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Originally Posted by outfished
Fly Rod, I agree 100%. I used to eat farmed trout and salmon until I had a wild salmon from upstate maine. It blew my mind and I swore I would nerver eat farmed again.  I Don't even bother fishing for them any longer. There is some data that farmed fish contain higher doses of mercury, but the farmers will dispute that. Trader Joe's carries wild salmon  Made a believer out of my GF! |
I have tried to stay away from this as long as I could, but...
1) I agree, wild salmon is better than farmed salmon. However, outside of The nortwest, good fresh wild salmon is hard to come by, where good fresh farmed is readily available. I thought the wild atlantic salmon was endangered in the North East???
2) Fly Rod, farmed salmon do not grow faster because of chemicals. It is a combination of selective breeding and feed program, combined with inactivity. Immgaine if you just sat on the couch all day with someone constantly throwing fritos at you.
3) There is no data that farmed salmon contian higher levels of mercury. There was a paper that said farmed salmon contained higher levels of PCBs last year, but was later retracted.
4) I agree that there is a problem with fishmeal (ie reduction of wild biomass), but I truly believe that they will be able to use soy protien before the end of the decade.
5) Escapees are a problem that need to be solved
6) Bass babe, they have been farming fish in China for 5000 years, so I don't think that this is a technogical issue. I think that like you said, it should be highly regulated, like comericial fishing.
7) Open ocean fish farming would reduce a lot of the contamination/eutrification issues that are brought up. Unfortunately with current tech, escapees increase.
8) I have been to aquaculture facilities in Maine, Alabama, Missippi, Vancouver, Mexico, Norway, Iceland, Chile, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Spain. Some are world class and some would make you want to puke.
9) There are several other points that have been made that are off base, but I have to go.
FYI, as a bias disclosure, I am a purveyor of both farm raised and wild caught species of fish and shellfood.
-Zac
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