UPDATE October 6, 2006: A new study has revealed that sea-lice from farmed fish pens off the British Columbia coast kill extreme percentages of passing wild salmon. This has major implications for the health of Alaska's salmon industry.

Read the fish farm study and a letter from Sitka Conservation Society to Senator Lisa Murkowski here.

 To a Sitkan who lives among nature?s bounty of healthy, delicious wild salmon, the idea of farming salmon may seem absurd. But farmed-raised salmon, available year-round at cheaper prices than wild fish, has become an immensely popular item on the world?s plate. Industrial salmon farming brings many concerns, both for the environment --which must absorb the enormous waste produced-- and to human consumers who eat the fish laced with PCB's and other contaminants.

Environmental Concerns

The open net pens the vast majority of salmon farms use to keep their stock allow huge amounts of salmon excrement to pollute surrounding areas.  One salmon farm can create as much waste as a city of ten thousand people.

Lice, parasites and diseases often transfer from the overcrowded pens to wild salmon swimming nearby.

Thousands of farmed salmon escape from their pens every year.  The escapees enter wild salmon streams and compete for food.

Salmon farmers often defend the practice by saying it helps to raise the amount of available food without damaging wild stock. Unfortunately, salmon farming actually takes protein out of the environment, since several pounds of smaller fish must be turned into fishmeal to produce farmed salmon. This reduces the total amount of food available, both to humans and wild fish.

Consumer Issues 

Farmed salmon contain higher amounts of toxins like mercury and dioxin than wild salmon.  They acquire these contaminants from the fishmeal they are fed.

As a percentage of their overall mass, wild salmon have more healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.  Farmed salmon contain more unhealthy fats.

The flesh of farmed salmon becomes mushy and grey because of their artificial diet.  Though farmers can do nothing about the inferior texture, they feed their salmon pellets containing astaxanthin, a dye that turns fish a healthy-seeming pink.  The "SalmoFan" in the picture above allows salmon farmers to choose exactly which shade of pink they dye their crop.

For these reasons, many nutritionists favor eating wild salmon over farmed.

Pending Legislation

In June 2005, Congress introduced legislation which would ratchet up the American fish farming industry. If passed, the National Aquaculture Act of 2005 would permit salmon farms up to 200 miles from the coast ?essentially privatizing vast tracts of ocean previously held in public trust. Environmental controls are wanting: permits would be granted by the Secretary of Commerce ?not the person one would usually think of entrusting with the health of our oceans.   Amazingly, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was one of the Senate sponsors of this bill! Call Congress and tell them what you think.  

Learn more about the environmental and economic impacts of finfish farming.

Learn more about why the National Offshore Aquaculture Act will hurt Alaska.

Get Informed

The Monterey Bay Aquarium rates the best seafood to buy.

Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform

Study: More Pollutants in Farmed Salmon than Wild

Get Active

Tell your congressional representatives not to support the National Aquaculture Act or increased fish farming.

Don?t buy farmed Atlantic salmon! ASK:  ?IS IT WILD??