new Labor Government of an annual 2,400-tonne quota.

The fishers believed this was essential for attracting investment, particularly from overseas.

“We see that salmon is predominantly a manufacturing type of fish in as much as it’s great for patties, it’s great for Mornays, it’s great for curries — all those sort of things,” Mr Miles said.

“A lot of people shy away from it as an actual table fish and to get that sort of processing done, unfortunately, we have to move overseas because of the cost.”

Important to reserve bait stores: fisher

Mr Miles said although the lobster bait market was low value, it was important to be supplying the $400 million rock lobster industry with a safe, local product.

He said he was worried about lobbying from the powerful recreational fishing sector to have the bait market shut down.

Salmon fishing tourism market untapped: Recfishwest

Recfishwest, which represents WA’s 800,000 anglers, said the bait market was a poor use of a valuable resource.

“We absolutely support this biological resource for its highest and best use, so human consumption is an absolutely critical element,” Recfishwest’s chief executive Andrew Rowland said.

“Simply taking these magnificent animals out of the environment, running them through a bandsaw and stuffing them into a bait box to put into a rock lobster pot is simply not acceptable use of this important resource.”

Dr Rowland said he had grave reservations about the commercial sector’s plans to restore its catch to near historic levels, but he supported a trial of moving some of the fishing effort offshore using boats that could catch salmon year round.

He said the tourism potential for the recreational salmon catch was largely untapped.

“This is one of the world’s best sport fisheries and the world doesn’t even know about it,” he said.

“Just as much as we look after and manage whale sharks in Ningaloo, the salmon and the sports fishery on these beaches that we have along the south coast and in the south-west of WA could have similar potential being on the doorstep of Asia.

“So these are the things we really need to get on the table and have a discussion around where that value lies.”

Source: Australia’s wild salmon stocks are healthy, but no-one’s biting – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)