Concise history of the acclimatisation of the Salmonidae in Tasmania

Abstract

The idea of acclimatising the English salmon (Salmo salar) in Tasmanian waters was entertained by some of the colonists at a very early period in our history. In the year 1844, as recorded in Vol. 1, p. 28 1, of the " Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania," the late Captain Frederick Chalmers, of Brighton, in Tasmania, applied to Dr. Mackenzie, of Kinillan-by- Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland, for salmon fry to bring to Tasmania. The fry were not supplied, but the correspondence is interesting, and shows how little was then known of the subject when Dr. Mackenzie suggested that artificially impregnated ova deposited in a basket of fine gravel and plunged in a tank would require no more attention until it was landed in Tasmania, where it could be put into a pail and carried to any stream and there deposited. P. S. Seager was Secretary to the Fisheries Board of Tasmania.