The mass escape by thousands of big Atlantic salmon from Tassal’s west coast fish farm has fuelled a mid-winter boom in sleepy Strahan.
The fish were about to be harvested two weeks ago when their pen ripped while being towed across Macquarie Harbour.
As the news that 9000 salmon weighing around 5kg were on the loose, recreational fishermen descended on the local town of Strahan — to the delight of Mayor Darryl Gerrity.
“We’re thinking about putting zippers in the nets to help us through the slow winter months,” he said.
Tassal employed a professional fisherman to catch as many of the escapees as possible but he gave up after netting about 900 of them.
The escaped salmon are believed to have been worth about $200,000.
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