Stinging Indictment of Farmed Salmon as Food - Dr. Mercola

"If you’re aware of the health benefits of animal-based omega-3 fats and the fact that salmon is a great source, you may be shocked to discover that farmed salmon has more in common with junk food than health food. This is the grim reality revealed in Nicolas Daniel’s documentary “Fillet-Oh-Fish,” which includes exclusive footage from fish farms and factories across the globe."

This quote is from the Dr. Mercola site, March 24, 2018, so it is current information:  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/03/24/why-farmed-salmon-are-toxic.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20180324Z1_UCM&et_cid=DM200215&et_rid=255203834.

You will recall the EU graphic of the concentration of dioxins, PCBs, etc. in farmed fish: 

 

In fact it is 10 times the amount, on average, or 1000% higher than other meat products.

Here is Mercola's summary of his article:

Story at-a-glance

• Salmon farming is a disaster both for the environment and for human health, and tests show farmed salmon is about five times more toxic than any other food tested
• In animal feeding studies, mice fed farmed salmon developed obesity and diabetes — effects researchers believe are related to toxic exposures
• Besides pesticides and antibiotics used in fish farming, the most significant source of toxic exposure is the dry pellet feed, which contains dioxins, PCBs and other toxic pollutants
• PCB concentrations in farmed salmon are, on average, eight times higher than in wild salmon
• Farmed salmon also does not have the nutritional profile of wild salmon, containing more than 5.5 times more omega-6 fat than wild salmon, which further skews rather than corrects most people’s omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. 

 A quote on the sewage: "Below the salmon farms dotted across the Norwegian fjords is a layer of waste some 15 meters (49.2 feet) deep."

One of the videos on the site shows that you can actually squeeze the oil out of farmed fish, and frying wild and farmed reveals that farmed fish has several more multiples of fat.

Quote: "Farmed salmon suffer less visible but equally disturbing mutations. The flesh of the farmed salmon is oddly brittle and breaks apart when bent — a highly abnormal feature. The nutritional content is also wildly abnormal. Wild salmon contain about 5 to 7 percent fat, whereas the farmed variety can contain anywhere from 14.5 to 34 percent. For a visual demonstration of this difference in fat content, check out the video above"

The fat is from the feed, particularly fish meal and fish oil, which is where the cancer-causing chemicals arrive from as well.

Quote: "Farmed and Dangerous⁹ provides an example of a salmon feed label, and the ingredients are very telling in terms of where these excess omega-6 fats are coming from. The first nine ingredients in Skretting’s “Winter Plus 3500″ salmon feed are poultry meal, fish meal, poultry fat, fish oil, whole wheat, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, feather meal and rapeseed oil. These are all ingredients that no wild salmon has ever encountered and is about as far from a species-appropriate diet as you can get."

Note that farmed fish are fed chicken feathers. I asked EWOS six times whether their feed contained feces, and got no response. If I were a feed manufacturer, I would want to clear up that my product contained no feces. Not EWOS. Sure leads one to think that EWOS puts feces in its fish feed.

After all, many fish farm operations around the world regularly use feces as feed. For example, tropical ones where a hog farm is built on a hill beside a pond and the hog feces are shoveled into the pond for the fish. Once the pond is full of fish feces, it is taken out and placed on the hog hill for them to eat. And so on.

Feces in farmed fish feed: 1. http://www.purezing.com/living/food_articles/living_articles_7salmon.htm. And, 2. http://www.eatthis.com/shocking-facts-about-farmed-salmon/. And, 3. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/01/12/what-do-fish-farms-use-for-feed.aspx. And, 4. https://www.naturalnews.com/037576_farmed_seafood_animal_feces_China.html. 

Google this to get a long list of articles on feces in farmed fish feed: https://www.bing.com/search?q=feces+in+farmed+fish+feed&pc=MOZD&form=MOZLBR.

Mercola also goes on to point out what  poor nutrition you get from farmed salmon versus wild salmon: "In a global assessment of farmed salmon published in the January 2004 issue of Science,² 13 persistent organic pollutants were found. Farmed salmon also does not have the nutritional profile of wild salmon. Rather than being a wonderful source of much-needed omega-3 fats, farmed salmon contains far more omega-6 than omega-3, which can have deleterious health ramifications, seeing how most people are deficient in omega-3 while getting far more omega-6 than they need."

Note that this study is the Hites et al one in Science, Jan 9, 2004, that the fish farm industry, government, paid science, fake website, including in BC, etc. mounted a smear campaign to wipe out the science even though it was true. You will recall that is where I decided never to believe anything fish farms say, until I ground proof it. The David Miller article on this is here: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/key-document-fish-farm-tactics.html.

Just how bad is farmed salmon? "Overall, farmed salmon are five times more toxic than any other food tested." 

One of the big secrets in fish feed is that ethoxyquin is added. If you want to read just how bad ethoxyquin feed is, hit this link: https://www.bing.com/search?q=ethoxyquin+-+fish+feed&pc=MOZD&form=MOZLBR. The articles go on and on.

Ethoxyquin is a pesticide! "Ethoxyquin was developed as a pesticide by Monsanto in the 1950s. Its use is strictly regulated on fruits, vegetables and in meat, but not in fish, because it was never intended for such use."

Ethoxyquin is an antioxidant, but it is also used because without it, fish feed may explode in transit. Yes, folks, it's hard to make this stuff up, but brought to you by fish farms (you will remember that BC fish farms use Hill and Knowlton, the PR people who taught tobacco CEOs not to know their products caused cancer).

And how bad is this pesticide on humans? We're not completely sure because, "the effects of this chemical on human health have never been established. The one and only study ever done on ethoxyquin and human health was a thesis by Victoria Bohne, a former researcher in Norway who made a number of disturbing discoveries, including the fact that ethoxyquin can cross the blood brain barrier and may have carcinogenic effects. Bohne was pressured to leave her research job after attempts were made to falsify and downplay her findings."

You will recall the post I did that has about 20 scientists who have been harassed and had ruined careers because fish farm companies go after them:  https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/06/scientists-harassed-by-fish-farms.html. It really is this bad.

Anything more? Well, there is this, which is Norwegian neoliberalism at its intense best: "Others have linked the secret use of ethoxyquin in Norwegian fish farming and the lack of scientific investigation into its effects to the Norwegian minister of fisheries and coastal affairs, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, who also happens to be a major shareholder in a commercial salmon farm, and has held many high-ranking positions within the fishing industry."

Remember her name, as you will see it time and again in text that points out problems in the fish farm industry in Norway. We would call this a conflict of interest, just like DFO has with fish farms in Canada, and how they sucker in politicians with the jobs and revenue spin. You will recall that I have rebutted this false claim a dozen times on this site - with the false figures beside the true figures.

One more thing, about fish feed components: fish farms like to call fish offal 'trimmings' a polite word for the dregs left after filleting a fish - tails, fins, brains, stomachs, intestines, skin, scales, the list goes on. So farmed fish are fed fish. Hmm.

Here is a comment from the Mercola site: "fish waste has become a “highly valued commodity” used in processed foods. At less than 15 cents per kilo (2.2 pounds), fish heads and tails, and what little meat is left over after filleting, are a real profit maker. Virtually nothing actually goes to waste anymore. Fish waste is washed and ground into a pulp, which is then used in prepared meals and pet food." Yes, that said in prepared meals.

Eat wild salmon, and if a friend buys farmed salmon, tell them you will buy them/catch them a wild salmon in exchange for the farmed salmon. Oh, and tell them all the stuff in this article, giving them the links so they can go look for themselves. That's the important point on this site, that I give the links, that I only say what I have a reference for, as in it's all true, folks.

Pelagia, EWOS Forage Fish Reduction Plants for Fish Farm Food & Livestock

For your reference an example of the high number of reduction plants, for Pelagia, that take fish and reduce them to livestock and fish farm feed.

These are the Pelagia plants in Europe. There are many more companies in the process that take billions of killed forage fish to make into farmed salmon.

See: http://pelagia.com/facilities/.

EWOS has six plants around the world: http://www.ewos.com/wps/wcm/connect/ewos-content-group/ewos-group/about-ewos/operations/.

On their site, this information:

"EWOS Group is comprised of six operating companies: EWOS Norway, EWOS Chile, EWOS Scotland, EWOS Canada, EWOS Vietnam, and EWOS Innovation.

EWOS central is the administration that links these companies together, forming a group.

We have production facilities and well-established market shares in all four major salmon producing regions. Operations in each region are run as independent companies led by a local managing director. Support services covering areas such as purchasing, production, sales and business development are coordinated centrally."

And they have been looking at GMO plants with genes for Omega 3s. See:  http://www.ewos.com/wps/wcm/connect/02127cc3-edd7-4cce-9965-25eda4d5978d/Spotlight+2+2013.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

See Page 8:

"Biotech companies and academic institutions that are currently developing genetically modified EPA+DHA oilseed plants include BASF/Cargill, CSIRO/NuSeed (Australia) and Dow/DSM on rapeseed, Dupont on soy and Rothamstead Research Institute (UK) on camelina, with some claiming substantial EPA+DHA levels already in their oil seed plants. Further development is needed and the

registration process can be long and expensive. 

The time to commercialisation is uncertain, but CSIRO/Nuseed intends to conduct field trials starting in 2014 subject to regulatory approvals, with commercial launch of EPA+DHA rapeseed oil around 2018. BASF/Cargill estimate that their product will beavailable in 2020."

Judging  by the problems Aquabounty is having with their GMO farmed salmon, I would bet this won't fly. But for those who are not happy with GMO foods, you will want to avoid farmed salmon.

KEY Document - Fish Feed Sustainability - Check Back - Fish Gut Bacteria

One of the finite parameters of fish farm sustainability has always been the amount of forage, feed fish in the oceans. There hasn't been enough to sustain supplies, and fish farms have contributed to fishing down stocks of fish such as menhaden, mackerel, anchovy and so on around the world.

Then there is the real issue that forage fish should be made into human food, for third world countries, not ground up to feed carnivores sold to first world customers who can afford this wasteful process of using fish protein to make fish protein. Tut, tut.

The reality is that fish feed made of fish is dramatically on the decline. For example, the jack mackerel stocks off Chile and Peru have been decimated so much by Norwegian fish farms and other companies that stocks have collapsed. While there was only one Norwegian ship in the past year fishing there, the rest of the boats were catching what remained to feed to shrimp in Asian countries.

Not sustainable, and not for human consumption.

By the way, there is so much disease and other issues in tropical fish farms, I would not eat the shrimp and so on and suggest you do the same. One practice has chickens raised in cages above the fish. Their sewage drops into the fish ponds as food.

Here is a good current article on the issues: http://impactalpha.com/what-to-feed-the-fish/.

There are issues with plant based feed like soy, such as GMO problems, deforestation and throwing of indigenous people off their land, and so on.

I will shortly be reviewing the scientific research into gut bacteria of Atlantic salmon. The purpose is to make them able to digest vegetarian diets and thus move to a non-fish diet that has much more scope for greater amount of cheaper feed. A good idea.

Scotland researchers published their work in a recent issue of Nature: http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ismej2015189a.html.

It is important work and I suggest you read it. I will tell you more shortly.

"This week, researcher Dr. Martin Llewellyn (Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow) and co-workers in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, USA and Wales took a first step towards understanding the role of salmon gut bacteria in salmon health."

Fish Farm Feed Tonnage Declines, May Level Out, Sort Of

One of the limits on the fish farm industry is the global supply of fish oil and meal. No food for open-net salmon farms, no farmed salmon.

In the past year, supply of feed has dropped: " Global production of fish meal and fish oil fell 11.5 percent and 7.5 percent respectively in 2014." "The production of fish meal fell to 4.1 million metric tons in 2014, while the amount of fish oil fell to 843,000 mt."

There is a real disparity between the growth and proposed growth of fish farms and the available feed for the fish. Read the article: It all depends on Peru.

See: http://www.intrafish.com/free_news/article1407285.ece.

The article suggests that the feed industry should level out - meaning feed all the farmed fish - in 2015, provided Peru's anchovy stocks hold up with enough mature fish. If not, the global feed supply will not feed all the farmed fish.

But if you go down the articles in the March 5, 2015 list, you will find that new species of farmed fish will require about 50% of fish meal/oil in their diets, meaning the global growth of farmed fish will climb dramatically.

New aquaculture species will drive demand. They include grouper, cobia, amberjack, and tunas.

“Furthermore, as aquaculture evolves and becomes more intensive and modern in the future, there will be more need for formulated feed and in turn need for more fish meal.”

The point is that fish feed had to branch out into other protein because the ocean’s supply of fish protein was limited. Soy, canola, chicken feathers, Antarctica’s supply of krill (almost the bottom of the food chain) – all have environmental issues associated with them. Fish farming has culpability in driving down some stocks, for example, jack mackerel in Chile. Norway has almost eliminated fishing for this very depleted stock, but Asian companies are still fishing it down.