Labor will use the approval of a salmon farm trial in Bass Strait to emphasise its support for Tasmanian aquaculture long term amid a fierce backlash over a review into fish farming in Macquarie Harbour that is bleeding votes from the party in battleground electorates.

The review has cast a shadow over hundreds of jobs ahead of the federal election due by May, which the Coalition is weaponising to its advantage and as environmental groups push to kill off all salmon farming in Tasmania.