TO RAW FISH / SUSHI LOVERS : AVOID FARMED SALMON

ESPECIALLY TO ALL RAW FISH / SUSHI LOVERS: AVOID FARMED SALMON...THEY IMPOSE HEALTH RISKS. PURCHASE ONLY WILD-CAUGHT ALASKAN OR SOCKEYE SALMON AS THESE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE FARMED.

WHY NOT FARMED SALMON? HERE IS WHY....

Like the land-based CAFOs, industrial fish farming has had problems from the start, including overcrowded conditions, disease, pollution and unnatural diets. And because farmed fish are often raised in pens in the ocean, pathogens can spread like wildfire and contaminate any wild fish swimming past.

Norway, the world’s top producer of farmed salmon, has recognized this problem, and does not permit fish farms to be located in rivers or streams populated by valuable native species for this reason. But in other areas, such as British Columbia, no such restrictions exist and wild species are being threatened as a result.

Sea lice, a type of crustacean that is easily incubated by captive fish on farms, have also become a significant problem, including in juvenile wild salmon, which do not naturally carry the lice. And other types of lethal viruses spread from fish farms are also now being detected in wild populations, including:

Salmon leukemia virus, which attacks the salmon’s immune system so it dies of something else, much like the process of AIDS

Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISA), also known as salmon influenza, which is highly lethal

Piscine reovirus, which gives salmon a heart attack and prevents them from swimming upriver

It's important to understand that ALL farm-raised fish are fed a concoction of vitamins, antibiotics, and depending on the fish, synthetic pigments to make up for the lack of natural flesh coloration due to their unnatural diet. Without it, the flesh of farmed salmon, for example, would be an unappetizing pale gray. The fish are also fed pesticides, along with compounds, such as highly toxic copper sulfate, which is frequently used to keep nets free of algae.

Not only do you ingest these drugs and chemicals when you eat the fish, but these toxins also build up in sea-floor sediments. In this way, industrial fish farming raises many of the same environmental concerns about chemicals and pollutants that are associated with CAFO cattle, chickens and pigs.

In addition, fish waste and uneaten feed further litter the sea floor beneath these farms, generating bacteria that consume oxygen vital to shellfish and other bottom-dwelling sea creatures. Studies have also consistently found levels of PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin, as well as mercury, to be higher in farm-raised fish than wild fish.