Saturday, March 14, 2009

Wild or Farmed Salmon?

With the tremendous health benefits offered by eating cold water fish, it is important to consider where the fish come from. Unfortunately, there are some major differences between Wild and Farmed Salmon. The arguments for Wild versus Farmed Salmon are somewhat analogous to that of Free-range versus Feedlot beef. However, the consequences with the fish may be greater. Both the Wild Atlantic and Wild Pacific Salmon are in danger from fish farms. As a David Suzuki Foundation Brochure points out, we are not saving wild salmon by eating farmed.

Below are links to some of the most important issues on the topic:

1. Cross breeding of farmed genetics with wild
2. Contaminants in farmed Salmon
3. Spreading Diseases from farmed to wild (Sea Lice and Parasites)
4. Chemicals used and Effect on the Sea bed
5. Excellent overview of all fishing practices

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi there, it's tina, we met at the camros garden thing and you told me about your blog. i've been getting the rss feed ever since, but this is my first time commenting.

i get the healthy butcher's newsletter and they had an article about seafood and the differences and stuff, and it kind of opened my eyes to organic farmed fish. even though farmed fish is still farmed, organic or not, it brings up interesting things about sustainability. i guess ultimately it comes down to health vs. sustainability...

here's the article.

http://www.thehealthybutcher.com/livetoeat/volume27/LiveToEat-Volume27-SustainableSeafoodPart1-InformedDecisions.html