SALMON TUNA CHICKEN OF THE SEA= dioxins, PCB's, and mercury

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SALMON "PIG OF THE OCEAN", TUNA "CHICKEN OF THE SEA"(By Mr. Henk Brus)

http://www.atuna.com/Opinions/My%20Opinion/Archive/Salmon.htm

Grilled Salmon Steak, Smoked Salmon Fillets, Sushi of Raw Salmon, the "king of fishes" has gained a very high level of popularity in Europe, USA and Japan. In several European countries salmon took first or second place of the Top 10 of all fish species consumed. But much of the salmon consumed today is no longer the wild creature of the past, jumping up the streams and rivers, reaching its spawning ground after a long and hard struggle against all elements of mother nature. No longer most salmon is caught when being at the top of its strength, just prior to entering the river to spawn.

Despite the large catches of top quality wild salmon in Canada and Alaska, most salmon nowadays consumed in Europe consists out of farmed salmon. 95% of the salmon on Europeans dishes has been bred in captivity, just like cows and pigs. Farming salmon has now come very close to farming pigs. They no longer enjoy their freedom, do not develop anymore real natural fibers and texture, and are stuffed with artificial feed, and antibiotics. Recently the BBC reported that residues of dioxins, PCB's, and mercury were found in farmed salmon. The salmon has become "Pig of the Ocean".

99% of the world tuna is fortunately still swimming free in the oceans around the world. Unlike salmon, tuna is not coming back to the same place, so you cannot just pick them out of the water, like the John West bear was doing ! Tuna is still a truly wild and 100% natural species. With its light, tender, and juicy meat it earned the name "Chicken of the Sea" early in the last century. But what is the life of a chicken nowadays like ? Wouldn't it be time to review this obscure tittle ? Few chicken still roam around freely, and hardly ever eat plain corn and wheat kernels and other seeds in the open air. They are no longer subjected to the natural challenges of mother nature. Instead their most common enemies, as for the salmon, have become infections and viruses. To be eaten by a fox can only still be heard in the fairy tales, the baby chicks are told.

People who really love wild salmon, can easily taste the difference between the soft, watery taste of the farmed salmon, and the bite of a wild brother. But even the wild salmon are threatened by these weak, sick, farmed fish. Over the last decade more then a million salmon have escaped from farms in the British Colombia alone. The wild population of thirty Norwegian rivers has disappeared over the last years due to contamination by viruses of escaped fish. Pairing between farmed runaways and wild fish, has led to a degeneration of the genetics of the free swimming kind.

The Canadian-American company AF Protein is now ready for the next step. They have millions of eggs of the newest super-fast-growing salmon ready in their labs. In July this year they requested permission from the FDA, and other authorities to launch their genetically manipulated creature. They can dramatically boost productivity, they say.

It will be only a matter of time when also the Chicken of the Sea, our beautiful wild tuna will start going the same route. The first signs are already there. In Spain successful experiments have been done with spawning of Bluefin in captivity. In the future it will also become possible to breed Bluefin tuna entirely from egg to maturity in captivity. Considering the current market price of Bluefin, there will be many companies eager to turn this tuna from a free range Chicken of the Sea, to a caged creature with the highest possible growth performance. With special feed being developed, reducing the amount of squid and sardines fed to these fish, it will become more attractive to farm them. No longer you have to battle over quota's, and TAC's. Risks and investments will become much more calculable, compared to chasing the worlds oceans for the few beautiful real wild Bluefin left.

Farming definitely fulfills a important need within the market, but it might be a lot cheaper and healthier to manage and preserve our wild tuna resources much better and intensively. This is the only this way tuna can survive as the worlds most important commercial traded wild fish specie, and can continue to be a very nature-friendly source of food.

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