The Key Questions
Salmon Farm Protest Group Chairman Bruce Sandison answers the key questions about farmed salmon and their impacts.
1) What is the difference between "wild" and "farmed" salmon?
2) What impacts does salmon farming have on wild salmon and sea trout?
3) Do farm salmon escape into the wild and do they impact upon wild fish?
4) What other environmental impacts are there?
5) Do salmon farmers use toxic chemicals in fish farms?
6) Is it true that supermarket salmon can contain pesticide residues?
7) How do fish farmers make farm salmon flesh pink?
8) But aren’t farm salmon rich in essential Omega 3 oils and low in fat?
9) I am told salmon farming supports 7,000 jobs in remote, fragile areas of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Is this true?
10) Why should supermarkets label fish as being either "wild" or "farmed"?
11) Why don’t supermarkets label salmon as being farmed salmon?
12) Are all salmon sold in supermarkets from fish farms?
1) What is the difference between "wild" and "farmed" salmon?
Farm fish, like battery chickens and turkeys, are reared in factory farms in Scotland, Canada, USA, Norway and Chile. According to a report by Compassion in World Farming, up to half a million farmed salmon on a single farm are crammed into cages, each with the equivalent swimming space of a bath-tub-full of water.
In Scotland, upwards of 50 million farm salmon are produced each year, against wild catches of 60,000 fish. Compared to the ‘King of Fish’, the wild salmon that migrate thousands of miles across the ocean, factory fish are couch potatoes.
For more details, read Compassion in World Farming’s Report, 'In Too Deep', or watch some clips from the BBC documentary, 'Warnings from the Wild: The Price of Salmon'.
2) What impacts does salmon farming have on wild salmon and sea trout?
Factory salmon farming spreads disease and parasites. Cramming up to half a million farmed salmon on a farm (with 50,000 in a single cage) is a recipe for disaster in terms of the spread of infectious diseases and parasitic infestation.
Diseases on Scottish salmon farms include Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), Bacterial Kidney Disease (BKD) and Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN). In 1998, ISA led to 4 million fish being slaughtered and a quarter of the industry being quarantined. IPN currently affects over half Scotland’s fish farms and threatens wild salmon stocks. Fisheries Trusts have reported catching escaped farm salmon infected with IPN and ISA.
Parasitic sea lice breed in billions in farm salmon cages. They attack and kill wild salmon and sea-trout as they pass by on their way too and from natal rivers. Many West Highland and Island rivers and lochs that once supported large populations of wild salmonids are now devoid of these species.
For more details on convincing new research into the link between salmon farms and the infestation of wild salmon and sea-trout by sea-lice look at recent reports from the BBC and WWF-Scotland. For a more comprehensive survey, read the Association of West Coast Fisheries Trusts Report from September 2001.
3) Do farm salmon escape into the wild and do they impact upon wild fish?
When farmed salmon escape into the wild they can spread parasites and disease over a wide area. For example, escapes from a farm in Northern Ireland on the Glenarm River in August 2001 were caught as far away as the Solway Firth in England and Scotland, and in rivers in North Wales. Escapes can also interbreed with wild salmon and hybridise with brown trout, thereby decreasing the fitness of the wild population (so-called "genetic pollution").
Over the past five years in Scotland there have been over 1 million escapes from fish farms. Some west coast Scottish rivers now contain only escaped farm fish and their progeny. Fishery biologists believe that wild salmon are extinct in 15 west coast rivers.
For more details on this, read an article from Nature magazine in April 2002.4) What other environmental impacts are there?
In discharging contaminated waste (including chemicals, uneaten feed, faeces and sea lice) directly into the sea, salmon farms use the marine environment like an open sewer. WWF Scotland estimates that salmon farms generate sewage waste equivalent to untreated sewage from 9 million people. The population of Scotland is 5.1 million. The government agency that allows fish farmers to discharge untreated sewage into Scotland’s marine environment is The Scottish Environment Protection Agency. In recent years, the Agency has received more than 700 discharge requests from fish farmers, all but 10 of which they have approved.
Salmon are carnivores at the top of the food chain, and they eat fish and shellfish. On factory fish farms, however, salmon are fed an artificial diet consisting of fishmeal and fish oil. But the fish required to fuel the expansion of salmon farming are sourced from oceans already depleted of wild fish. A scientific paper in the journal ‘Nature’ calculated that it took over 3 tonnes of wild fish to produce 1 tonne of farm salmon. Therefore, by farming salmon there is a net loss of marine resources and the industry’s expansion is inherently unsustainable.
For more on the damage that salmon farms cause to the wider marine environment, read WWF Scotland’s ‘Scotland’s Secret? Aquaculture, nutrient pollution, eutrophication and toxic blooms’; for an assessment of the net loss of marine resources from the conversion of fish into feed, take a look at the discussion from Canada’s David Suzuki Foundation.
5) Do salmon farmers use toxic chemicals in fish farms?
Factory salmon farms, like all battery farms, rely upon toxic chemicals to control infectious diseases, parasites, and fouling around cages. A typical salmon farm in Scotland, for example, is authorised to use over 30 different antibiotics, such as oxytetracycline, as well as antiparasitics and antifoulants such as copper and zinc paints. There are over 700 licences to use the toxic chemicals on Scottish farms: Teflubenzuron (trade name Calicide); Emamectin benzoate (Slice); Azamethiphos (Salmosan); Cypermethrin (Excis). These are all described on the chemical manufacturers’ labels as being "marine pollutants".
For more details, read Scotland on Sunday's 'Salmon farms 'a licence to pollute'', the Sunday Herald's 'Fish farmers 'blocked' vital safety study', or Planet Ark's 'Chemicals used on salmon may hurt food chain'.
6) Is it true that supermarket salmon can contain pesticide residues?
In June 2002 the UK Pesticides Residues Committee published results of a survey showing testing of fresh and canned salmon for 10 organochlorine pesticide residues. Of 73 salmon tested, 71 contained residues and 32 contained multiple residues (DDT, Chlordane and hexachlorobenzene).
Samples included: ASDA Salmon fillets, ASDA Salmon steaks, Co-op Scottish salmon fillets, M&S Fresh Scottish salmon fillet, M&S Skinless and boneless salmon fillet, Safeway Scottish salmon fillets, Safeway Scottish salmon steaks, Sainsbury’s Salmon steak, Sainsbury’s Salmon side fillet, Somerfield Salmon steaks, Somerfield Salmon fillets, Tesco Salmon steaks, Tesco Organic salmon fillets, Waitrose Skinless salmon fillets, Waitrose Organic salmon steaks, Morrisons Scottish salmon and Morrisons Scottish salmon steaks.
For more on this, check out the Sunday Herald articles 'Farm salmon is now most contaminated food on shelf', 20th October 2002, and 'Study proves cancer-link chemicals in farm salmon: Call for consumer boycott as groundbreaking study finds evidence of major pollutants in the food chain', 7th July 2002. If you’d like more technical detail, visit the UK government’s Pesticides Safety Directorate.
7) How do fish farmers make farm salmon flesh pink?
Wild salmon get their red pigment from eating a natural diet. Farm salmon are fed an artificial diet containing synthetic chemical colourants, such as Canthaxanthin and Astaxanthin, manufactured by the Swiss Pharmaceutical firm Hoffman La Roche. Farmers use a colour-code chart, a "SalmoFan", similar to the colour charts we use to select paint, to choose a flesh colour for their fish.
The artificial colouring, Canthaxanthin (E161g) has been linked to eye defects in children. The European Commission, concerned over the levels of canthaxanthin in farmed salmon and trout, propose to reduce permitted levels by four times.
For more, take a look at the perspective on this from the US.
8) But aren’t farm salmon rich in essential Omega 3 oils and low in fat?
Tesco’s, for example, label their farmed salmon as being "High in Omega 3’s", but this statement is really only valid in relation to wild salmon. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shown that farmed salmon contains two to three times less Omega 3’s than does wild salmon.
The fat content of farmed salmon is around four times higher than that of wild salmon (ca. 15% compared to 4%). Wild salmon contain more good Omega 3 oils and less bad fat. Farmed salmon contain less good fats and more bad fat, as well as more potentially cancer-causing chemicals such as PCBs. Read a detailed report on this, 'FARMED AND DANGEROUS: Human Health Risks Associated With Salmon Farming'.
The last study, 'Salmon Farming and the Impact of the ISA Virus ', carried out by the Scottish Executive and Highlands & Islands Enterprise and published in 1999 claimed then that the industry supported 6,500 jobs.
However, this study ignored the impact of the outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia that cost the industry hundreds of jobs. The study also ignored the jobs lost in sport fishing and tourism because of the lack of wild fish for anglers to try to catch.
Since then, the industry has ‘rationalised’, introducing larger and more automated feeding methods. Prior to this, an average factory farm employed 8-10 workers. With the new system in place, only 4-5 employees are needed. But the industry and its supporters now claim it supports 7,000 jobs.
The largest Scottish operator, Dutch-owned Marine Harvest, says it supports some 1,400 jobs, and that its annual production of fake fish amounts to 40,000 tonnes. If this is so, then on a pro-rata basis the production of 120,000 tonnes of farm salmon (2001 figure) will support only 4,200 jobs. Thus, the figure of 7,000 jobs is pure fantasy.
The truth of the matter, according to the Scottish Executive’s own figures, is that direct employment in fish farming accounts for only 1,300, mostly poorly-paid, jobs. It is estimated that 5,000 sport angling and tourist related jobs have been lost in the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland because of the expansion of factory fish farming.
10) Why should supermarkets label fish as being either "wild" or "farmed"?
On January 1st 2002, the EU enacted a law that required supermarkets to clearly label fish as being either "wild" or "farmed". In not labelling fish correctly, the UK government, the Scottish Executive and UK supermarkets are flouting this law.
For more on this, read 'Supermarkets mislead public over seafood' from the Sunday Herald, 17th March 2002.
11)Why don’t supermarkets label salmon as being farmed salmon?
Industry research on consumer attitudes to farmed seafood has shown that the public prefers wild fish. In view of artificial colourings, chemicals and other hidden extras associated with farmed fish, it is not difficult to see why consumers do not trust farmed fish. It may also explain why supermarkets are reluctant to provide clear labelling.
Check out 'Consumer attitudes towards seafood labelling', Seafish, 25th May 2001 for more.
12) Are all salmon sold in supermarkets from fish farms?
99% of all salmon sold in supermarkets is farmed. Sometimes it is labelled as coming from "the cool clear waters of Scotland". This in fact means that the fish has come from one of Scotland’s 350 factory salmon farms. The opposite is the case for canned salmon, 99% of which is wild. However, some supermarkets, including Safeways, now sell canned farmed salmon. To confuse things further John West, a world leader in wild canned salmon, has started selling canned Scottish salmon that is not labelled as being farmed.