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Tasmanian salmon producer Tassal defends record amid concerns over Macquarie Harbour water quality

One of Tasmania's three main salmon producers, Tassal, has defended its record against claims it is responsible for deteriorating water quality in Macquarie Harbour.

On Tuesday in State Parliament Greens leader Kim Booth tabled a leaked email that was sent to the Premier from Huon Aquaculture and Petuna that raised concerns about deteriorating water quality.

It also referred to a disease outbreak in pens owned by Tassal, and accused the Government of lifting the cap on fish stocks to accommodate Tassal.

Concerns were also raised by Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson in Federal Parliament.

He tabled a leaked report from an industry, government and scientific group that highlighted plunging levels of dissolved oxygen in the harbour that could be caused from fish farming.

Tassal's head of sustainability, Linda Sams, told 936 ABC Hobart the information in the emails to the State Government was six months old and the information had been "cherry-picked".

"I find [it] disturbing and really an attack on our reputation because I think everything we've done as a company over the last five years is in direct contradiction to those assertions," she said.

"What can we say? This is a private email sent to the Government. We weren't consulted on it, nobody asked us to provide that information.

"I know what we know what we've been doing, we haven't breached anything. We transparently report, we have third-party audits.

"The Government's reviewed our information. They're not telling us we've breached anything."

Rebecca Hubbard from Environment Tasmania said the aquaculture expansion had caused a decline in the health of Macquarie Harbour.

"There was a lack of science to show that this huge expansion - some 360 per cent increase in production - would be sustainable. There just wasn't the science to demonstrate that," she said.

"The regulator erred in its approval of that expansion and it's continuing to fail in managing the impacts from this expansion as it seems from these leaked documents."

She called on the State Government to intervene to protect the environment.

"The Tasmanian Government must step in and commit to destocking salmon farms and salmon from Macquarie Harbour back to the pre-expansion levels," she said.

Farmed salmon is the most valuable of Tasmania's aquaculture industries, worth more than half a billion dollars a year.

The criticism of Tassal comes as a new fish hub in the harbour nears completion.

West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers said the Macquarie Harbour salmon farm was vital to the region's economy, which had suffered from a decline in the mining industry.

"To be sustainable we need some industrial growth," he said.

Mr Vickers said the only community complaints about fish farms related to litter, and he was more concerned about yesterday's attacks in Parliament.

""I'm worried about it being scaremongering and trouble-making more than anything," he said.

"We ought to stick to the science and the facts and just trying to make an issue out of two bits of paper, I think all that it creates is terrible uncertainty within the job side of the business."

The State Government said the harbour was continuously monitored for pollution.