Salmon Farming

Salmon Farming

If you recently ordered salmon off the menu of your favorite restaurant, or purchased it from your local grocery store, chances are it was farmed. According to "Salmon of the Americas, an organization of salmon-producing companies in Canada, Chile and the United States, 70 percent of the salmon produced in British Columbia and Washington comes from salmon farms. If it weren't for these farms, we would not have the luxury and abundance of this delicious and healthy food available to us year round. Salmon farming represents one very important way to feed the world and people want to eat more salmon and seafood- more than can be caught.

Salmon farming began over 30 years ago and has become a huge industry. Experts say it's the fastest growing segment of agriculture. Salmon farming plays an important role in the economies of many areas as well. Jobs and other economic benefits contribute to the value of salmon as much its role in good nutrition. Salmon is an oily fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, a substance that almost certainly helps protect against heart disease and may also reduce the risk of cancer and Alzheimer's.

There is one species of Atlantic salmon and five species of Pacific. Atlantic salmon account for almost 95 percent of the farmed salmon produced, and most of them are farm-raised on the pacific coast. Pacific species account for all of the wild salmon caught in the Americas and some of them are also farm-raised. No wild Atlantic salmon are fished commercially in North America, as they are an endangered species. Atlantic salmon have become the species of choice to raise on farms because they are more adaptable to the farming techniques and make better use of feed so they produce more salmon with less feed.

Not everybody agrees however, that farmed salmon raised in net pens are healthy for the environment or for you to eat. Over the years, there have been numerous stories in the media that have pointed out the negatives of farm raised salmon. These arguments have ranged from wastes from salmon farms, the spreading of disease from farmed to wild fish, the negative impacts of farm raised fish escapes and interacting with native fish, and recently, the effects of farmed salmon consumption on human health. The latest issue that the media got there hands on and consequently got the public concerned, was a report that polychlorinated biphenyl's (PCBs) were found in farmed salmon.

The source of PCB's remains a puzzle; they are mixtures of up to 209 individual chlorinated compounds known as congeners. There are no known natural sources of PCBs according to the National Center for Environmental Health. Used as lubricants and coolants and banned in the United States in the late 1970's, PCB compounds still remain in the environment. Today, PCB's are found in the mud in Puget Sound and cycle themselves through worms that are eaten by fish and in turn are eaten by mammals such as orcas and humans. Fish and mammals can pass the PCB's on to their offspring and when they die, scavengers consume them and the cycle continues. PCB's and other pollutants are stored in animal fats and enter the food supply mostly through meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Consequently, as in many news stories that attract public interest, only part of the story has been told, in this case to the detriment of the salmon farming industry.

The report that caused many media stories was published in Science magazine on January 9, 2004. It stated that "Having analyzed over 2 metric tons (approx. 700 fish) of farmed and wild salmon from around the world for organochlorine (a compound of PCBs) contaminants, we show that concentrations of these contaminants are significantly higher in farmed salmon than wild." It went on to say that " Risk analysis indicates that consumption of farmed Atlantic salmon may pose health risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fish consumption". This report failed to mention that, according the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), their PCB contaminant criterion (25 parts per billion) applies only to sport-caught fish and is not used by the federal government to assess risk of commercial product. Plus, the public would have been much better informed had the authors of the paper mentioned that the EPA risk assessment level pertains to consumption of the fish in question for at least 70 years. PCB levels in salmon are properly assessed under the FDA criterion, which is 2000 ppb. In addition to having low contaminant levels according to FDA guidelines, all wild and farmed salmon in the study had PCB levels well below the concern levels of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the World Health Organization. Therefore, none of the wild or farmed salmon evaluated in the study carried any increased risk for cancer.

The study also failed to mention that PCB's were not only found in farmed salmon, but wild salmon as well. "PCBs are in all salmon says Michael Gallo of the Cancer Institute at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to the journal Intrafish." The difference between 5 ppb [parts per billion] and 30 ppb is meaningless".

Here's a look at the amount of PCB's parts per billion found in other foods we eat everyday. If you aren't eating salmon, then most likely you are eating something that contains PCB's.

So why so much publicity about salmon with 40 parts per billion when butter contains PCB levels at 70 parts per billion! It is confusing to the consumer as to what constitutes a safe and healthy product. The FDA, which is the US agency responsible for establishing human food safety standards, has indicated the contaminant levels in both the wild and farmed salmon are well within their allowable levels. EPA, which