Mr Flanagan, a Booker Prize-winning author, has written a new book about the industry called Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry. He told ABC Radio on Thursday that Tasmanian salmon was "not clean, it's not green and it's not even healthy".

"There's another massive sea grab coming that the government is keeping quiet," he said. "And they should be telling the electors of Tasmania about that."

IN OTHER NEWS:

"I know from sources within government that what's being proposed are [facilities at] beloved areas of the North-West Coast, from Burnie through to west of Wynyard. These are beautiful places like Boat Harbour, possibly Rocky Cape, possibly Table Cape. They're talking about the Hunter Island Group, they're talking about Stanley, a gem of Tasmania, a beautiful historic village becoming a heavy industrial facility for the salmon industry.

"They're also talking about North-East Tasmania - Bridport, around that area.

"They're also talking about putting more salmon farms in at Port Arthur, next to a World Heritage Site."

Deputy Premier Jeremy Rockliff, a former state primary industries minister, said he wasn't aware of any secret expansion plans.

"There'll be no expansion of any salmon industry across Tasmanian waters without thorough analysis, thorough consultation," he said.

"If there are expansion opportunities into the future and it does employ many Tasmanians and it's done on a very sustainable basis, then that would be welcome."

The Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association said Mr Flanagan's comments "hit hard-working Tasmanians and the Tasmanian brand, all while the state is working to recover from COVID-19".

"The impact of this book will be deeply felt by the more than 2000 people we directly employ and their families, as well as thousands of contractors that are part of our industry," a spokesperson for the association said.

Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection co-chair Peter George, meanwhile, said the state's salmon industry had been "peddling fiction to trusting consumers for decades".

"If the industry continues as it is, it'll spin itself into a grave," he said.

"The Labor Party and the Liberal Party [should] explain to us what they're planning to do about the expansion and allowing salmon to cramp more of our public waterways."

Labor frontbencher Jo Siejka said Labor supported the salmon industry and that it was "very important to our state and the workers and organisations and businesses that do run the salmon industry".

"Obviously Richard Flanagan is also someone who is really respected, as well," she said. "And the one thing that I would say is that greater transparency around salmon farming is vital and that's something that Labor would want to work on."

What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor: