Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmania Salmon Industry

by Richard Flanagan

Is Tasmanian salmon one big lie?

In a triumph of marketing, the Tasmanian salmon industry has for decades succeeded in presenting itself as world’s best practice and its product as healthy and clean, grown in environmentally pristine conditions. What could be more appealing than the idea of Atlantic salmon sustainably harvested in some of the world’s purest waters? But what are we eating when we eat Tasmanian salmon?

Richard Flanagan’s exposé of the salmon farming industry in Tasmania is chilling. In the way that Rachel Carson took on the pesticide industry in her ground-breaking book Silent Spring, Flanagan tears open an industry that is as secretive as its practices are destructive and its product disturbing. From the burning forests of the Amazon to the petrochemicals you aren’t told about to the endangered species being pushed to extinction you don’t know about; from synthetically pink-dyed flesh to seal bombs . . .

If you care about what you eat, if you care about the environment, this is a book you need to read. Toxic is set to become a landmark book of the twenty-first century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Australia, Politics, Environment, Science, Health, Audiobook

Audiobook

First published May 1, 2021

About the author

Richard Flanagan (born 1961) is an author, historian and film director from Tasmania, Australia. He was president of the Tasmania University Union and a Rhodes Scholar. Each of his novels has attracted major praise. His first, Death of a River Guide (1994), was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, as were his next two, The Sound of One Hand Clapping (1997) and Gould's Book of Fish (2001). His earlier, non-fiction titles include books about the Gordon River, student issues, and the story of conman John Friedrich.
Two of his novels are set on the West Coast of Tasmania; where he lived in the township of Rosebery as a child. Death of a River Guide relates to the Franklin River, Gould's Book of Fish to the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping to the Hydro settlements in the Central Highlands of Tasmania.

Reviews

[Rowan MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I won’t be eating Tasmanian salmon again.

“Unlike any other food industry, consumers don’t see how Tasmanian salmon is made. The community couldn’t handle seeing that vision.”

Toxic is a well-written, savage account on the Tasmanian salmon industry by award-winning writer Richard Flanagan. It’s easy to see why he has won all those awards.

This is impressively researched, with Flanagan including an extensive range of references and evidence to back up everything he says. It’s written with a passion and urgency that immediately hooks the reader. The horrific nature of what is being exposed has a tendency to do that too.

“It’s easier to find out what you’re feeding your dog then what you’re feeding yourself when you eat Tasmanian salmon.”

This is close to home. The very glass of water I’m sipping from while writing this is directly impacted - and increasingly polluted from the salmon industry and their dodgy practices.

I was already aware of some issues plaguing the corrupt industry (and our corrupt politicians which enable this to continue unchecked). But I was still blown away by all that I learnt here, in particular that:

- The fishmeal and fish oil fed used to feed the salmon requires chemicals to stabilise it during transportation (ethoxyquin), which was developed by Monsanto in the 1950s as a pesticide. It’s linked to all sorts of cancers, and its use is banned in human food throughout Australia and Europe (yet it’s still fed to salmon we eat).

- The fish get their orange colour from dye in their feed, to make it more “marketable”.

- It’s a major contribution to antibiotic resistance, because of all the antibiotics used to combat a range of issues; including those associated with our waters being too warm to farm Atlantic salmon in the first place.

- The Tasmanian salmon diet of chemicals, crushed chicken skulls, beaks, feathers, along with wild fish pillaged from distant oceans, soy meal of dubious and criminal provenance (destruction of the Amazon and other habitats around the world).

- Every six hours, fish farming pours another tonne of liquid fertiliser into the Channel alone.

- Numerous instances of horrific mass fish deaths in recent years. Not just with the salmon being farmed, but other species in the marine ecosystem, including some becoming extinct, or on the verge of.

- The barbaric treatment of seals; including usage of underwater explosives and other methods, which often blind or deafen them, and cause other marine life such as dolphins and whales to flee the area.

- The fish of today aren't as healthy as the fish you ate 15 years ago, with the much-touted omega 3 benefits dramatically decreasing, as an increase in bad fatty acids takes over.

Some of the most powerful passages included testimony from locals whose lives have been upturned because of living in the vicinity of the industry. The tactics used by various companies sounded nothing short of Mafia-like in their brutality.

“When the young woman spoke out publicly about the noise pollution at a public meeting, dead wallabies with cut throats appeared in her front garden.”

For animal lovers like me, this is a tough read. The greed and complete disregard for our environment displayed by companies and politicians in this book made me angry. Tasmania's identity is rapidly changing, and not for the better. Flanagan gives small hope towards the end; with mention of overseas fish-farming technology moving to more environmentally-friendly and sustainable land-based practices. But who knows if that is already too late for areas of Tasmania's once-pristine coastline and waterways?

I always viewed the sight of commercial fishpens with disdain; considering them an ugly blight on the otherwise world-class scenery lining my doorstep. But now, thanks to Richard Flanagan's powerful Toxic, I view them for what they truly are.

[Boy Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure Flanagan repeated this mantra to himself every morning before sitting down to work on this book.


The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides
By the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men
Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will
Shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness
For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children
And I will strike down upon thee
With great vengeance and furious anger
Those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers
And you will know my name is the Lord
When I lay my vengeance upon thee


Some of you will recognise that from a certain Tarantino film, some of you will see it as a bastardisation of Ezekiel 25:17, and some of you may just think it's a bit of high falutin wordplay. But it is undoubtedly the emotion Flanagan was channelling in this book.

I hope this becomes a completely new genre, Booker prize winners doing hit jobs on big corporations. What an absolute weapon. Flanagan's polemic is dripping in lyricism. Sometimes the repetition of the Salmons' gruesome condition seems overkill but I guess Flanagan is using the only tool he's got to fight his cause. It's true there is no balance in this book at all, this isn't a scientific expose, this is a committed and concerted hit job. It's a necessary one too because it's quite clear that Big Salmon has a stranglehold on Tasmanian politics and they have been running bullshit marketing campaigns for the past two decades that have wheedled their way into people's minds and created a completely fallacious clean, green image.


The fundamental issue is addressed by Flanagan quite late in the book.


"From the beginning, Atlantic Salmon were the wrong species in the wrong environment."


Everything these companies do to keep the salmon alive stems from having the wrong fish in the wrong environment and their corporate greed. Atlantic salmon grow best in sea temperatures of 12-15 (hence why they're great in Norway), over 17 and they start getting quite ill and stressed. Tasmanian waters get as high as 19 in the summer. Pretty simple maths.


As brutal and disgusting as the visceral accounts of the salmon pens are and the destruction wreaked on the environment is, the most depressing part is reading of the political mechanisms that allowed this tragedy to happen. Flanagan mentions multiple times the lessons that should have been learnt by Tasmania in the Gunn's days with wood pulping but instead the state has sleepwalked into another catastrophe. In many ways the siren call of the salmon industry lured people straight from the wreckage of the wood pulping industry into the next disaster. The corruption of the political process has a magnifying effect which makes the actions of the few adversely effect the lives of everyone, that's the most devastating part of this or any story of corruption. Knowing that the corruption that has lead to the salmon industry wreaking havoc could easily happen again with another industry. While Tasmania needs to stand up and fight back, consumers around the world should also take notice and hit the company where it hurts. Sometimes voting for the other side is enough, sometimes you have to do more. Feeling powerless is a horrible feeling and one Australians are probably quite familiar with but we have to fight the stupor we're constantly lulled into.


I've been to places where people grind themselves to dust in factories to get even a skerrick of protein once a week. The argument of feeding the world though doesn't quite work for salmon because it's a luxury, especially when compared to chicken. A point here which I think Flanagan misses is that, we don't have any right to eat food from other parts of the world. We shouldn't be able to eat salmon year round, and in Australia we shouldn't really be eating salmon at all. I would have liked to see Flanagan attack the supermarkets as culpable in spreading this belief that all food should appear vacuum packed at affordable prices year round and for disconnecting us with the seasons and making us believe there is no cost in our greed and selfish desire to eat what we want, when we want. It's true we're culpable in this tragedy for being consumers of the product but the supermarkets are collaborators in perpetrating the myth of a clean, green Tasmanian salmon product.


Flanagan's path of vengeance clearly began as NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) but someone has to fight the good fight and what matter is it how they get started. When the cost is this high the ends will justify the means.


Don't eat Tasmanian Salmon.


If you don't believe that's the right decision.


Read the book.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Salmon farming, and perhaps all industrial aquaculture is absolutely cooked. I’ve been waxing lyrical about the environmental horrors and questionable health data discussed in this book to anyone who will listen for the last week, I’m that outraged by this. Brief summary- your salmon is not as good for you or as environmentally clean as you think it is; it’s probably not even really the colour you think it is. I’ll just stay over here, glad to be a vegetarian. Five star read, highly recommended.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘They have destroyed what we loved.’

Well, if you thought that the Tasmanian salmon industry was a sustainable example of world’s best practice, then reading this book will almost certainly change your mind. Unless, perhaps, you think this is an example of dystopian fiction. Read it and weep.

‘We were condemned to live amid the immense damage done when government abrogates its responsibilities and the only legislator is greed.’

I have read and enjoyed much of Mr Flanagan’s writing, and I had this book on my must-read list for a while. When I finally starting reading, it held my attention from beginning to end.

‘As several scientists put it to me, referencing the infamous woodchipping monopoly that devastated Tasmania’s internationally unique wildlands through the 1990s and 2000s, poisoning Tasmanian life and corrupting its democracy, salmon farming is the new Gunns.’

I am old enough to remember when Gunns was a reputable, highly regarded company, old enough to remember before Lake Pedder was flooded, and Macquarie Harbour before salmon farming. I am less familiar with Bruny Island and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel but am horrified to read about what has happened and continues to happen as salmon farms expand.

Mr Flanagan sets out facts and figures, human stories as well as stories of species loss and habitat reduction very clearly. And reading this book, it is difficult to understand how, in the face of the evidence, any rational government could have thought that Atlantic salmon farming on the scale being undertaken in Tasmania was either desirable or viable. The environmental degradation of both Macquarie Harbour and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, the diversion of freshwater to bathe the salmon, the diesel and plastic pollution associated with the industry ... and this is just part of the story.

But Mr Flanagan says it far better:

‘To ask one simple question: what are we eating when we eat Tasmanian salmon?
For we eat horror: factory-farmed chicken heads and guts and claws and feathers, as well as petrochemical dyes, possible carcinogens and antibiotic residue. We dine on destruction: idyllic worlds reduced to industrial complexes that toil to the thud of dirty diesels day and night keeping millions of tortured fish alive with chemicals and dubious feed products; we sup on people’s lives destroyed by noise and official contempt. And we are eating the silencing by anonymous threats, pay-offs and the use of confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements of anyone with an opinion contrary to that of the salmon industry.

And that’s just the people.’

This is an eye-opening read about an industry which employs less than one percent of Tasmanian’s workers and contributes less than two percent to Gross State Product (GSP). And, as Mr Flanagan points out, salmon farms in Europe and Asia are being moved onshore.

Read it and weep, over the damage done.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Neil Spark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone concerned about the environment and the food they eat should read this. Booker-prize winner Richard Flanagan has written a treatise that had to be written.

The power of the marine salmon industry is breathtaking, its destruction of the environment horrifying and the product itself deceiving. Salmon created in marine farms in Australia’s island state of Tasmania are anything but the clean, green and omega-3 rich food the industry has led us to believe. And the industry wants people to believe its product is good for them and the economy. But they feed the salmon chicken remains, antibiotics and other chemicals.

The marine salmon industry in Tasmania employs less than one percent of the island’s workers and contributes less than two percent of Gross State Product. And as the industry expands, its job rate does not.

Marine salmon farms are moving onshore in Europe and Asia. The industry will eventually be obsolete and the cost to the environment and people will be incalculable.

Tasmania’s population is 525k and connections are a lot closer than other more densely populated places. The marine salmon farming industry is a sacred cow. All whistleblowers are courageous; Richard Flanagan particularly so. Books can change lives and the world and I hope Toxic is one of them, for everyone’s sakes.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mortifying realisation of what really happens in the Tasmanian salmon industry and the environmental damage done - and ongoing.

Every chapter was a new horror. Sobering and rage-inducing. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it does :(

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well... Can't eat Tassal ever again. Truely horrifying. Each chapter is scarier than its predecessor. Thanks to Richard Flanagan for exposing this.

[MonsRuiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gobsmacked completely gobsmacked.

If you are really concerned about the environment and you care about what you eat, then this is for you.

I am ashamed at the corruption of our Government and of the actions these large corporations have taken rather than thinking about the suffering they are causing individuals, communities, sea life and our environment.

Moral of story don’t eat Tasmanian Salmon, it’s TOXIC

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for an even-handed investigation of a complex issue, this isn't the book for you. It's a polemic; it makes a highly emotive, one-sided case against salmon farming. It'll only suit if your priors mean you're already against salmon farming and want to reinforce your prejudices. As it happens, I'm doubtful about salmon farming, but I think the world would be much better served by a book that gave me other POVs than just those of activists; that critically interrogated the key claims for and against; used reliable and tested evidence rather than rely mostly on submissions from just one side of the debate; and made an honest attempt to explain the economic case (such as it is). My doubts about salmon farming come from other sources, but I'll give credit to Flanagan for bringing my attention to the issue.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Salmon farming is the latest scandal of crony capitalism in Tasmania, where Governments of both stripes give the green light and massive support, legal and financial, to an industry that is quite out of control and is doing immense damage to people’s wellbeing, the land and marine environments, even to the long term interests of the industry itself. This is a familiar Tasmanian story: dams, forestry, woodchips, gambling, all examples of Tasmania’s addiction to crony capitalism, whereby government give rich mates open slather to line their pockets even further to the detriment of the people.
Flanagan used to write his books in the rural paradise of his Bruny Island shack, until recently when it became unlivable. Pollution, algae, deformed fish, thudding diesels day and night 24/7 became increasingly intolerable both to him and other residences close to the waterside. He had to leave and write elsewhere. When residents complained about the noise and pollution, they found dead wallabies on their lawns, receiving threatening notes and phone calls, and the noise was increased, deliberately, with boats loudly trolling back and forth outside their homes. But all was legal because none of the usual protections against noise and pollution applied on water! Flanagan after years of research details the problems in 8 chapters. Ch 1 describes the above.
Ch 2 discusses marine and water scientists who say that Tassal’s smolt hatchery at Meadowbank – Hobart’s water supply – has discharged nutrients high in nitrogen fouling our water supply; the discharge at the Storm Bay farms caused algal blooms from nitrogen release: over 450 tonnes of dissolved nitrogen, compared to less than 100 tonnes released by all Tasmania’s sewerage. Louise Cherrie and Barbara Nowak were scientists on what they thought was a review and monitoring panel for salmon farming, the Marine Farming Planning Review Panel to find the Panel entirely cosmetic, waving through any plans the industry had to expand their farms, automatically approved by the Environmental Protection Authority. Regulation was brought in preventing requests for farming expansion to be refused. Tassal was allowed to grossly overstock and ruin Macquarie Harbour and part of the World Heritage area. Deveillid worms only survive the de-oxygenated water and most wildlife, like the maugean skate, one of the rarest animals in Australia, disappeared. Cherrie and Nowak strongly opposed the Storm Bay expansion to no avail: they resigned, but later found their names were added as having approved Storm Bay.
Ch 3: what salmon eat and what we eat. In the wild salmon eat fish and hence their omega-3 which is healthy for us/ Farmed salmon food is chicken based: feathers, beaks, meat, intestines and vegetable-based food like soy, so that these salmon are low in omega-3 (good fat) but high in omega-6 (bad fat) which actually blocks absorption of omega-3. The flesh of farmed salmon is grey-white, not pink like that of wild salmon who eat crustaceans rich in astaxanthin, so they are given synthetic astax. made from petro-chemicals. Our waters are too warm for salmon and so they accumulate bacteria, which is countered with vast doses of antibiotics.
Ch 4: the crowded and noisy nets make salmon stunted and ill, a good 10% die of deformities and stunted growth. To counter this, larger fatter and faster growing fish are produced by giving thermal or pressure shocks to salmon eggs that produce “triploids” , fish with 3 chromosomes, with an even higher mortality rate as many are deformed by disproportionate rapid growth. Also the detritus that builds around the cages attract jellyfish, that sting and smother salmon. They are washed away from the pens with force that breakup the jellyfish but each piece seeds another jellyfish, to create a vicious circle. Seals are also attracted and although it is illegal they are shot, and seal bombs used that explode under water creating problems for dolphins whales and even shellfish.
Ch 5. The sea water is at least 2-3 degrees warmer than the comfort zone for salmon so they grow amoeba on their gills. “Fish bathing” is used to counter these effects whereby vast quantities of fresh water are used: fish pumped into fresh water and pumped out, with damage and loss for this brutal treatment. This is done also in large boats and the pumping by large noisy diesel engines. The polluted “bathwater” is then pumped back into the sea. Tassal bought into Okehampton Bay, a shallow warm bay on the East Coast, oddly the local council paying for the treatment on the grounds of jobs for the area. However, Graeme Woods’ eco tourist centre in the area employed far more jobs at no cost to the environment. The noise is literally sickening for nearby residents but when they complain they are persecuted.
Ch. 6 elaborates on these stories of complainants and their fate, character shredding so people lose their jobs. Ch 7 details the plastic pollution, both of tons of solid plastic which is a danger to boats, many having been ruined: Tassal’s reply is to offer to repair the boats on condition the owners swear to secrecy about it. The other form of plastic are less visible micro plastics that fall onto the ocean floor and get into the food chain
Ch 8 summarises the damage done and the strategies used to get around it. The damage of current salmon farming practice is manifold: to the marine and land environments, to people’s health and wellbeing, to the fish themselves. But the profits are large, the loss of sick fish neither here nor there. Mostly the government refuses to prosecute breaches – where there are regulations to ignore -- and so the companies get more and more uncaring in the damage they do: their job is to make profits for least cost. Which they do; it is their remit. Accordingly, Flanagan blames the Government, Labor and particularly Liberal, and the agencies such as the EPA which are completely toothless. Other countries are much better at regulating marine farming especially Norway. The answer of most is to go onshore but, unlike Tassal at Meadowbank, they are regulated and keep well away from water supplies. There are many advantages of going onshore: it is easier to control, there is less travel and less carbon footprint, but Tasmania as usual sticks to the old polluting ways, as in forestry, that in the past and present deliver huge profits to rogue corporations that are allowed to get way with what they want. If some of these statements here seem over the top, Flanagan has backed them all up with 270 references. There can be little doubt that his arguments are based on evidence. That however has not stopped the industry taking out page sized glossy ads with flat denials, but no evidence. A good example of the spin can be seen in the Tassal website: https://www.google.com/search?q=tassa...

As can be seen, the industry promotes itself as being clean, green and healthy, so what could be nicer than eating salmon that has been produced in Tasmania’s famed clear and pristine waters? A terrible lot, as we are now finding out.

[Anna Baillie-Karas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read. I can never eat farmed salmon again after reading this book! Despite the grim content it’s engaging, conversational and a compelling read with Flanagan’s knack for telling a story. His tone is curious & friendly rather than preachy. I was shocked by the farming methods, damage to the environment (& the fish) loss of species & wider implications of deforestation to support the anchovy feed industry o/S. Not to mention what The salmon eat (crushed chicken feathers, petrochemical dyes).

But almost worse are the government failures and complicity in allowing this to happen.

[Liam]

Felt he took the Nimby'ist possible tack to start the book but reeled it in.

A good time to be plant based.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolute must-read, but I don't share Flanagan's outlook at the end of the book re: land-based salmon farms. Based on the evidence provided in the previous chapters and all the information we have about factory farms, it seems pretty naive to think that they, too, would not be wildly unregulated and ethically abhorrent.

[Marie Belcredi · Rating 5 out of 5]

So you think that Tasmanian Salmon is clean, fresh, green, sustainable and healthy?
In his book, Toxic, Richard Flanagan takes each of these marketing ploys to task and dismantles them and adds more characteristics including corruption to the list of characteristics of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry.

So you think Tasmanian Salmon is healthy? All that omega-3 good for your heart? Today's salmon that is fed more on vegetable protein, ie soy, has half omega-3 than wild salmon and what's more, it has more of the potentially bad omega-6. That soy has been sourced, in a large part from plantations that have been taken from the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and the Gran Chaco Forest in Argentina. Soy that is fed to the salmon so the salmon can feed us.

Because of the highly industrialised high densities in which the salmon are kept, they are treated with large amounts of antibiotics to keep infection at bay. The fish are more susceptible to infection living in the filthy soup in which they are contained.

Fresh and clean? That lovely orange colour of salmon is called No 33 and can make and break the salmon farm. Get it wrong and the fish will unsellable. This is added to the fish food so that the resulting meat will display a colour preferred by the consumer. Without it, the fish would be an unappetising grey.

Even the salmon which are kept in an highly stressed over populated, artificial environment exhibit the results of this environment by stunted growth and other deformities. You don't see that in a fillet dished up on a plate with a garnish of treacly black soy sauce.

Another myth is that the industry is sustainable. Because the industry operates in too shallow areas with almost no distance between the bottom of the cages and the sea floor, the water is too warm and too stagnant with the result that the salmon have to be regularly "bathed". Such a pleasant word, "bathed". What this means for the fish is that they are doused with high pressure fresh water regularly from large diesel powered noisy factory ships. What happens to this filthy water and where has it come from?

Where is comes from is where corruption comes in. The fresh water is taken from the drinking water supply of the people of Hobart and other areas of Tasmania. The tax payer funds this on an island, the East of which is a relatively dry part of the country. Time and time again the local councils have been made to give in to the salmon farms Tassal, Huon Aquacualture and Petunia and the tax payer has had to foot the bill. The regulator, the EPA rubber stamps the expansion of these farms and turns a blind eye to environmental destruction, animal cruelty and political corruption.

Flanagan writes beautifully and poetically about the natural world and with great dismay at the trashing of it, however each fact is supported with solid references. For my part, I will never eat Tasmanian Salmon again.

[Poppy Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tasmania's southern coastal waters have always been a fragile, pristine wilderness. Untracked beaches nestle between rugged headlands and a powerful ocean teeming with seals, seahorses, seadragons, striped cowfish, abalone, crayfish, octopus. In recent years these waters have become scarred by huge metal cages holding millions of salmon. 'Toxic' is the work of acclaimed author Richard Flanagan. In clear and evocative language, Flanagan exposes the environmental and financial cost of Tasmania's salmon industry. His findings are distressing. Kayaking around his beloved Bruny Island, Flanagan no longer sees dolphins or octopus but strange floating jellyfish blooms. The waters vibrate from the huge factory ships, the coast line is fringed with algae slime from uneaten pellets and the ablutions of millions of tightly caged fish. The seagrass is retreating, the crystal clear water is tainted by a bubbly brown broth, the birds are disappearing. For the first time in 25 years Flanagan could not finish writing his novel in his island shack - the constant noise and the destruction going on around him was impossible to ignore.
In this book, he describes the caged fish as floating feedlots, battery hens of the sea who are ironically fed protein from waste gathered from battery hen factories - mashed up beaks, feathers, claws, necks etc mixed with soy. They are given supplements to achieve their famous pink sheen. He interviews scientists who have been bullied out of their advisory roles, locals who regularly collect rubbish off the beaches that has broken away from the farms, and estuarine scientists who claim that the upriver hatcheries pour ammonia, nitrate and phosphorus into the river, which causes significant algal blooms and contaminates Hobart's drinking water.
With a frail economy Tasmania has a history of these David and Goliath battles of industry versus environment. The taxpayer subsidises these salmon farms; including giving them really cheap leaseholds. My layman's solution? Move the fish farm inland, use the fecal rubbish as land fertilizer, and invest in making salmon farming sustainable.
People might say, we have to feed the world. But this is a luxury food. It takes 1.73kg of wild fish to make 1kg of salmon. There are currently expansion plans underway, including one farm which aims to produce 80,000 tonnes annually. This would be the equivalent of building a city of three million people on North Bruny and pouring all their sewage into the sea.
We need to do better than this!!

'Fourteen years ago, I saw my last abalone. Eleven years ago, my last crayfish. Ten years ago, the penguins vanished. Then the cod. Then the tiny maireener shells disappeared - the same shells that Truganini and her people once gathered... with which to make their necklaces.' RF

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this could fit into the horror section of libraries and bookshops pretty easily - Flanagan laces his rage with highly visceral descriptions of the grossness of the destruction caused by salmon farming. Having said that, it was an eye-opener for me - I stopped eating farmed salmon a few years ago following my realisation about the cruelty of the practice but had remained largely blind to the environmental impact. This reads like a series of interlinked essays, each tackling a different evil with occasional repetition. It is useful, if depressing, reading - not only on this specific but for the banality of how large private industry distorts our political system.

[Sam Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotional, but very thorough expose... reminded me how easier it is to conveniently ignore issues with industrial ag...

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compulsory and depressing read!! I did crave more journalistic digging- where are the corporate whistleblowers and ex-politicians? Probably being paid under the table by big salmon. Hmmm.

[crizzcroc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sustainable fish farming is a myth.

[✨ Aaron Jeffery ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Randomly picked this up and I’m so glad I did. Sooooooo interesting and informative

[Trenton Hoare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toxic highlights how the Salmon industry has complete control over Tasmanian waterways and its inhabitants. If you are currently eating Salmon, you won’t want to after you read this. Another industry which has captured the state.

[Melinda Nankivell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible eye opener into the Atlantic salmon industry of Tasmania, this book really needs to be read by everyone and changes need to occur! Scary stuff.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrifying and heartbreaking account of the wilful destruction of irreplaceable Tasmanian wilderness (principally)by Tassal Salmon. The negligent lack of effective regulation and deliberate obfuscation on the part of the Tas government is horrendous. Flanagan writes so lyrically about the wilds that were, and so incisively about what is dead or dying, that I will NEVER eat Tasmanian salmon again, unless someone is brave (and smart) enough to change the way it's produced.
Every Australian needs to read this book.

[Steve Camilleri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great treatise which another review has criticised as biased and mixing up causation with correlation, and also not referencing facts. They must have not got up to the nearly 30 pages of references. If it was a peer reviewed paper it would have been in a scientific journal and not published for some time to come. Overall a good education on the environmental impact of low regulation and a toothless EPA, weak politicians and a community that will be paying the cost for years to come.

[Joseph Nunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only got about 50 pages through this then had to stop. This is a man with a grudge and it's plain to see. Most of his claims are anecdotal and come from a place of extreme cognitive bias. The fear mongering around chemicals is verging on anti-vaxxer territory. He claims that Huons land based hatchery is impacting hobarts drinking water quality with no proof then in the other breath suggests we should move all salmon farms onto land? He blames every change he notices in the channel on the fish farms without proof and tends to forget that globally ocean temperatures are rising and there's a multitude of other factors at play yet the salmon farms have become his defacto scape goat. Global warming will cause algal blooms due to higher temperatures as well as agricultural run off yet he blames the farms. He claims that you can't catch a flathead in the channel anymore and again blames the salmon farms. It's funny that the recreational fisher will never acknowledge that they may be part of the problem and always look for someone else to blame. I catch flathead on almost every cast in North West bay not far from salmon leases. I consider this book an extremely elaborate noise complaint against the Tassal leases opposite his Bruny island shack. I'd recommend that this book is taken with many grains of salt and alternative sources consulted before strong opinions are formed regarding the sustainability of salmon farming.

[Sarah Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have put off reading this book for a while, which is only a further reminder of these gross environmental issues that are easier to ignore than acknowledge. Flanagan delves into the mortifying reality of what really happens in the Tasmanian salmon industry and the environmental damage done. In typical Flanagan style, it is eloquent and evocative, but certainly a stark reality for what we've allowed to happen, and the protections that are not inlace for this industry that exist for many other agricultural areas. Well researched and eye-opening.

'Fourteen years ago, I saw my last abalone. Eleven years ago, my last crayfish. Ten years ago, the penguins vanished. Then the cod. Then the tiny maireener shells disappeared - the same shells that Truganini and her people once gathered... with which to make their necklaces.'

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

What lies beneath the greenwash of "clean and green" salmon industry in Tasmania. It is a compelling expose of the lies, the lives ruined, the political corruption, and environmental destruction of pristine World Heritage waterways. It is shocking as it is compelling.

[Gillian Crosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not only a must-read, but a must-read-as-soon-as-possible. A completely chilling delve into a corrupt system that is doing irreversible damage to one of the most beautiful places in the world, and is careening along unchecked as we speak. I certainly will never be eating Tasmanian farmed salmon again, and will be looking into what further action can be taken.

[Lee Kofman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly important, well researched but a little too angrily written. Some pages felt repetitive, a little on the rant-y side. I think if Flanagan used his creative skills more here, this powerful book would have been even stronger. Still, I am grateful to him for writing this and I'll never eat Tasmanian salmon again.

[Ally Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have heard, for some time now, the murmurs that Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon may not be the health food I thought it was. With the industry leading us to think we are eating food that is clean for the environment and full of rich omega-3 it was once a weekly staple in my diet. In 2021 Richard Flanagan released his book “Toxic: The rotting underbelly of the Tasmania Salmon Industry” and it was at about this time I cut my salmon intake back, but I had not read the book to fully educate myself and to realise how naive I was, not only for my own health, but with the environmental issues that come with buying and eating Tasmanian farmed salmon.

Richard Flanagan has created a well written account to expose the salmon farming industry in Tasmania. Meticulously researched, Flanagan uses a vast number of references and evidence to back up his claims. He speaks about the chemicals used to stabilise fish feed during transportation, the dye used to make the fish the orange “marketable” colour, the salmon’s diet consisting of chicken frames and beaks along with the use of soy protein (which then destroys other habitats in the world such as the Amazon rainforest), the liquid fertilizers that are poured into our waterways, the lack of oxygen in the salmon pens that then result in numerous mass fish deaths and the use of underwater explosives to deter seals away from the fish pens. However, the topic that I found most disturbing and saddening is the corruption of the Tasmanian Government and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but I don’t find it surprising. The bullying tactics used by the Tasmania Salmon Industry and the lives that are being affected by the environmental noise of this industry is sickening. The Tasmanian Government and EPA do nothing but turn a blind eye as profit and greed is more important than people living peaceful lives and protecting our environment from the chemicals and destruction that the salmon industry cause.

Richard Flanagan uses one powerful line at the very start of the book and if you are a person who is still eating Tasmanian farmed Atlantic Salmon think about this;
“If we purchase the commodity, we participate in the crime.”.

In saying all that I do recommend you read this book, educate yourself as I cannot write in one short review how bad this industry is for our Tasmanian waters, the Tasmanian state, environment and for your own health.