Salmon Farming Is Bad For Your Health, Your Humanity, And Your Home

     The idea that farmed salmon is a healthy, sustainable, ethical alternative to wild-caught salmon is the greatest marketing fraud that has ever been perpetuated in modern society. Salmon farming is relatively new, originating in Norway in the 1960s, but aquaculture stems back thousands of years. All sorts of species are farmed, from shrimp to tilapia, and much of it is harmful to the environment. However, this article will take a look at salmon farming in particular.

     There are seven species of salmon: the Atlantic salmon and six species in the Pacific, including coho and chinook. All have a dirty gray flesh, so dye is used to color the salmon pink. Spending their entire lives in the ocean, the fish are laden with toxins and heavy metals like PCBs, mercury, and even plastic, a situation that only gets worse as the oceans become more polluted.

     Rather than helping wild salmon and their habitat, salmon farming is actually far worse. Atlantic salmon are the salmon of choice for farming, and they are often raised in the Pacific waters of British Columbia and Chile. Serious risks come from farmed salmon escapes. Most industrial fishing is done in order to produce feed for domestic animals, and salmon farms require anywhere from five to 35 wild salmon to feed a single farmed salmon in its lifetime. Crowded in floating cages for life, these salmon swim in their own feces and filth, causing massive dead zones in the waters they are placed and spreading viruses to wild salmon populations. When salmon are transferred to slaughter and restocked, wild salmon, including juveniles, have been documented being caught in their nets. At the salmon farms, profit is placed first and surveillance is close to none. When monitored, farmers respond violently to their shooting of seals, eagles, and bears and their disposal of huge amount of waste in the sea being documented. As wild fish populations are threatened and habitat destroyed, the marine mammals that rely on them, including sea lions and orcas, suffer. Oregon conducts a sea lion cull justified by declining salmon populations, which is attributable to industrial human activity, not natural predators. The Southern Resident Killer Whales, made famous when a mother pushed her dead calf for nearly three weeks, are starving to extinction because of these farms. In short, salmon farming is the most environmentally-destructive industry on the planet.

     The people who recognize this the most are the people who rely on the land and the sea for survival. Native groups in Washington state (who were successful) and British Columbia (who are on the cusp of seeing these farms out) oppose these salmon farms, which destroy the artisanal fisheries they have relied on for millennia. Norwegian and American companies place these farms in unceded coastal territory without consent, draining the waters of life and moving on to the next ecosystem. In 2017 and 2018, members of the Namgis and Musgamagwa Dzawada'enuxw tribes boarded two salmon farms owned by Swanson and Cermaq and demanded they leave indigenous territory.

     Anyone concerned with human rights, animal rights, the environment, or their own health should avoid eating salmon. For the oceans!