Abstract.In order to assess the attitudes of fish farmers towards data management, and discover the major sources of influence upon planning production, a postal survey among 293 salmon and trout farmers was conducted in the summer of 1987. The degree of microcomputer use and the uptake of automation were examined in this perspective.Salmon and trout fanners collected production records which, in most cases, were unsuitable for planning. Microcomputers were used mainly for accounting and word processing. Software was commonly purchased‘off‐the‐shelf’. Computerization when rejected was primarily on grounds of excessive costs and time requirements. Other automation comprised feeding systems and to a lesser extent water parameter monitoring. For decision making, directors and owners relied heavily on their site managers and foremen to provide feedback. When farms were members of marketing cooperatives or owned by larger firms the latter directed their production and outlets. Accountants were employed part‐time to draw the financial accounts, and the proportion of fish farms hiring experts and computer consultants was small. The findings showed that information technology is not a priority among fish farm
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