Fish Sales Fraud in Europe and the USA

It is hard sometimes to believe what fish are labelled as when buying fish. In Canada it is often the case that many species of bottom fish from South America are sold as 'sea bass'. 

And now in Denmark, The marine conservation organization Oceana, and the TV program 'Go Aften Denmark' did a study showing that 18 % of cod sold in Denmark is not cod, but haddock or saithe.

Previous studies in other European countries have shown 32% fraudulent sales in Italy, 30% in Spain, 19% in Ireland, 3.5% in France, and 6% mislabelling, and thus, untraceability, in England.

See: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/24139/oceana-unveils-high-levels-of-seafood-fraud-in-denmark.

Oceana has also previously carried out extensive studies on seafood fraud in the USA, which was the biggest study of its kind, and in France, in collaboration with Bloom.

In the States, it is common for Atlantic Salmon from Chile to be mis-labelled. Recently, it was mislabled as from Scotland, where the industry has said it is organic for so long that world markets actually believe it, though the sewage put out is more than the entire population of Scotland, something common in other countries, for example, Norway.

To give you an idea of how the industry plays up the Scotlant industry, read this: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/24096/scottish-salmon-showcased-at-leading-food-event. All that is done is that they say it is organic and no one contradicts them, even though the sewage and other problems are the same as the other 22 countriies with farmed Atlantics.

In fact, it was in Scotland, where I first read the David Miller articles on the neutralizing of the Hites et al article in Science in 2004, that made me realize that everything fish farms say is spin. I always groundtruth what is said, and this site is the result of all the environmental damage caused to pristine oceans by in-ocean fish farms.

Read the Miller (originally on Spinwatch.org) article here: https://www.academia.edu/2939514/Spinning_farmed_salmon. I am sure you will agree that the lengths fish farms went to destroy the science on persistent organic pollutants and cancer causing chemicals in farmed Atlantic salmon from Scotland reads more like a Hollywood thriller than good corporate citizenry.

Hites et al have continued publishing articles on the cancer-causing chemicals in farmed Atlantic salmon in the decade since the original article. And the main message out of Norway in the past year from scientists and doctors is that people should not eat farmed fish due to the chemicals in them.