An Olympic Effort to End Destructive Salmon Farming

What do the Olympics and salmon have in common? Usually not much, but right now, with the world’s eyes on Canada, it seems a fitting time to talk about wild salmon populations in British Columbia that are threatened by salmon farming.

The Pure Salmon Campaign has launched an effort to bring attention to the risks associated with salmon farming and call on the companies involved to start making some changes. Interestingly, the companies in control of the vast majority of B.C.’s salmon farming are from Norway — a country that usually makes a strong showing at the winter Olympics (unless, you caught the ice hockey team’s match up with Canada today).

And in fact, Pure Salmon is calling on the King of Norway, who’ll be attending the games, to put some pressure on leading Norwegian salmon farming companies Cermaq and Marine Harvest. A statement from Pure Salmon said:

“We hope that King Harald — who will be attending the Olympics as a spectator — can take the time to persuade Norwegian companies to move farms out of the path of migrating wild salmon and invest in technology, such as closed containment systems, to protect wild fish from sea lice, mass escapes and infectious diseases.”

A few months ago, we documented in detail the threats posed by salmon farming — but here’s the short version: Open net pens pollute the ocean with antibiotics and other chemicals fed to fish; concentrated populations of penned fish spread infectious diseases to wild salmon; farmed salmon need tons of wild-caught fish to eat — currently about 5 pounds of wild fish is taken from the oceans, where it’s part of the natural food chain, to make one pound of farmed salmon.

The bad news is that in the U.S. about two-thirds of the salmon we eat is farmed. The good news is that we can put pressure on salmon farming companies to clean up their acts. Pure Salmon reports that closed containment technology can be used instead. Here’s how it works:

Closed containment technology includes fiberglass, cement tanks and heavy gauge plastic bags that physically separate farmed fish from wild fish. This is one technology option that creates impermeable barriers that can prevent the spread of diseases and parasites and eliminates escapes and discharges of wastes into the ocean. Eliminating these problems would help protect fragile marine ecosystems while also inevitably improving productivity and profits for producers of farmed salmon.

If you want to know more, check out the newly released film: “Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry” at www.puresalmon.org and at www.farmedsalmonexposed.org.

And sign a petition calling on Marine Harvest and Cermaq to engage in safer salmon farming to protect wild salmon populations, the marine ecosystem, and the communities (human and non) that depend on their health.