Study - 95% Of BC Wild Salmon Juveniles Killed By Lice From Fish Farms

[hatrack]

BROOKLIN, Canada, Oct 2 (IPS) - Canada's open-ocean salmon farms are killing enormous numbers of wild salmon, threatening the species, a new study shows. Research published Monday found that sea lice -- a fish parasite -- from salmon farms along the British Columbia coast kill up to 95 percent of the wild juvenile salmon as they head out to sea.

"It is a startling conclusion," said Alexandra Morton, a biologist with the Raincoast Research Society and co-author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We are not going to have any wild salmon at this rate," Morton told IPS. The study says there is little doubt that the source of the sea lice infestation is British Columbia's (BC) booming aquaculture industry, where tens of millions of Atlantic salmon are raised in open-ocean net pens along the coast. "The debate is over," said Morton.

The impact of more than 100 large salmon aquaculture operations along the BC coastline has been bitterly disputed for the last decade. British Columbia is the world's fourth largest farmed salmon producer, netting more than 300 million dollars in annual sales, mainly to the United States.

The farmed fish are non-native Atlantic salmon, which are prone to infestations of sea lice -- small parasites that feed on the skin and mucous membranes -- which are not generally found in high numbers, except at fish farms where a million fish can be impounded.

EDIT

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34966

[jpak]

1. One more reason not to buy farm raised salmon

n/t

[midnight]

4. A few years back farm raised salmon and other fish starting

revealing these bad conclusions to farm raised species. I agree this is just another reason to by fresh.

[Dover]

2. Shut them down! Aren't the ice affecting the farm raised fish production

too?

[Raster]

3. I refuse to eat farmed salmon and have for years. I live in the

Pacific Northwest and absolutely adore salmon. I found the farmed stuff doesn't taste as good, the flesh has a "goey" consistency, and experts tell us the fats and omegas are vastly inferior to fresh, natural salmon. Personally I was completely turned off the first time I saw a salmon color chart. Yep, just like a bunch of paint swatches. The salmon farmer is able to pick the color they would like their salmon to be. You see wild, fresh salmon get their pink/red/salmon hues from the foods they eat: krill and tiny little shrimp. Farmed salmon eat "salmon chow," which doesn't color their flesh. So they have to add artificial color to the farmed salmon's diet. Seriously, they have color swatches to chose from.

[troubleinwinter]

5. Here's the chart:

"To achieve the desired color, the feed of farmed salmon is supplemented with an additive. A salmon farmer can choose the colour he or she wants the fish to be. The feed will be adjusted to help achieve that colour.

The farmed salmon industry says its research shows that colour, freshness and quality are integrally related. In the research, deeply-coloured flesh was associated with higher quality, better tasting salmon. The industry says the research suggests that people may be willing to pay a higher price for a salmon of the 'right' hue."

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/salmon/colour.html

[Raster]

6. Yep, that's it. It's just like picking a paint color for the garage.

Yum, yum. Farmed "Atlantic" salmon sucks. It is inferior every way to wild salmon.