4,000 Salmon Can’t Be Wrong

Oops. 4,000 salmon escaped from the Loch Duart Salmon Farm in Scotland on November 9, according to IntraFish Media. But don’t worry about it because Loch Duart is sorry. No harm, no foul, right?  Wrong.

Loch Duart is a British company whose “artisan salmon stewards” use “safe sustainable practices” to farm Scottish salmon. They are often touted as responsible farmers. Well, these responsible farmers are sorry for the “operational error” that caused the salmon to escape, threatening the vital ecosystem that surrounds it.

We talk a lot about fish farming in terms of sustainability. In the case of salmon, we promote wild over farmed for a reason: because farmed salmon is typically raised in floating pens or cages in open water, leaving the ecosystem susceptible to the dangers of factory fish farming. These dangers include pollution from excessive amounts of salmon waste, diseases and parasites from the large number of fish living in unnaturally close quarters, and exposure to antibiotics, fungicides and pesticides.

Perhaps, the biggest criticism of salmon farms is due to their risk of disrupting the marine ecosystem as the result of salmon escapes. The common industry response to concerns over fish escapes is that they can be prevented. We’ve heard this claim many times, but escapes happen quite regularly.

AquaBounty, the company that is currently seeking FDA approval for their genetically engineered salmon, claims that it is a myth that their Farmed AquAdvantage® Salmon will “escape and breed with wild fish, wreaking havoc on ecosystems.” Well, we don’t believe them. Even though GE salmon are not currently in production, fish escapes are business-as-usual in the fish farming industry. AquaBounty currently promises to grow only in land-based facilities, but can they promise to avoid the perils of operator errors that could allow GE salmon to escape?  Can we really afford to take that risk? Our answer, and the answer of many consumers, is a resounding NO.

-Rich Bindell