VICTORY! Target discontinues all farmed salmon!

This is definitely a very counterintuitive issue and at first glance seems backwards. When I first heard about the issues with farm raised salmon I had the same reaction that you have.

I've done a ton of reading and learning about it over the last several years. Here is the deal.

First, wild Alaskan salmon is one of the best managed fisheries in the world. The state controls the permits and catch limits and they are enforced to maintain the health of the wild salmon populations.

Second, the salmon farming industry is totally not sustainable. In fact, the salmon farming in British Columbia, which exports much of their "harvest" to the US is responsible for the drastic crash of wild salmon populations in that region. That is having a dramatic impact on killer whale populations there. Both the wild salmon and killer whales are endangered.

Again, this is counterintuitive until you learn that the salmon are being raised in netted pens in the ocean (not a contained environment). Because they are in cramped pens they are subject to disease (which is why farm raised are full of antibiotics) and parasites (sea lice). The sea lice were seasonal in these waters but are now there all year in great numbers. The pens are located along migratory routes for juvenille salmon. The salmon leave the rivers in which they were spawned and head for the open ocean. On thier way, they migrate past the farms and get infected with sea lice. Juvenile salmon do not yet have scales to protect them against the lice. So they die and never make it back to spawn more salmon. So... the salmon farming practices are decimating wild populations.

On top of this... they use fish in the feed for farmed salmon. It actually takes more fish pound for pound to raise them. So you end up taking more fish out of the ocean than you are getting out of the salmon pens. Totally not sustainable.

There are other issues as well. Farmed salmon is full of chemicals, antibiotics, etc and wild is much healthier. Sea lions and other marine mammals that are attracted to the netted pens often get caught and drown -- or they are shot. Finally, all wild salmon around the world is Antlantic salmon, which is a predatory fish. In British Columbia this is an invasive species. And there have been escapes, including a large one this past summer. You never know what will happen with invasive species.

So although it is backwards at first glance, the best salmon you can eat is wild Alaskan. Personally I don't eat much fish anymore. But until the salmon farming industry (mostly controlled by Marine Harvest out of Norway) figures out how to do it in closed containment with less fish on the input side, farmed salmon is one of the worst choices in fish that is available.

Hope that helps. My head is spinning. Its always tough for me to write this without going off on tangents.

the wild Alaskan salmon fishery is one of the best managed wild fisheries in the world. Farm raised salmon, in addition to having human health risks, is partially responsible for the steep decline of wild salmon populations in Washington state and British Columbia.

I know its counter-intuitive to go wild over farm raised, but in the case of salmon its a very clear choice for sustainability and human health.

that's cool, i saw the animal planet series called wild Russia, and the wild salmon there are in great danger because of poaching. i'd write a letter to Medevev, but not sure it would do any good.

It's a very small beginning.

Go vegan!