The rotting underbelly of the Tasmanian salmon industry

The documentary film Paradise Lost has been published in tandem with Flanagan’s latest book - Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry . Together, they offer an alarming insight into the devastating environmental impact salmon farms are having on Tasmania’s once pristine waters, world heritage areas, and public health.

It’s a tragic, no-holds-barred account of an industry’s insatiable demand for profit at all costs, and the monstrous power that it holds over government processes. Which is why it’s inspiring to see individuals such as Kurzel, Flanagan and Castles-Lynch, alongside the many experts and local people featured in the film, who are willing to put their careers on the line to protect what’s right: the environment and their livelihoods.

With Globe and Dion Agius’ imminent new film Dark Hollow set for release in the upcoming weeks, a project generating support for the future of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, with Dion pledging a minimum of $15,000 (AUD) to the Bob Brown Foundation, it’s clear that Tasmanians have had enough.

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.