Tasmania's environmental regulator says it is well equipped to oversee the state's $700 million salmon industry and there will be no immediate change to numbers in Macquarie Harbour.
The ABC's Four Corners program aired allegations the harbour is overstocked with fish and will not cope with expansion plans.
The Tasmanian Government kept increasing the cap on the number of fish farms despite concern from environmental groups and producer Huon Aquaculture.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) recently took over responsibility of regulating the salmon industry from the Environment Department.
It employed two extra staff for the role and director Wes Ford said more would be hired as money flowed from increased industry licence fees.
"As the industry grows, the environmental regulation needs to be given bigger priority ... so the industry needs to work at its environmental performance," he said.
Environmentalists are also concerned the harbour can not flush the thousands of tonnes of fish waste.
EPA director Wes Ford said while the waste was breaking down, in some areas it had reached unacceptable levels.
"There have been pockets across all the leases where at times individual leases have had to be fallowed for periods of time," he said.
The EPA sets capacity limits for Macquarie Harbour and said all three companies had reduced the amount of their fish in the harbour.
It will set a new number cap early next year but for now he said the EPA would be sticking by the number of fish allowed in the harbour.
"At the moment it's clear that all three companies have reduced the amount of fish they've got in the harbour because of concerns they've had," he said.
"The question around whether there are too many or not is really a question [where] we've got to keep looking at the science."
Tasmania's environmental regulator said monitoring of fish health was partially the responsibility of the state's salmon farmers.
Mr Ford said while the EPA regulates the number of fish allowed in the harbour, their health is managed by the chief veterinary officer and by the companies themselves.
"The reality is Macquarie Harbour is a challenging place to grow salmon, the companies knew that," he said.
"It's economically a benefit for them to grow fish there because of the freshwater environment, there has got be some trade-offs and that's the challenge."
Clean, green image at risk: chef
Australian TV chef Matthew Evans said scrutiny of Tasmania's $700 million salmon industry could damage the state's clean, green image.
Evans runs a food and livestock farm in the Huon Valley.
He said how people viewed the state's produce was directly linked to the salmon industry.
"It's absolutely vital for food producers to have the trust of the public and I think the reputation of the salmon farms reflects on the reputation of Tasmania as a whole," he said.
Evans said he believed that after the Four Corners program consumers would be asking more questions.
"I don't think it's going to dent the demand for [salmon] in the long term, but I think it has the potential to damage the reputation of Tasmania as a place that's clean and green," he said.
"I think people will start to question the salmon producers ... asking more of them, and saying 'you told us that you're world's best practice for so long but there seems to be something that we don't know about you and the way you operate'."
Evans said the more information that was available to consumers the better.
"All the science should be publicly available, I think that it should be independently verified to make sure that these companies are doing the right thing," he said.
Tassal will not be changing labelling.
Little share price impact
Tassal's share price had slipped just over 2 per cent by the close of markets on Tuesday, while Huon Aquaculture had gained 4.68 per cent.
Roger Montgomery from Montgomery Investment Management said Tassal seemed to have escaped any major market impact.
"A 2 per cent move suggests the market doesn't really care that much about this information," he said.
The Four Corners episode also publicised the use of synthetic additive astaxanthin, which Tasmania's salmon producers use to colour the flesh of farmed salmon, which would otherwise be grey or off-white.
Mr Montgomery said the companies were more likely to suffer on the stock market if they moved away from using astaxanthin.
"If the company decides to adopt a natural colouring process rather than the synthetic, it's likely that will be more expensive, that will affect margins," he said.
"The majority of consumers are buying many, many other foods that are artificially flavoured and artificially coloured.
"The fact that salmon has a synthetic colouring is not going to move the dial all that much."
The Tasmanian Salmonoid Growers Association recently posted an article on its website about why salmon is pink.
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