Wild Salmon Far More Healthy than Farmed Fare

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Wild Salmon Far More Healthy than Farmed Fare

 

A major study that tested contaminants in fish around the world

concluded that farm-raised salmon have significantly more dioxins

and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon from the wild.

 

Researchers stated that eating more than a meal of farm-raised

salmon per month, depending on its country of origin, could increase

the chances of having cancer in future years. Farmed salmon in

Northern Europe ranked highest in pollutants, followed by North

America and Chile.

 

Farm-raised salmon were found to contain higher concentrations of 13

pollutants, including PCB's and dioxins, which are let out when

industrial waste is burned. The average dioxin level in farmed fish

was about 11 times higher than wild fish. Salmon absorb these

pollutants through their environment, storing them in fat that

people then eat. Therefore, consuming high levels of these toxins is

believed to increase the risk of certain cancers and affect brain

and fetus development in children.

 

" We are certainly not telling people not to eat fish… We're telling

them to eat less farmed salmon, " said David Carpenter of the

University at Albany, N.Y, who performed tests on 700 salmon from

all over the world.

 

The study blames the feed used by fish farmers for these high levels

of toxins because the fish food used on farms concentrates ocean

pollutants. According to Carpenter, farmed salmon eat lots of fish

oil and meal made from just a few species of ocean fish, which

concentrates the contaminants they are exposed to, while wild salmon

eat a greater variety.

 

The salmon farming industry says that the results of the study show

that the pollutant levels are well within the FDA's legal limits.

The FDA replied by stating the amount of pollutants found in salmon

should not cause significant concern, explaining that the tests were

performed on raw salmon, with the skin on. If the skin was removed

and grilled, large amounts of dioxins and other accumulated

pollutants in the fish fat would be killed.

 

But many groups say that the focus should not be on acceptable

levels of pollutants set by the government, but rather on ways to

reduce toxins. " These fish don't have to be contaminated, " stated

Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group.

 

Houlihan's group and others advocate for simply changing feeding

practices on fish farms. According to the trade group Salmon of the

Americas, farmers in the U.S., Canada and Chile who are replacing

some of the fish oil in salmon feed with soybean and canola oil have

seen annual drops in PCB levels of 10 to 20 percent.

 

The practice of farming salmon in floating pens began just 20 years

ago. Now more than half of the world's salmon is farmed, turning the

fish from a seasonal food to a year-round product.

 

http://www.citizens.org/news/newsletter/2004/january_16,_2004.cfm

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