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Salmon Aquaculture and Society

Types of Salmon1. Wild Salmon2. Farmed Salmon

By: Stephen Maurano

and Emily Eng

Envs 162- Winter ‘05

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Farmed Salmon

• Farmed salmon are born and raised in captivity and sold to fish markets once they have grown to size.

• These salmon spend their lives in netted pens with the intention of never entering the wild but going directly into consumption.

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What Salmon Farming Provides:• Increased consumer

stocks- more fish for more people

• Lower cost alternative to wild salmon (usually 3x lower)

• Provides salmon out-of-seasonal (8 months in the year)

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Problems with Salmon Farming

1. Spread of diseaseFarmed salmon live in densely packed net cages, which increases the threat and spread of disease. To counter this problem farmers add antibiotics into salmon feed and apply preventative vaccinations. Adversely, it causes more frequent disease mutations that often strengthens the microbe against the salmon wild and farmed.

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2. Difference in Color

Color plays a decisive role in the quality and price of a salmon. The redder the salmon the better the salmon.

Salmon have a distinctive pink colored flesh due to carotenoids from their diet of shrimp and krill. Farmed salmon are paler in color due to the lack caroteniods in their diet. Canthaxanthin and astaxanthin (naturally derived and synthetically made) are added to salmon feed to dye the flesh darker, since a red salmon is equated with being fresher and having more flavor (higher quality) compared to a pale pink salmon.

Problems with Salmon Farming:

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3. EscapeesEcological Impacts• Competition- Farm salmon compete for resources (food and

breeding space)• Colonization- Establishment of subspecies within another’s

associated area (Atlantic taking over Pacific’s natural waters) – Atlantic salmon are considered an “exotic” species to the Northwest coast.

Genetic Impacts• Hybridization-Mixing between sub-species (Atlantic and Pacific)

– Atlantic salmon cannot bred with Pacific salmon.

• Interbreeding- Breeding between farm-raised and wild, resulting in a dilution or alteration of the gene pool. Leaving the wild stock less competitive to conditions.

Problems with Salmon Farming:

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Impacts on Consumers

The addition of antibiotics, vaccinations, chemicals and dyes into the farmed salmon populations are also passed on to whoever eats the fish next.

1. Antibiotics in Fish Farming

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2. Farmed salmon and CancerFarmed salmon have higher concentrations of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and dioxins than wild salmon.

– These chemicals have been linked to cancer and were banned in the US in 1976.

– PCBs accumulate in salmon from the fishmeal and fish oil mixture they are fed, while wild salmon eat other fish

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You as the ConsumerRecommended* amounts of

salmon consumption• 1-2 servings of farmed per

month• Up to 8 servings of wild per

month• 6 out of 10 salmon sold in stores

and restaurants are farmed salmon.

*Based on the EPA guidelines

Due to the human demand for salmon, the coping methods in place to meet these demands are causing detrimental effects on both salmon health and our own health.

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Do humans really have the authority to determine a species fate?

The current rate of consumption is unsustainable for us and for creation.

We are demanding things from the environment at such a tremendous rate that the consequences have yet to be seen or felt.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Is this the best way to treat our gift of

creation?

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Without SalmonWe are using, abusing and wasting all of the natural gifts around us without even a second thought.

Should future generations live in a world without salmon because their ancestors were greedy?

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

“We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”-Ancient Indian Proverb

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SustainabilityAlthough farmed salmon challenge the survival of wild salmon, they help alleviate the current consumer demands, and provide a cheaper option for protein. The answer is not to throw out this method of procuring salmon but to guide it so that both the ecological and social impacts are considered.

“Even though it is possible to feed a growing population, the ecological costs of doing so ought to be taken into account. To eliminate hunger from the planet, the world community needs to reform the institutional and political structures that restrict the access of people to food.”

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Importance of Salmon“The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” (Ps. 24:1)

As stewards of creation it is our duty, responsibility, and obligation to preserve the world not just for ourselves but for future generations and for God, since it is ultimately his own.

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“Nature should be respected and preserved so that by establishing a healthy proper relationship with it, people can be led to contemplate the mystery of God's greatness and love.” –Pope John Paul II

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Links to more information:

PCBs in Farmed Salmon Report

Seafood Watch by the Monterey Bay Aquarium- Healthy Choices

National Marine Fisheries Services- Endangered Salmon Species

Earth Ministries- Sustainable Fisheries

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Picture Sources1:Slide # Links to Picture Sources

9 http://cybersalmon.fws.gov/cycles.html

10 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040108/040108_salmon_vmed_938a.vmedium.jpg&imgrefurl=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3906337/&h=268&w=198&sz=7&tbnid=LvvCjyAPse4J:&tbnh=107&tbnw=79&start=15&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsalmon%2Bfarm%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DG

11 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.view.com.au/tassal/impact.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.view.com.au/tassal/&h=480&w=640&sz=53&tbnid=sHgVv4x3axAJ:&tbnh=101&tbnw=135&start=12&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsalmon%2Bfarms%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN

12 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/sockeye/graphics/window2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/sockeye/&h=331&w=440&sz=35&tbnid=As7v2ig0XUIJ:&tbnh=92&tbnw=122&start=7&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsalmon%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DGhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.georgiastrait.org/Articles2001/legg01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.georgiastrait.org/Articles2001/salmonlegpic01.php&h=333&w=500&sz=27&tbnid=Xm3o2w8ruUoJ:&tbnh=84&tbnw=126&start=3&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsalmon%2Bfarms%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN

13 http://www.salmonoftheamericas.com/pop_color.html

15 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.microbeworld.org/img/cissues/rs_2_drugs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.microbeworld.org/htm/cissues/resist/resist_2.htm&h=223&w=271&sz=12&tbnid=L8VPTfSnGFMJ:&tbnh=88&tbnw=107&start=4&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dantibiotics%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DG

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Picture Sources2:Slide # Links to Picture Sources

16 http://www.ewg.org/reports/farmedPCBs/es.php

17 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2004/HEALTH/01/08/salmon.pollution.ap/story.salmon.health.jpg&imgrefurl=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/08/salmon.pollution.ap/&h=168&w=220&sz=11&tbnid=1m_ejacP4xUJ:&tbnh=77&tbnw=101&start=26&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsalmon%2Bfarms%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN

18 http://www.npds.org/article.php?sid=1150http://www.bjoernrosner.de/Alaska02/Alaska_highlights.html

19 http://www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/more/n-salmon1.htmhttp://www.oneworldjourneys.com/salmon/low/eco/rivers_1_pop.html

20 http://www.greensalmon.co.uk/images/slice-12_full.jpg

21 http://archives.thedaily.washington.edu/1998/110698/F1.salmon.html

22 http://www.users.daelnet.co.uk/allinson/cel/bio.htmhttp://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/staff/lackey/