Ethoxyquin, The Slimy Inside Story

Ethoxyquin used in fish feed is added to prevent the feed blowing up in transit, yes, explosions. It is also used to keep fats from going rancid. And there has been an on-going 'fight' for the past decade to get it out of food for humans, but it has been making our pets sick as it is used in pet food. See the Gloria Dodd letter at the bottom, who was a vet. Read it to see how many diseases are caused. And even for fish feed, which ends up in humans, the extension for getting rid of it is to 2020. Don't hold your breath that it will be taken out of our food stream, as the fish farm industry doesn't want that to happen.

Also see the Morgenbladet website: https://morgenbladet.no/aktuelt/2018/04/det-vi-ikke-vet-om-laksen.

"What we do not know about the salmon

Experts in double roles, disturbing animal studies and a researcher who stopped in the middle of an attempt. Here is the story of ethoxyquin, a synthetic substance in farmed salmon, which Norway defends, but the EU will ban."

Here is a Mercola article:  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/30/salmon-fish-farming.aspx.

"Overall, farmed salmon is five times more toxic than any other food product tested. In animal feeding studies, mice fed farmed salmon grew obese, with thick layers of fat around their internal organs. They also developed diabetes."

And: "The nutritional content is also wildly abnormal. Wild salmon contains about 5 to 7 percent fat, whereas the farmed variety can contain anywhere from 14.5 to 34 percent.

Many toxins accumulate most readily in fat, which means even when raised in similarly contaminated conditions, farmed salmon will contain far more toxins than wild.

Shockingly, research reveals that the most significant source of toxic exposure is not actually the pesticides or the antibiotics, but the dry pellet feed! Pollutants found in the fish feed include dioxins, PCBs, and a number of different drugs and chemicals."

The reason is that the fish used for feed are fatty fish, and thus concentrate things like dioxins, and ethoxyquin in the fat, which is then used for fish feed as Baltic states told their people not to eat the fatty fish.

And: "To the protein powder, they add an “antioxidant” called ethoxyquin. According to the filmmaker, this is one of the best kept secrets of the fish food industry. Ethoxyquin was developed by Monsanto in the 1950s — as a pesticide. Its use is strictly regulated, so why is it being added to fish pellets?"

And: " ...a Swiss anti-fraud laboratory was surprised to find extremely high levels of ethoxyquin in farmed fish — some 10 to 20 times higher than the 50 mcg per kilo allowed in food in the European Union — and that discovery began to unravel the secret. Ethoxyquin was designed for use on fruits and vegetables, but the fish feed industry discovered another novel use for it — they add it to the feed to prevent the fats from oxidizing and going rancid.
However, the fish feed manufacturers never informed health authorities of their use of the chemical. As a result, the EU strictly regulates ethoxyquin levels in fruits, vegetables, and meat — there are even standards for kangaroos and reptiles — but not for the fish people consume. What’s more, the effects of this chemical on human health have never been established."

And: here is a Bill Bryden link to ethoxyquin:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/nlaquaculture/permalink/2406848442872334/.

"Ethoxyquin is required to be added to fish-meal in order to prevent it from exploding during sea transport and storage. The European Union has set an combined upper limit for ethoxyquin and other antioxidants (BHA and BHT) of 150 mg per kg of feed. Data obtained from fish-feed and feed-ingredient monitoring programmes have not revealed any instances of this limit being exceeded in Norwegian feed." 

As above, the other reason for putting 'E' in fish feed is to keep the oils from going rancid. It was first developed as - you won't believe this - a pesticide.

From:  https://nifes.hi.no/en/ethoxyquin-in-fish-feed/.

Ethoxyquin does not belong in your food: https://www.nutraceuticalbusinessreview.com/technical/article_page/Ethoxyquin_does_not_belong_in_your_food/99579.

 And: https://www.allaboutfeed.net/Feed-Additives/Partner/2017/10/Ethoxyquin-use-in-animal-feed-suspended-198110E/. Says, of the EU decision to suspend EQ:

"Antioxidant manufacturers and suppliers can no longer market formulations for animal feed which contain ethoxyquin, as of 28th September 2017. This action represents the first step in the suspension of ethoxyquin use in animal feeds.

Feed producers can still use existing stocks of ethoxyquin during the transitional period of a further three months. By the end of 2017, the second step of this regulation* will enter into force, and all companies involved in animal feed nutrition will have to discontinue the use of this long-standing antioxidant ingredient."

Yes, but remember that 2020 date.

And, from 2013:  https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfs/2013/585931/.

"Ethoxyquin (EQ, 6-ethoxy-1,2-dihydro-2,2,4-trimethylquinoline) is widely used in animal feed in order to protect it against lipid peroxidation. EQ cannot be used in any food for human consumption (except spices, e.g., chili), but it can pass from feed to farmed fish, poultry, and eggs, so human beings can be exposed to this antioxidant. The manufacturer Monsanto Company (USA) performed a series of tests on ethoxyquin which showed its safety. Nevertheless, some harmful effects in animals and people occupationally exposed to it were observed in 1980’s which resulted in the new studies undertaken to reevaluate its toxicity. Here, we present the characteristics of the compound and results of the research, concerning, for example, products of its metabolism and oxidation or searching for new antioxidants on the EQ backbone."

Suspension alarms fish farmers: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/1327790/eu-ethoxyquin-suspension-alarms-fish-feed-producers.

And: https://www.bing.com/search?q=ethoxyquin+fda&FORM=QSRE8.

Says: Ethoxyquin was developed 35 years ago as a rubber stabilizer, has been used as a chemical preservative and is regulated by the FDA as a pesticide.

And:  Ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative – and possible carcinogenic – regulated by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) as a pesticide.

 Food additive amounts: https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/Products/AnimalFoodFeeds/IngredientsAdditives/ucm541035.htm.

And another that mentions E keeps feed from exploding: https://www.nutraceuticalbusinessreview.com/technical/article_page/Ethoxyquin_does_not_belong_in_your_food/99579.   And has a good list of the standards in different counttries, and a list of references at the end.

And even Wikipedia has an article on 'E': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethoxyquin. It was invented by Monsanto in the 1950s, as a pesticide. It has been used to keep fats from going rancid in pet food, aquaculture feed and so on. It should not be found in human food, like, wait for it, farmed fish.

Here is an article for the general reader, May 2019: https://michaelkummer.com/health/diet/farmed-salmon/.

And here is that excellent letter, 1992, describing pet problems, including cancer and death from eating ethoxyquin over several decades, by Gloria Dodd, who is a retired veterinarian: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/ethoxyquin-carcinogenictoxic-food-preservative-in-pet-foods-a-letter-to-the-fda/. Do go read this one, as the effects on our pets are pretty bad.

Here is a Barentz Group slide presentation on antioxidants, including Ethoxyquin. This is highly scientific and for the specialist:  https://www.fif.is/files/10/Antioxidants-Vitablend-Dvid-Prime.pdf.
It is worth a cruise. 

***

These are the Siri Vike articles on ISA, not ethoxyquin, another issue fish farms and especially Aquagen didn't like:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Siri_Vike.

Nylund, Vike - The Famous ISA Chile Paper, Scientists Harassed in Norway, AquaGen, Updated July 14, 2017

Siri Vike was sent by her company, Cermaq, to Chile to find out what the fish were dying with in 2007. The result was this paper with Are Nylund, a now very famous one, in 2009: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19034606. (See the Vike/Nylund harassment link closer to the bottom below, a 2017 article).

It came out that AquaGen had sent the infected eggs to Chile that lead to a $2billion loss in 2008 and 13,000 workers losing their jobs. The irony is that had AquaGen not filed a 'bad science'  complaint, no one would have known that they were the firm that caused the problem - because there were half a dozen. Even today, AquaGen claims they have never had an infection in their 45 year history, a false statement (there is one quote below). Much like Donald Trump, fish farm companies make false statements about their actions even though they know they are false.

Here is the abstract:

Abstract

Infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV), genus Isavirus (family Orthomyxoviridae), is present in all large salmon (Salmo salar)-producing countries around the North Atlantic. The target species for this virus are members of the genus Salmo, but the virus may also replicate in other salmonids introduced to the North Atlantic (Oncorhychus spp.). Existing ISA virus isolates can be divided into two major genotypes, a North American (NA) and a European (EU) genotype, based on phylogenetic analysis of the genome. The EU genotype can be subdivided into several highly supported clades based on analysis of segments 5 (fusion protein gene) and 6 (hemagglutinin-esterase gene). In 1999 an ISA virus belonging to the NA genotype was isolated from Coho salmon in Chile, and in 2007 the first outbreaks of ISA in farmed Atlantic salmon was observed. Several salmon farms in Chile were affected by the disease in 2007, and even more farms in 2008. In this study, ISA virus has been isolated from salmon in a marine farm suffering an outbreak of the disease in 2008 and from smolts with no signs of ISA in a fresh water lake. Sequencing of the partial genome of these ISA viruses, followed by phylogenetic analysis including genome sequences from members of the NA and EU genotypes, showed that the Chilean ISA virus belongs to the EU genotype. The Chilean ISA virus groups in a clade with exclusively Norwegian ISA viruses, where one of these isolates was obtained from a Norwegian brood stock population. All salmonid species in the southern hemisphere have been introduced from Europe and North America. The absence of natural hosts for ISA viruses in Chile excludes the possibility of natural reservoirs in this country, and the close relationship between contemporary ISA virus strains from farmed Atlantic salmon in Chile and Norway suggest a recent transmission from Norway to Chile. Norway export large amounts of Atlantic salmon embryos every year to Chile; hence, the best explanation for the Norwegian ISA virus in Chile is transmission via these embryos, i.e. vertical or transgenerational transmission. This supports other studies showing that the ISA virus can be transmitted vertically.

***

Vertical transmission was very debatable at the time, with horizontalists being in the majority, as in fish to fish, versus verticalists, as in doe/buck to egg. Not anymore.

Go read this article to get the slimy details on how scientists are harassed in Norway, when fish farms don't like their findings: https://morgenbladet.no/aktuelt/2017/06/de-forbannede-lakseforskerne.

I have also done a post on the subject: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/06/scientists-harassed-by-fish-farms.html.  There must be 20 scientists in this one who have been harassed by business, and, if you can believe it, the Norwegian government.

This is the story on the Vike/Nylund harassment in the Norwegian press, 2017. See: https://morgenbladet.no/aktuelt/2017/06/et-forskermareritt?utm_source=M%C3%B8rke+motkrefter&utm_campaign=cf9d10687b-M%C3%98RKE_MOTKREFTER_2_2017_06_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0eba175513-cf9d10687b-57212337. 

You can translate it at Google Translate: https://translate.google.ca/.

You will note that from the Canadian expert, Fred Kibenge, AquaGen had an unsigned copy of issues. The great irony here is that after the Cohen Commission in Canada where the Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not like Kibenge's testimony against fish farms it interceded with the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) to have Kibenge lose his accreditation. One of the letters is on the public record and can be found on the Canadian Auditor General's site in an Environmental Petition.

From AquGen in 2017, its CEO, Nina Santi's speaking on the case at a Norwegian conference, with Vike in attendance said this: that she had followed the presentations with increasing irritation. "Many people have opinions without knowing," she said about the infection issue, emphasizing that "Aquagen has not had any ILA outbreak since the 1970s." 

This is a false staement. AquaGen sent ISA [ILA in Norwegian] to Chile.

Here is a final quote from the article (note that it is Google Translate English):

"After ten years, there has still been no alternative explanation of how the virus came to the country.
Chile no longer imports roe from Norway. The country's ILA infection is minimized, as is the case in Canada, Scotland and the Faroe Islands."

Note that this says Canada downplays the ISA in Canada. If you follow this news, the CFIA allowed one eastcoast ISA infection to be slaughtered and sold to Canadians, thus washing ISA down drains and into rivers and oceans all over the country. They did this because it would not be allowed into the USA with ISA, and to avoid paying as much as $30 for each diseased, dead fish, the CFIA decided it didn't matter that hundreds of thousands of Canadians kitchens would be affected.

Furthermore, DFO, the CFIA and the BC testing system, BCMAL, all refuse to believe there is ISA in BC, even though there was a 2016 article in Virology, and Virology dismissed their complaints. This means that two levels of government are saying ISA does not exist in Canada. Tragic.

"In Norway there were 15 ILA [ISA] outbreaks in 2015 and 12 last year [2016]. This is more than in any other country in the world. Recently, a new outbreak was reported at Lingalaks in the Hardanger Fjord, where 170,000 salmon were slaughtered."

Now, another news article:  http://ilaks.no/ila-mistanke-hos-aquagen-tingvoll/. AquaGen now has ISA, in 2017, despite claiming once again that it has never had ISA in its 45 year history, which of course, is a further falsehood, as the Vike/Nylund paper on AquaGen taking ISA to Chile for the 2008 ISA collapse in that country confirms.

Scientists Harassed by Fish Farms, Norwegian Government, Updated July 14, 2017

Fish Farms and the Norwegian Government have routinely criticized any negative results of scientific studies. The rule is that if you do it, your career will be ruined in Norway. 

It is a global pattern that fish farms go after their critics, for example, Don Staniford, was sued, several times. Alex Morton is regularly harassed by the industry that is now suing her for trespassing, though it dropped its case against the aboriginals who asked her to go with them. She is being taken to court for scooping some tern poop from a buoy with a spoon.

This article discusses 20 scientists, including Hites et al about pollutants in Scotland farmed fish, a Science article from January 9, 2004. Hites is where I came into this issue. David Miller, UK academic, criticized the media blitz that the Scotland government and fish farms colluded to put together to destroy Hites' credibility, even though his results were correct.

This is the article I wrote about Miller's article: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/key-document-fish-farm-tactics.html.

Hites is among the scientists that have been targets of harassment in this article: ttps://morgenbladet.no/aktuelt/2017/06/de-forbannede-lakseforskerne.

I'll give you a few snippets from it. It is Google Translated and so its English has problems.The original article is far longer than the quotes I use here.

Henrik Huitfeldt, physician and toxicologist at Rikshospitalet.

"Henrik Huitfeldt was "awakened" by criticizing Hites and Carpenter. He felt that Norwegian food authorities reduced the environmental costs. As he sees, it is well documented that Norwegians 

are exposed to such high levels of environmental pollutants, especially in oily fish, that results in lower IQ scores, increased incidence of adhd-like symptoms in children, and increased obesity and Diabetes type 2. He says he is surprised that the fish farming industry does not want to clean the fish feed for these poisons: "It could have given farmed salmon as low poison levels as other foods." 

Purification technology has been around for 15 years."

Torbjørn Forseth, Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (Nina)

"Both NINA and HI (Marine Research Institute) can be purchased, which has also happened and continues," Reppe wrote. "It was easy for the aquaculture industry to buy good reports from NINA and HI". Another breeder voted in favor of: "There is a cheating in river research, VRL and NINA have more or less confirmed their research reports," but this surpasses the wildest fantasies. "

And: "Forseth had researched wild salmon for years, published internationally and was accustomed to professional criticism. However, the assaults on his integrity were new. He took it hard, not to sleep. None of the alleged offenses were documented, reported or reported to the research ethics committees, everything just hanged in the air."

Laks Kan odelegge karrieren

"Why do you need to be anonymous?

I'm not naive. Norway is a seafood nation, and Norwegian seafood is a policy. Researching critically and going to the press with the discovery can hurt your career. Those who work with this get no promotions, some baktales or trivialized. Others struggle to get research funding."

Øystein Skaala, researcher at the Institute of Marine Research (HI). This is the only one that I have given you all of the text. The rest are snippets.

"The first e-mail came in January 2016. "This request is for access to all e-mails sent and received from the e-mail address of Øystein Skaala concerning research andmanagement of Guddalselva." The claim was sent by law firm Steenstrup Stordrange. The client was secret.

Later the lawyers demanded access to emails and text messages from two other researchers, Terje Svåsand and Kevin Glover. Deleted emails and text messages were required restored.

Øystein Skaala had worked at the Institute of Marine Research (HI) for thirty years.  For many years it was difficult to fund research on the environmental impact of farming, he said - it was referred to as "misery research". However, it improved and Skaala and colleagues worked on surveillance programs for escaped farmed fish and salmon lice. They developed, among other things, a DNA-based method to trace escaped fish. HI and partners also created an elvelab in Guddalselva.

 In 2015, he sought the Research Council's Antiquarian Program for funds to create
He made the system for catching escaped farmed salmon in rivers. Together with a colleague.
he presented the application in Oslo. There he felt that they had a "fair discussion",

but the aquaculture industry's representative in the expert panel argued "aggressively

against the need for the project". The application was rejected. The Research Council

stated that the project was not set by the panel because it had "too little commercial

potential (market opportunities, customers)" and that "the research had not gone far

enough to proceed in a verification process."

Last year, the inquiry requests came. "The law firm and their client should see

everything, emails, phone logs, and expanded the requirements for years backwards,"

says Karin Kroon Boxing Pen at HI. "People at HI felt they were under attack." Skaala

and others felt at the same time hanging out in social media.

In March 2016, the law firm on behalf of the Norwegian Seafood Association (NSL) sent

a "concern message" to the Minister of Fisheries Per Sandberg about HI's research in Guddalselva. The result was a meeting, where Minister of Fisheries Sandberg met representatives from NSL and HI. The Minister stated after the meeting that HI "is and is
going to be a nutrition-friendly institute". To Bergens Tidende he said that "politicians have

laid the framework for how the aquaculture industry is going to grow, and HI will share the ambitions for those decisions. We will grow five to six times until 2050. " "HI shall assume

that it is proper."

In retrospect, Skaala says that, due to the lawyer's claims, he spent half of his work last year

on "meaningless things". The research became victimous.

Attorney Lars Alsaker at Steenstrup Stordrange, now called Sands, expresses that the scope

of the requests for access was exaggerated in the media but did not comment on the matter.

"When we see that laymen and law firms are controllers of scientific quality, society is at

odds," says Skaala. "Science has established quality assurance systems. If research is to be subject to arbitrary laymen, we are back in the Middle Ages, where the Inquisition controls the research.""

Jon Olaf Olaussen, Professor at NTNU School of Business.

“If you did not get enough funds from the industry, a sort of selection occurred. The critics disappeared or researched other fields.

Commander of Sintef Fisheries and Aquaculture, Karl Andreas Almås, said openly to the class struggle where he stood: "The salmon industry needs all the positive support it can have and we will contribute." According to the shareholder register, Almas had shares in the fish farm giant Salmar.

And: "When we ask CEO Vegar Johansen of Sintef Ocean AS about this, he says that one of the driving forces of them is "developing the great potential of the harbor industries" and "if you do not believe it, it may be difficult to work here ".”

And: “Last year, Olaussen was invited to debate with Fisheries Minister Per Sandberg at NRK. The minister had mentioned critical voices in the salmon debate as "dark opposites" and asked for "nutritional research". Olaussen argued against. As Olaussen recounts the episode, the minister yelled at him after sending:

"I do not want anything to do with such people, Sandberg must have said before turning his back.

Per Sandberg today answers that he wants to comment on questions about research, but not from Olaussen, when during the television debate he must have brought a parallel to the research team in Nazi Germany.”

Kjetil Hindar and Tor Næsje, researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (Nina), Hindar since 1987.

“First, they said, "You have not shown that it's our fish that has escaped." When research showed it, they said, "You have not shown that the salmon spills." When we showed it, they said, "You have not Shown that they are leaving viable progeny. "When research showed it, they said:" You have not shown that they compete with wild salmon about food and space "or" ... that they cross the wild axis and create changes in the gene material "which Both are shown before. The whole time "you have not shown that".”

And: “Frode Reppe, who then chaired Frøya Ap, accused him of research illness. Despite a clarification meeting, the charges continued. When Nina published a research report in 2012 prior to a meeting with Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, Reppe believed that Hindar had acted as a political actor. In an email to Nina's leadership, Reppe demanded that "there should be another job for Hindar". If Hindar's colleague Tor Næsje was involved in the present case, there would be "another job also for him".”

And: “Tor Næsje says: Parts of the industry, for example, deny our estimates on escaped farmed salmon. We use five methods to measure this. Everybody has insecurity. No numbers are hidden. When someone from the industry then attends a seminar and says they have evidence of cheating, it becomes serious.”

Anne-Lise Bjørke Monsen, senior physician and researcher at Haukeland University Hospital.

“Anne-Lise Bjørke Monsen had told the newspaper that she did not recommend children and young ladies who would become pregnant, to eat farmed salmon.

Environmental pollutants are stored in the body and have a half life of more than ten years, Monsen says. - It means that what you eat as small is stored in your body when you are 25 years old and will have your first child. Then large parts of mother's stock are transferred with pollutants to the fetus, or to the newborn through the breast milk. This happens in one phase of the child's life as the brain and the body develop rapidly. We know that salmon are one of the main sources of these environmental poisons, and according to studies published in reputable journals, they have a negative effect on brain development. Then I thought it was right to say that.”

And: “"We who warned of the environmental poisons in the salmon were not allowed by the hospital to comment," Monsen said.

"On the other hand, employees in the same hospital as financed by the seafood industry researched how positive fish were for our health.”

And: “Several media, such as TV2 and Bergens Tidende, drew Monsen's motives in doubt… “and a spokesman for the seafood industry called it a "tragic case".”

"I got a shit on me, Monsen claims. - They manage to reject references to published studies. But we have a responsibility to give the children optimal development opportunities. Then I react when Norwegian authorities recommend salmon for children and pregnant women.”

- Many are critical to your view?

"But one debate I want to travel: When much research on farmed salmon is supported by the aquaculture industry, is it science or content marketing? Medical journals discuss this. Survival of positive results is found in nutritional studies. Many studies in Norway are part-financed by industry, while critical researchers are struggling to get funding. Where will the criticism come from? Why hurry this? I will soon give up on this topic, but have held out for one reason: I see these children as a doctor and researcher. They are having health problems we could avoid. It is on the verge of grotesque.”

Top of Form

Bjørn J. Bolann, professor of medical biochemistry and general practitioner at Haukeland University Hospital.

"Even the Norwegian mother and child survey, which includes 100,000 Norwegian pregnant women, shows that even intake that is common in Norwegian diet has negative effects on young children. Nevertheless, I do not experience any curiosity from the Norwegian authorities. I increasingly suspect that what lies behind is to protect the industry and Norway as a seafood nation."

Claudette Bethune, former researcher at the National Institute for Nutrition and Seafood Research (Nifes).

"She was employed by Nifes to investigate contaminants in seafood. In the studies, she found that the levels of environmental toxicity persistent organic pollutants (POP) and brominated flame retardants were higher in farmed salmon than in wild salmon and other fish. She warned publicly about this. She and colleagues also found that farmed salmon absorbed up to ten times as much pollutants (POP) as domestic animals from the same feed."

And: "Colleagues stopped greeting me. I felt isolated. In the end, I signed a contract that left me from work and left Norway, says Bethune. John Nielsen, who worked with Bethune at Nifes, believes Bethune was "badly treated.""

Victoria Bohne, former researcher at Nifes.

 She does not want to talk about NIFES anymore. Researched ethoxyquin: "It appears that she researched a synthetic additive in the salmon feed, ethoxyquin. This was first used by the tire industry to reduce cracking. Now it is used in salmon feed to stop rubbing in the fat and to reduce the risk that the feed will catch fire during transport"

And: "She found that the drug went on to the rats. The rabbits testicles swelled.

In another attempt, for a documentary on the German television channel ZDF, she also found ethoxyquin in breast milk samples in mothers on salmon diets. She suspected that ethoxyquin could penetrate the blood-brain barrier, which should protect against viruses, bacteria and foreign matter, and into the brain." She was shunned and ultimately quit.

Anders Goksøyr, Professor of Environmental Toxicology, University of Bergen.

"We find health damage to food also with human consumption within the current limit values. Those who perceive professional criticism as attacks on the salmon industry, misunderstand. This is about the basis for our food and diet policy. And that is a public health issue. More and more studies suggest that environmental toxicity has consequences for people's health through hormone disrupting effects and metabolic diseases. Increases diabetes 2 rate from 10 percent to 12 in the population, it is important for public health and for Norwegian health benefits. We must handle these questions. We should not let possible harmful effects occur because we do not dare to talk about it - or because we are afraid of reducing people's fish consumption."

 Janne Sollie, former director of the Directorate for Nature Management (DN).

"In 2009, Janne Sollie stated that the aquaculture industry could cause a collapse of Norwegian wild salmon. The reactions were strong. People in the industry demanded her departure. She says she has not commented on this since she left four years ago."

And, she was assigned to do this work: ""I was assigned that responsibility from the Ministry of the Environment. There was pressure on Norway, including the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, to analyze the industry's impact on wild salmon. At the same time, I noticed that there was strong resistance to bringing forward facts, she says."

And: "In addition to newspaper reports, individuals came up with information with me, with different truths and motives. Some demanded me removed from work. The sum of all this gave me a new impression of Norwegian society. I felt that there was a lack of transparency for professional education and research, and that facts were opposed. Before I knew it myself, I would not have thought that this was in Norway."

Are Nylund, Professor of Fish Health at the University of Bergen. He has worked for 30 years on fish farm diseases. He is one of only two accredited scientists in the world that take samples and come up with the disease in them. In Canada, Fred Kibenge was the other one. The available evidence shows that Kibenge was hounded out of his accreditation by the CFIA that asked the World Animal Health (OIE) organization to suspend it. In other words, it doesn't matter how good you are, the government will get you.

This s a very famous case on how ISA is spread: "In 2005, Nylund warned of the risk of infection. He experienced that he did not get an ear. In 2007, Chile's farming industry was hit by a devastating ILA [meaning ISA] epidemic. In 2008, the fishery company Aqua Gen AS sent a note to its customers, claiming that Nylund's research was unethical. In 2009, Nylund and fellow student Siri Vike published a study that showed that the primary epidemic of Chile's epidemic probably came from Norway via the robbery. Aqua Gen reported the researchers to the National Investigation Committee for dishonesty in research. The case was dealt with in three instances. The researchers were acquitted each time."

But research money dried up for him, then: "On the same day as Nylund was acquitted, Fiskeribladet Fiskaren pressed a case where anonymous sources claimed that Nylund had "poor hygienic conditions at his laboratory". Nylund and the university rejected the claims, which were never documented or passed on to relevant bodies."

Siri Vike, former doctoral candidate at the University of Bergen.

""I'm not used to having enemies. I lay a lot awake and puzzled. I was afraid, says Siri Vike, who together with Are Nylund spent three years washing out allegations of dishonesty."

And all of this is only about what happens in Norway. The people who do the science are brave people. The fish farm companies are multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporations. They have lots of $$$ to defend themselves and they do defend themselves.