Salmon Health Scare: More News On The Salmon Scare Reports

In a recent e-Alert I tackled a nutrition issue that also happens to be a sticky environmental concern. A recent study found farmed salmon to have high levels of pollutants. But I found the study to have high levels of holes in it and defended the consumption of farm-raised salmon.

And believe me - I heard about it!

Several members sent long e-mails explaining the nutritional dangers and environmental problems associated with salmon farming. I still stand by my assessment of the flawed study, but I've also taken a long look at the issues surrounding farm-raised salmon. And by and large, life down on this farm isn't pretty.

More... or less?
While digging for background information and verification of details in the e-mails I received, I came across this statement from US physician Dr William Campbell Douglass: 'Try to buy trout, salmon, tuna, etc. that have been harvested from wild, deep-water sources - not fish farms.' Dr. Douglass points out that the wild, 'free-ranging' fish tend to be much lower in mercury, lead, and other heavy metals that can cause health problems.

And they may also be richer in omega-3 fatty acids - the very nutrient that makes salmon such a healthy food in the first place. A member named Jay sent an email saying: 'I saw somewhere that the omega 3 profile of farmed salmon is not nearly as favourable as their wild cousins.' And an email from another member named Don agrees, noting that fish have to eat algae to get omega-3. (Most farmed salmon are raised in enormous floating pens in ocean waters where algae may not have a chance to grow.)

However, on many web sites maintained by the salmon farm industry, the exact opposite claim is made; that farm-raised salmon contain higher levels of omega-3 than wild salmon. The David Suzuki Foundation - an environmental research group - is currently preparing a report on the difference in quality of omega-3 fatty acids found in wild and farmed salmon, and I'll fill you in on the results of that report in a future e-Alert.

Seeing red
While the omega-3 question may be a disputed point, not as easy to dismiss are some common salmon-farming practices. A member named Gail writes: 'Farmed salmon are kept in large, overcrowded, netted pens overflowing with faeces, antibiotics, artificial colorants and pesticides.'

And an HSI member named Madeson agrees. Madeson lives in British Columbia in the US, which boasts 'some of the finest habitat of Salmon populations in the world.' She writes: 'These penned up farmed Salmon breed so rapaciously while confined so closely together which necessitates the use of huge quantities of antibiotics and drugs to keep them healthy.' And Jay also notes that colouring additives are put in the feed, 'so their meat is not a nasty grey colour.'

Beyond the questionable 'nutrition' that one might get from artificially coloured salmon (with a side of antibiotics and pesticides), there's a larger environmental issue. Although the farm industry denies it, farmed salmon do escape and breed with wild salmon. Gail writes: 'Cross breeding with wild species weakens the wild species' ability to survive in the wild contributing
to its extinction.'

Madeson also notes that fish farms, which are 'almost always placed near spawning migration paths of healthy salmon runs,' attract 'hordes' of sea lice that attack the wild salmon, reducing their strength and ability to return to spawning beds. The lice also attack and kill young salmon smolts as they return to the sea from the estuaries.

Organic alternative
Last month in The Observer, a Scottish 'aquaculture expert' named James Hepburn called on local salmon farmers to develop 'organic aquacrofts.' Also known as 'smallholding,' this downsized farming technique is healthier for both the fish and the environment. Mr. Hepburn (a former fish farmer himself) hopes that this type of farming might reinvigorate the good reputation of Scottish salmon by refusing to use the unhealthy methods of huge Norwegian and Chilean factory farms that he feels have overwhelmed the market with inferior fish.

In the same article, however, Don Staniford, a spokesman for the Salmon Farm Protest Group notes that even in Scotland's organic farms, salmon are fed with pellets made with fish caught in the North Sea, which is polluted. Furthermore, the large amount of feed required for these farms is decimating the populations of many fish species.

Obviously, the difficult issues of salmon farming will not be easily resolved. But as a member named Lois observes: 'Fortunately, you do have viable options for obtaining the nutritious benefits of fish, such as regularly consuming high-quality purified fish oil.' But even with fish oil supplements, you can't always be certain you'll avoid mercury and other pollutants found in both farmed and wild fish.

In yesterday's e-Alert, I noted that some fish oil supplements contain traces of contaminants. So to insure the highest quality of fish oil, look for supplements that use molecular distillation to separate toxic heavy metals from the oil.

What a difference a century makes
In a previous e-Alert I said we need to have realistic expectations about the quality of our food supply. Let's face it; we'd have to return to 1904 to find foods that are free of impurities (which is one of the reasons why detox methods are so important today). But that doesn't mean we should accept destructive farming methods that create environmental problems and unhealthy foods.