New York is the city that never sleeps, some call Paris the city of love but Dunedin is fast gaining a moniker people can really sink their teeth into - ''Salmon City''.
Dunedin Community Salmon Trust chairman Brett Bensemann said Vancouver and Dunedin were the only two cities in the world where people could catch salmon from an inner-city wharf.
He said there were a lot of people fishing off the wharf, a lot of people in their boats and people coming from Australia.
''We know of a number of anglers, some in their third year of just coming over [from Australia] and fishing for a salmon.''
Every year the trust releases thousands of smolt into the Leith River and the Dunedin Harbour and that is starting to pay dividends for anglers.
Mr Bensemann said Dunedin's natural resources, including paua, should be jealously guarded because they were big drawcards for people.
''Everyone is starting to realise that we have something here that is quite unique.''
Salmon Anglers Otago Branch chairman Wayne Olsen said Otago Harbour was a ''put and take'' fishery which meant smolt had to be released each year to ensure it continued.
He said salmon did naturally migrate up the Leith River to spawn but the environment was so highly modified and lacking good areas for egg-laying that most eggs laid there were washed out to sea and died.
The fact people could catch salmon just 10 minutes' walk from the centre of Dunedin was a unique feature of the city.
