Salmon farming: The good, the bad and the ugly

Bodies piled up against nan separator of nan pen, tegument flaking off, pinkish soma to nan sky. From above, a glut of dormant food ripples successful clip pinch nan waves. 

This is nan segment of a marine scary movie – each assemblage an expired Atlantic salmon.

It was filmed successful Tasmania’s D’Entrecasteaux Channel by nan Bob Brown Foundation, an biology defense group. 

It’s present that salmon are enclosed wrong gigantic alloy pens – farms for awesome aquaculture corporations Tassal and Huon.

“We put nan drone up and we conscionable came crossed pens pinch hundreds and hundreds of food floating connected nan top,” says Alistair Allan, an Antarctic and marine campaigner pinch nan Foundation. 

“There were conscionable dormant food everywhere.”

The dormant salmon had fallen to a bacterial infection that dispersed for illustration wildfire done nan population. An estimated 8% of nan industry’s yearly production died wrong weeks. 

The effect of nan deaths reached each nan measurement to shore, pinch chunks of salmon fat washing up connected adjacent beaches. 

The uncomfortable scenes, conscionable up of an election, were met pinch anger and condolences by defense groups and interest from nan salmon industry. 

“We will of people beryllium reviewing each constituent of this arena and will make changes to protect our fish, our environment, our workers and our communities into nan future,” said manufacture assemblage Salmon Tasmania successful a truth expanse successful consequence to questions from Particle.

And it put salmon farming, which has exploded successful size and standard successful Tasmania since it began successful nan 1980s, backmost successful nan spotlight.

Caption: A farmed salmon pinch an injury.
Credit: Abolish Salmon Farming

BIG FARMER

Humans person been catching and eating food for thousands of years, but it’s astir nan past 60 years wherever we’ve been farming salmonids astatine scale. Salmonids, which see Atlantic and Pacific salmon and rainbow trout, are among nan astir farmed food type connected Earth. 

Salmon commencement their life successful freshwater streams arsenic mini spawn, past migrate to nan unfastened water astir a twelvemonth into their life. 

They walk nan adjacent 3–5 years maturing astatine sea, earlier returning to nan spot they were calved to reproduce. (Most dice because nan travel location is taxing – swimming upstream for miles and dodging grizzly bears.)

Salmon are farmed successful a measurement that attempts to mimic this cycle. The young are reared successful immense on-land facilities, from integrative trays to elephantine tanks, wherever they turn until they’re fresh to beryllium transported to pens successful nan unfastened ocean. 

Caption: Salmon pen successful nan unfastened water pinch seals resting connected nan barrier.
Credit: Wilderness Witness

They turn successful these pens until they are fresh to beryllium harvested – a process that tin return a fewer years. 

It’s here, exposed to seawater and successful changeless speech pinch nan earthy environment, wherever salmon farming has its top impacts.

SOMETHING IS FISHY 

Wild Atlantic salmon are autochthonal to nan Atlantic Ocean. No chaotic populations beryllium successful Tasmania. 

But successful Norway, wherever salmon farming originated, locals person been sportfishing for salmon for hundreds of years. And farming could jeopardise nan chaotic population.

“Salmon farming is nan biggest threat to chaotic salmon successful Norway, successful summation to ambiance change,” says Eva Thorstad, a salmonid biologist astatine nan Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.

Farmed salmon unrecorded successful precocious densities, wherever location tin beryllium much issues pinch disease. If a farmed food has oversea lice and a chaotic food swims past, illness aliases parasites could beryllium spread. 

Interbreeding tin besides beryllium a problem. “Wild salmon are adapted to 1 river,” says Eva. 

She explains that, if salmon escape, there’s a anticipation they breed pinch chaotic salmon, which alters nan familial diversity, and adaptations to individual rivers whitethorn beryllium lost. 

In Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, investigation suggests salmon farming has contributed to little oxygen levels successful nan water. The harbour is besides nan only remaining residence for nan Maugean skate, a critically endangered ray, and salmon farming jeopardises its existence. 

FACTORIES OR FARMS

Overfishing has led to declines successful galore food species. As nan request for seafood rose, truthful did nan desire to instrumentality farming and aquaculture. Since 2013, seafood production has been dominated by those methods.

The seafood manufacture is massive. It’s worthy almost $400 cardinal per year. 

Salmon – peculiarly Atlantic salmon – is large business, and nan food are farmed successful places for illustration Norway, Chile, Canada, nan UK and Tasmania. 

According to nan Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, Tasmanian salmon aquaculture is an important contributor to nan state’s system and to nan wide Australian seafood market.  

Caption: A cramped salmon pen successful Tasmania.
Credit: Bob Brown Foundation

The Department besides suggests nan authorities supplies complete 90% of Australian Atlantic salmon production, valuing nan industry’s output astatine complete $1 billion.

It’s astatine this intersection of manufacture and situation wherever conflict often arises.

As salmon farmers person scaled up production, biology groups person besides rallied against food farming, which was erstwhile seen arsenic a greener replacement to catching chaotic fish.

Alistair from nan Bob Brown Foundation likens nan standard of salmon farming successful Tasmania to “factory farms retired connected nan water”. 

He’s concerned that aquaculture and farming person been touted arsenic a hole for overfishing, but successful reality, they’re doing terrible harm to marine ecosystems. 

SHOULD WE EAT FARMED SALMON?

If you’re a instrumentality of sushi and sashimi, each of this mightiness person you questioning your salmon intake.

First, immoderate bully news: The caller bacterial outbreak successful Tasmania is not a consequence to humans. The Department states, “P. salmonis is simply a food pathogen and does not origin quality aliases terrestrial animal disease, aliases immoderate nutrient information risk.”

But farmed Atlantic salmon does relationship for nan immense mostly of salmon that reaches consumers’ plates, truthful it’s apt your liking maki has travel from a farm. 

That mightiness not beryllium a bad thing, depending connected wherever nan salmon comes from.

Norwegian farmed salmon is 1 of nan astir sustainable animal macromolecule sources around, according to nan Norwegian Seafood Council. The gains successful sustainability person mostly been driven by technological innovations and improving nan proviso chain.

Caption: Salmon sashimi
Credit: Ivan Samkov via Pexels

Those concerned astir biology impacts whitethorn look to eat farmed salmon pinch certifications from world manufacture bodies specified arsenic nan Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

However, moreover that has problems. Some certifiers person been accused of utilizing underhanded strategies to stay certified, according to the Sustainable Restaurant Association. 

“In my eyes, you can’t workplace Atlantic salmon sustainably,” says Alistair.

For Eva, who has seen nan impacts of salmon farming connected chaotic fish, we person nan knowledge to amended farming and regulatory changes would thief protect nan environment. 

“I would opportunity this is connected nan array of politicians to lick nan problems.”