Does eating farmed salmon help protect wild salmon because there is less pressure placed on wild stocks?
Salmon farmers often claim their industry is helping to “feed the world.” In truth, the salmon farming industry accelerates the depletion of wild fish stocks and strains the food supply for people in poorer nations. On average, it takes three to five kilograms of wild fish (used in the feed) to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon. Most of the wild feed for B.C. farmed salmon is taken from the southern hemisphere, diverting local protein to raise a luxury product for northern consumers. Farmed salmon also pose a threat to wild stocks by transferring parasites and diseases to passing wild salmon stocks. The open net-cages used in salmon farming do not allow disease and parasites to be contained, and a growing body of research has documented the decline of wild salmon stocks near salmon farms. Eating farmed salmon does not save wild salmon, it places them more at risk.
Quotas for the wild salmon fishery are based on management decisions which are not influenced by the availability of farmed salmon but ideally are guided by the health and abundance of the wild salmon populations. In other words, fishermen will fish what they are allowed to fish – catches won’t be reduced because farmed salmon are being consumed. The industrial-scale production of farmed salmon can, however, flood the market with a cheaper product which pushes down the price fishermen can obtain for wild salmon, leading to a loss of income in coastal communities. Salmon farmers often claim their industry is helping to “feed the world.” In truth, the salmon farming industry is producing a luxury product for the western world that accelerates the depletion of wild fish stocks and strains the food chain in poorer nations. On average, it takes two to five kilograms of wild fish (used in the feed) to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon. In Chile, the ratio is often much higher with as muc
