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Cheap salmon? Think again
How appropriate that after I had great wild salmon for dinner the other night, I saw this new report the next day. According to the Science article,
"Wild salmon have it tough these days, with dams blocking the routes to their spawning grounds and invasive predators congregating around their streams. But their worst enemy might be a familiar face. Contact with farmed salmon raised for supermarket shoppers seems to be killing off the wild fish, according to the first large-scale study of salmon farming's impact."
Wild salmon have been infected by sea lice from farm raised salmon that live close to them. This is the case all across the globe, hundreds of small studies show. However, a new study that focused on Ireland, Scotland, and Canada has compared the population of wild salmon that lives close and far away form the pens where farmed salmon is raised. Even thought the results varied some across the countries, on average, the wild salmon population is cut in half if they live close to the fish pens.
Salmon farming is a huge industry, because of the large demand for fresh and cheap fish. But to be able to compete on the market, fish farmers leave part of the cost to the local environment. So, think again when you buy the cheap fish next time, it maybe isn't the best deal after all.
Great post, very educational. Sometimes it feels convenient to go for the cheaper of the two options when buying fish. But this information certainly gives pause to that approach.
As ever, the burden is on seller and consumer to stay educated.