Study confounds anti-farm lobby

by GUSTAV-ERIK BLAALID, general editor gustav@fishfarmingexpert.com

The Norwegian Scientific Committee has concluded that farmed salmon is healthier than wild oily fish such as herring, mackerel and salmon, following a new, comprehensive study. It will come as a shock to the world’s population and political leaders that the fish that live freely in the ocean contain more toxins than farmed fish living on a controlled diet. Yet this gap will probably increase: wild fish are unlikely to become less toxic in the foreseeable future, while producers will have greater opportunities to refine the diets of farmed fish. This is obviously something that the aquaculture industry should tell its critics and an important point when strategies to increase aquaculture production are discussed. Nevertheless, the situation in the ocean should worry the aquaculture industry too – an industry that produces clean and nutritious food should care about its natural surroundings. It seems paradoxical to be talking about food and poison in the same breath, but emissions of toxins – especially PCBs and dioxins – have occurred on a large scale and are clearly affecting wild fish. One problem that farmers face, given that salmon diet consists of an increasingly high proportion of vegetable ingredients, is a possible reduction in the levels omega-3 fatty acids in farmed salmon, which would make consuming farmed salmon less beneficial to human health. The effects of regular intake of omega-3 have shown that it prevents cardiovascular disease, has a positive effect on the development of the brain in foetuses and counteracts some other diseases. In other words, if one reduces the content of omega-3 in salmon, one also reduces some of the best arguments for eating it. Despite changes in salmon feed, however, the omega-3 content of farmed salmon still compares favourably with that of other oily fish. Moreover, efforts to find replacements for marine oils are well underway. Several promising projects worldwide are currently being conducted by research institutions and commercial players that aim to replace marine fatty acids with microalgae that are rich in omega-3. Results from these projects already suggest that aquaculture can become independent of increasingly scarce marine oils. The research behind the conclusions of the Norwegian Scientific Committee are obviously important for salmon production regardless of whether it takes place in Chile, Scotland, Canada or elsewhere. Salmon farming is an international industry with a high degree of vertical integration, and where the major players have operations in several regions. The entire salmon producing industry can use the conclusions from the Scientific Committee. And they come in handy in a world where opponents of the industry are doing their utmost to discredit farmed salmon – they have led campaigns that claim salmon are carcinogenic, that the salmon industry destroys the environment, that salmon farmers take food from the hungry and that it is an unsustainable industry. The opponents will not like to hear that the Norwegian Scientific Committee concludes that farmed salmon is healthier than other fatty fish. In this edition of Fish Farmingexpert we bring an excerpt from the committee’s report and strongly encourage the aquaculture industry in Scotland, Chile, Canada and elsewhere to make the most of it.