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Wild
Salmon
 Unlike
farmed fish, wild salmon are harvested when they are mature,
after their feeding cycle has ended, when their flesh is
firm and their migration has begun.
- Wild salmon
are crucial to the health of our rivers. They carry nutrients
from the river to the sea and back again, entering the food
chain as a vital feast for wildlife and fertilizing rivers
and forests after they spawn, die and decompose.
- Wild salmon
are one of the Northwest’s greatest renewable resources.
Careful monitoring of wild runs, their watersheds and the
ecosystems that support them ensure economic and environmental
sustainability, healthy economic returns for future generations
and the preservation of pristine habitat.
- Wild salmon
have higher levels of oil content than farmed salmon due to
thousands of years of natural selection providing them with
the fat reserves necessary to migrate and spawn thousands
of miles. The oil contains high levels of Omega-3s- the unsaturated
fat that helps fend off heart disease, psoriasis, rheumatoid
arthritis, breast cancer and migraines. The high levels of
oil are the key to the salmon’s revered flavor, which
is preferred by discerning chefs and consumers throughout
the country.
- Salmon
are a sign of healthy rivers. A river where salmon flourish
provides us with clean water to drink and healthy fish to
eat. If the salmon suffer, eventually we will too.
Farmed Salmon
- Producing
32,000 tons of farmed salmon produces sewage equivalent to that
generated by a city of 500,000 people. These
wastes degrade water quality and smother communities of plants
and animals beneath salmon cages.
- Crowding
salmon in small pens fosters the spread of disease. To counter
this threat, salmon farmers use antibiotics, vaccines
and other chemicals, much of which can enter the water. There has been
little research on the impacts of this heavy use of chemicals
upon marine life and human health.
- Salmon
farms are a sitting target for marine mammals and sea birds
looking for a meal. In British Columbia, an estimated 500
harbor seals are shot each year to protect salmon farms. Netting used
to exclude marine mammals and birds can entangle and drown helpless
animals. Acoustic devices used to scare away seals and sea
lions have been successful in some places, leading to the withdrawal
of resident populations of harbor porpoises and whales.
- Salmon
pens are often accidentally ripped open, releasing salmon
into surrounding waterways. In Norway, where as many as
1.3 million salmon escape from farms each year, one-third
of the salmon spawning
in coastal rivers are not wild but escaped salmon. Besides
competing for food and spawning habitat, escaped salmon may
interbreed with
wild salmon, reducing the latter’s fitness.
- The
flesh of farmed salmon is a pale gray color that is unappealing
to consumers. The dyes canthaxanthin or astaxanthin
or both are added to the feed of farmed salmon to improve
its appearance. U.S.
Federal Law now requires farmed salmon be labeled as “artificially
colored.”
- An
estimated 204,000 – 433,000 pounds of antibiotics are
used annually in the production of seafood sold in
the U.S., according to a new report published by the Institute
for Agriculture
and
Trade
Policy. This includes antibiotics from the same classes
that doctors depend on for treating sick humans.
Adapted from Environmental Media Services and
IATP. “Say NO
to DRUGS, don’t eat farmed salmon”
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