Wild Pacific salmon is the lifeblood of First Nation's coastal communities and support wildlife and fisheries, and contributes to our vibrant provincial tourism industry. However, one of the threats to our wild salmon populations stems from salmon farms which are often beset by disease outbreaks, sea lice, toxic algae blooms, escapes, chemical contamination, and pollution. This educational paper lays out the global impacts and local solutions to safeguarding our wild salmon.

Canada's Pacific Coast Salmon Farms

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.24 - No.07, Fall 2005

the global impact of salmon farms

Fast facts
Sea Lice Crowded open-net cage salmon farms create the ideal conditions year round for sea lice. Just one or two lice can be lethal to young wild salmon.
Toxins Scientists have found that farmed salmon, which are treated with antibiotics, chemicals and contaminated feed, contain many more toxins than wild salmon.
Sewage BC has over 80 industrial salmon farms. These farms release untreated sewage (poop) into the ocean that is equivalent to a city of 500,000 people.
Protein Salmon are carnivores. For every pound of farmed salmon that is produced up to four pounds of wild fish are needed for their food pellets.
Disease Because there is no physical separation between open-net cage salmon farms and the marine environment an outbreak of a serious disease on a salmon farm can quickly contaminate wild salmon in the area.
Gross The flesh of farmed salmon is dull gray. Because that is not very appetizing salmon farmers rely on pink dyes for a more "natural" look.

Atlantic invasion

Approximately 80% of farmed salmon raised in BC are non-indigenous Atlantic salmon. Fish farmers originally tried native species of Pacific salmon but found that the more docile Atlantic salmon were easier to farm and faster growing. BC salmon farms have reported more than 350,000 Atlantic salmon escapes since 1991 and evidence exists that Atlantic salmon are now spawning successfully in our rivers.

Breeding Disease

Crowded conditions, where up to 90,000 fish swim in a pen, provide ideal conditions for disease outbreaks such as infectious hematopoietic necrosis. Farmed smolts are vaccinated against certain diseases but high pathogen levels can overwhelm vaccine effectiveness.

Raw sewage

Open-net cage salmon farms are industrial feedlots that discharge their untreated waste into surrounding waters . The over 80 farms that operate on Canada’s West Coast produce raw sewage equivalent to a city of 500,000 people. Antibiotics, disinfectants and pesticides are also discharged. The impact of many of these chemicals on marine ecosystems has never been evaluated.

Dying to be pink


Unlike wild salmon, farmed salmon flesh is pale grey. To make their flesh pink fish farmers use special dyes in the salmons’ feed and can choose from an assortment of colours, just like you would in a paint store, to find just the right shade of pink.


Oceans

Farmed salmon bring a world of toxics to the dinner table

Toxic contamination of our oceans is a global problem but farmed salmon is accelerating the path from ocean to dinner plate. By bringing contaminated fish feed from other jurisdiction and adding in more chemicals in the farming process, farmed salmon is one of the most contaminated protein sources in the world.

Many scientific studies have repeatedly found farmed salmon, including those from British Columbia, to contain significantly higher amounts of toxic chemicals than wild salmon. A recent study analyzed over 2 metric tons of farmed and wild salmon from around the world, including BC, for 13 contaminants and pesticides.(1) The study found that farmed salmon contained on average 10 times more toxins than wild salmon. Many of the chemicals that were found, including PCB’s, dioxins, dieldrin, DDT and toxaphene, pose a risk to the immune or reproductive systems and are thought to cause cancer.

Other recent studies found that farmed salmon contained 10 - 65 times the amount of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) than wild salmon. PBDEs are persistent, chemically similar to PCB’s and are used as flame retardants in foams, textiles, plastics, furniture, carpets and electronic products. (2, 3) Studies have shown that PBDE’s may cause memory and learning difficulties and thyroid disruption.

Toxic lunch(4)

Prevalence of PDBEs in common protein sources. Expressed in parts per trillion. 



Farmed rainbow trout3,638


Farmed Atlantic salmon1,942


Extra-lean ground turkey 450


Butter384


Sausages242


Pork chops56


Medium ground beef32


Pacific wild salmon30


Ice cream27


Cheese23


Whole milk10


Chicken0