Ten Reasons to Boycott Fresh Farmed Salmon This Christmas: Notes to Editors

1) Sea lice: In view of the fact that factory farmed salmon are kept in crowded conditions akin to battery chicken farms it is hardly surprising that farmed salmon are infested with parasites. Sea lice infestation is a huge problem on salmon farms and they can be fatal for wild salmon and sea trout. Sea lice can be present in such numbers that farmed salmon on sale in supermarkets often still contain sea lice. In September the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service found “sea lice under the skin of raw salmon imported from Norway”. Officials have now called for a ban on all imports of Norwegian farmed salmon.

2) Escapes: Farmed salmon escapees are decimating wild salmon stocks through the spread of diseases, parasites and so-called ‘genetic pollution’ via interbreeding. A recent report from the Royal Society proved conclusively that repeated escapes from salmon farms could lead to extinctions in wild salmon populations. Escapes from salmon farms now exceed 2 million per year. In Scotland alone there have been over 1 million farmed escapees in the last five years.

3) Wastes: Salmon farms discharge untreated wastes directly into pristine marine waters thereby using the sea as an open sewer. A report by WWF Scotland calculates that Scottish salmon farms produce nitrogenous wastes equivalent to a population of over 9 million people. Considering Scotland’s population is only 5.1 million this is hardly a drop in the ocean. By not paying for the pollution they cause, salmon farms are freeloading on the marine environment at the expense of tourism, fishing and shellfish farming. Closed containment systems have existed for years but salmon farmers have dismissed them as far too expensive. Given the threat of diseases and parasites spread to wild fish populations, toxic algal blooms and mass escapes, it is a price worth paying. The solution to pollution is surely not dilution.

4) Unsustainable: The farming of carnivorous fish such as salmon is inherently unsustainable as vast quantities of wild fish are required to provide farmed salmon with food. By farming salmon – top level predators at the top of the food chain - we are effectively ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. We are quite literally draining the oceans to provide the raw material to fuel the expansion of salmon farming. A scientific paper in the journal Nature calculated that it takes over 3 tonnes of wild fish such as anchovies, sprats and mackerel to produce one tonne of farmed salmon. Far from being a solution to the decline of wild fish the farming of carnivorous salmon is part of the problem. Aquaculture already uses up over 70% of the world’s supply of fish oil and by 2010 that figure will rise to over 90%. The salmon farming industry is rather like an oil tanker running on empty (and running out of fuel). By choosing to eat farmed salmon consumers are contributing to the demise of capture fisheries not saving wild fish.

5) Listeria: The European Commission Health and Consumer Protection Directorate have issued six ‘Rapid Food Alerts’ for listeria in smoked salmon (2 from Norway, 2 from Germany, 1 from Denmark and 1 from the UK) since May 2003. ‘Safety Alerts’ have also been issued by the US Food and Drug Administration for listeria contamination of farmed Norwegian, Scottish and Irish salmon. Products refused entry into the U.S. include smoked salmon from Pinneys of Scotland, Gourmet’s Choice Smoked Salmon, Craigellachie Smoked Scottish Salmon and Highland Crest Finest Smoked Scottish Salmon. According to the U.S. FDA: “If consumed, the product could cause Listeriosis, a disease which usually causes mild flu-like symptoms in healthy individuals; however, in immuno-compromised individuals, meningitis and blood poisoning can occur. Pregnant women are also a high-risk group. Listeriosis can also result in still births”. Testing by the Irish Food Safety Authority in 2001 found one in ten (10.5%) smoked salmon contaminated with listeria.

6) Insanitary and filthy: The US Food and Drug Administration found over 200 violations since November 2002 for ‘insanitary’ and ‘filthy’ salmon from Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Canada and Chile. ‘Insanitary’ products refused entry into the US during 2003 include fresh salmon from Nolans Seafoods, Loch Fyne Oysters, Hand Made Fish Co, Tipperary Fine Foods and Robinson Crusoe. The US FDA ‘violation code’ for ‘insanitary’ reads: “The article appears to have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health”. ‘Filthy’ products refused entry into the US during 2003 include fresh salmon from Loch Fyne Oysters, Lossie Seafoods, Chiefdale, Wrights of Howth, Cultivos Marinos and Brieg Seafood. The US FDA ‘violation code’ for ‘filthy’ reads: “The article appears to consist in whole or in part of a filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food”.

7) Fatty: According to data gathered by the US Food and Drug Administration farmed salmon contain more fat and are lower in the beneficial essential fatty acids such as omega-3 than wild salmon. The stark contrast between lean wild salmon and fatty farmed salmon is evident if you take the time and trouble to read the nutritional information on salmon labels. For example, M&S’s ‘Wild Pacific oak smoked salmon’ contains only 1.1% fat compared to 13.4% fat for their farmed ‘Scottish salmon fillet’ and 14.2% for their farmed ‘Scottish salmon steaks’. Factory farmed salmon can have high fat levels on a par with bacon - you can even see the fat in the streaky white lines on farmed salmon steaks and fillets. This sorry salmon is so fatty it cannot be sliced thinly for smoked salmon. Wild salmon simply taste better and have better texture than farm-raised fish, which tend to be mushy and insipid. This is not altogether surprising since the leaping wild salmon migrates thousands of miles and is a fighting fit ocean-going athlete compared to the flabby farmed salmon cooped up in cages like couch potatoes getting no exercise at all.

8) Chemicals: Factory farmed salmon are dependent upon a cocktail of toxic chemicals to control diseases and parasites. Chemicals such as cypermethrin, teflubenzuron, emamectin and azamethiphos are all classified as ‘marine pollutants’ and all are authorised for use on Scottish salmon farms. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out that ‘marine pollutants’ pollute the marine environment – it does exactly what it says on the tin. Other chemicals used on salmon farms include anti-foulants paints containing copper and zinc, anti-parasitics such as formalin as well as antibiotics. High levels of the toxic antibiotic oxytetracycline, for example, were recently found by Japanese health officials in Chilean farmed salmon. During 2003, health officials in the UK, the Netherlands and Spain issued eight ‘Rapid Food Alerts’ concerning Chilean farmed salmon contaminated with malachite green. This year, the UK’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate also found Scottish farmed salmon contaminated with malachite green. The problem is so serious in Scotland that the European Commission have threatened to ban imports of Scottish farmed salmon.

9) Artificial colourings: Farmed salmon, unlike wild salmon, contains artificial colourings. People shop with their eyes and market research has shown that consumers will pay more for redder salmon (that’s why tinned wild red salmon is more expensive than pink wild salmon). Salmon farmers exploit this situation by adding artificial colourings such as Canthaxanthin and Astaxanthin to the salmon feed. Farmers even use a “SalmoFan” to enable them to pick what colour they want their salmon to be. Unfortunately, Canthaxanthin (E161g) has been linked to eye defects and in January the European Commission’s Health and Consumer Protection commissioner ordered salmon farmers to drastically reduce the amounts of artificial dye. By December 1st 2003 Scottish and Irish salmon farmers had to drastically reduce the levels of Canthaxanthin but, unlike in the United States, supermarkets are still not required to label whether the product contains artificial colourings.

10) Contaminants: Cancer-causing chemicals such as dioxins, PCBs, DDT and other organo-chlorine pesticides have all been found in farmed salmon. Farmed salmon is now the most contaminated food on the supermarket shelf with the UK Pesticides Residues Committee reporting that 97% of fresh (farmed) salmon contain multiple residues of contaminants such as DDT, chlordane and lindane. Farmed salmon, as well as containing much more fat than wild salmon, can contain ten times more PCBs for example.

For further information and press enquiries contact Don Staniford on Tel: 07880 716082
(00 44 7880 716082 from outside UK)
See also: www.salmonfarmmonitor.org