Farmed Fish vs. Wild Fish: How Healthy Is The Fish At Your Favorite Grocery?

[Bud Man]

Farmed Fish vs. Wild Fish: How Healthy
Is The Fish At Your Favorite Grocery?


The lack of proper public education and inadequate labeling of fish continues to be a major public health risk worldwide. Most food manufacturers, grocery chains and big box stores refuse to, or are not required to properly label their fish as farmed or wild. That's likely because the public is largely unaware of the dangers associated with cheap, high profit farmed fish that is so abundant in the conventional food supply. If you love fish, at what cost does this come to your health, and how can you protect yourself and your family?

Farm-raised salmon contain significantly more dioxins and other potentially cancer-causing pollutants than do salmon caught in the wild, says a major study that tested contaminants in fish bought around the world. Salmon farmed in Northern Europe had the most contaminants, followed by North America and Chile. The study blames the feed used on fish farms for concentrating the ocean pollutants.
Eating more than a meal of farm-raised salmon per month, depending on its country of origin, could slightly increase the risk of getting cancer later in life, researchers conclude. The study urged consumers to buy wild salmon and recommend that farmers change fish feed.
'The debate is sure to confuse consumers, who long have been told to eat fish at least twice a week because it helps prevent heart disease. Indeed, salmon is usually listed as a top choice because it is particularly high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and low in a completely different seafood contaminant, mercury.

The average dioxin level in farmed-raised salmon was as 11 times higher than that in wild salmon - 1.88 parts per billion compared with 0.17 ppb. For PCBs, the average was 36.6 ppb in farm-raised salmon and 4.75 in wild salmon.

Most governments do not have one set level of dioxins and PCBs that is considered safe in foods.

"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 tested 700 salmon from around the world.

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, Carpenter explained.

Raising salmon in floating pens is an industry that began just two decades ago but has helped the fish's popularity to soar, turning it from a seasonal to a year-round commodity. More than half the world's salmon now is farmed. Farm-raised salmon sells for about $4 or $5 a pound compared with $15 for wild salmon, said Alex Trent of the trade group Salmon of the Americas.

"These fish don't have to be contaminated," said Jane Houlihan of the Environmental Working Group, which wants salmon farms to switch the feed they use.

Trent said many farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile are slowly replacing some of the fish oil in salmon feed with soybean and canola oil to address the pollutants.

"This hardly addresses the issue" said public health and research specialist Marco Torres. "We know that the majority of soy in the world is now genetically modified, which alone presents tremendous long-term health implications" he added. "Canola oil comes from the rape seed plant, which is one of the most toxic of all food-oil plants, so introducing this unnatural oil to farmed fish diets is simply irresponsible. They are not addressing the issue of increased toxins in farmed fish, they are only side-stepping to try and maintain an unhealthy industry that needs much stricter regulations and guidelines" he concluded.
Farm-raised salmon contained significantly higher concentrations of 13 pollutants, including dioxins, released when industrial waste is burned, and PCBs, once widely used as insulating material, according to the study.

Animals absorb those pollutants through the environment, storing them in fat that people then eat. High levels are believed to increase the risk of certain cancers and, in pregnant or breast-feeding women, harm the developing brains of fetuses and infants.

Nutritionist Alice Lichtenstein stated "this was a beautiful study" that does raise a concern that needs more attention. "The bottom-line message is to continue to eat fish but consume a variety of different types."

"When you fail to label (products) the consumer doesn't have an opportunity to consider the controversy over the safety of these chemicals," said Knoll Lowney, an attorney representing consumers who've taken three giant supermarket chains to court for not telling them and others how some of their salmon is raised.. "It's unfair, it's deceptive and it's against the law."

Fish farmers, the suit notes, artificially color their products by including the two chemicals in the food that the fish eat. The practice is done, the suit says, to produce more readily marketable fish flesh, because many consumers won't buy the fish if they don't have that traditional color.
Farmed fish, the suit says, would have gray flesh were it not for the artificial additives, because they don't get to eat other creatures like shrimp and krill containing the chemicals that give salmon their pinkish hue.
The Environmental Impacts of Fish Farming Include:
1. Farmed fish are grown in floating netcages and impact wild fish and other marine species by spreading sea lice, disease and parasites.
2. Farmed fish are given antibiotics, other drugs and pesticides. The drug-laden wastes from surplus food and feces pollute the marine environment and cause marine mammal deaths and waste build up.

3. The introduction of exotic species is extremely harmful to local ecosystems, causing algae blooms and is one of the greatest threats to nature.

4. Farmed fish escape from their netcages—often by the thousands—and can displace fragile wild stocks from their habitat.

Human Health & Economic Impacts of Fish Farming Include:

1. Farmed fish receive more antibiotics by weight than any other livestock. The are given the same antibiotics that used to treat human illness. This contributes to the dangerous increase of antibiotic-resistant disease worldwide.

2. Farmed fish contain higher levels of unhealthy saturated fats and lower levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. A U.S. Agriculture Department study found farmed Atlantic salmon contain 70 percent more fat than wild Atlantic salmon because of the high fat content in their feed. Farmed Atlantic salmon contain 200 percent more fat than wild Pacific pink or chum salmon.

3. Thousands of jobs depend on the health of wild fish and all the species the fish support. It is essential that politicians and citizens also give serious consideration to the jobs that are put at risk by the fish farming industry’s current destructive practices.


Salmon Farm Facts
- A salmon farm is likely to hold 500,000 to 750,000 fish in an area the size of four football fields

- The biomass of farmed salmon at one farm site can equal 480 Indian bull elephants - that is 2,400 tonnes of eating, excreting livestock

- Salmon are carnivores. On average it takes two to five kilograms of wild fish (used in feed) to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon

- In one study, over a billion sea lice eggs were produced by just twelve farms in a two week period preceding the out-migration of wild juvenile salmon.

- Infection with one to three sea lice can kill a wild juvenile pink salmon.

- Canada and Chile are the two primary sources of farmed salmon for American consumers.

- Two-thirds of the salmon consumed by Americans is farm-raised.


Creutzfeldt Jakob disease

Three U.S. scientists are concern about the potential of people contracting Creutzfeldt Jakob disease -- the human form of "mad cow disease" -- from eating farmed fish who are fed byproducts rendered from cows.
Mad cow disease, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy is a fatal brain disease in cattle, which scientists believe can cause Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in humans who eat infected cow parts. The infectious particles eat away at the brain, leaving tiny sponge-like holes. There is no treatment available and death always follows.
In the latest issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Dr. Robert P. Friedland, a neurologist at University of Louisville in Kentucky and colleagues suggest that farmed fish fed contaminated cow parts could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.
The scientists want government regulators to ban feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish until the safety of this common practice can be confirmed.


Is Wild Fish Healthier and Safer Than Farmed Fish?

Species, season, diet, location, lifestage and age have a major impact on both the nutrient and contaminant levels of fish. These levels vary broadly within species and between species in both wild and farmed fish. There is a need for standardisation of sampling procedures before a robust comparison of wild and farmed fish can be made.

From the limited data available it seems that there are differences between farmed and wild fish. Although wild fish do not have the same levels of PCB toxins as farmed fish, many wild species still have PCBs and also levels of bisphenol-A (BPA) from the plastic polluion destroying the ocean. BPA is a well established toxin to humans linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and a hormone/enzyme disruptor.

What To Do

Due to the toxic loads associated with most species of fish, both from wild and farmed sources, the healthiest choice these days may be to avoid fish entirely or minimize consumption to once a month at most. You can calculate your mercury load here.

If omega-3 fatty acids are a concern, you can always supplement with non-fish sources such as flax or superior more effective varieties such as mussels (i.e. Moxxor).

Avoid buying any type of fish from major conventional grocers that do not label their fish (whether farmed or wild). If you cannot trace the source, don't buy it. The following list of grocers either do not label their fish or do not regulate their farmed fish sources, meaning they could be loaded with PCBs and antibiotics from unregulated fish farms.

Major U.S. Supermarket Chains To Avoid:
1. Aldi
2. Costco
3. Delhaize Group (i.e. Bloom, Food Lion, Harveys, Sweetbay)
4. Kroger (i.e. Dillion's, Food 4 Less, Jay C, QFC, Ralphs, Smiths)
5. Piggly Wiggly
6. Safeway (i.e. Carrs, Dominick's, Genuardi's, Pavilions, Randalls)
7. SuperValu (i.e. Acme, Bigg's, Bristol Farms, Cub Foods, Shaw's)
8. Wal-Mart Supercenters (Marketside, Sam's Club)
Major Canadian Supermarket Chains To Avoid:
1. Loblaws (i.e. Atlantic, Maxi, No Frills, SuperValu, Valu-mart, Zehrs)
2. Costco
3. Metro (i.e. A&P, Food Basics, Loeb, Super C)
4. Safeway
5. Sobeys (i.e. Foodland, IGA, Price Chopper)
5. Jim Pattison Group (i.e. Overwaitea Foods, Save-On Foods)

Whole Foods Market operates in hundreds of locations in the U.S., Canada and UK. According to their policy, they do regulate their farmed fish sources and do not allow PCBs, antibiotics or other toxic chemicals in their farmed fish.

[Roddy Hays]

Excellent post.

I've been warning people and clients about farmed fish, particularly salmon, for a long time now. In the UK the government actually promotes a 4oz only diet a month for pregnant women when eating UK farmed salmon, which is a jarring thought in itself. In addtion, there have now been countless studies in the UK on the subject, but all pale into insignificance compared to one fact - that the growth of salmon farms on the west coast of Scotland has reduced most, if not all, of the west coast famous salmon rivers to a collection of scenic watercourses devoid of all salmonoid life. That there is something inherently evil and destructive about salmon farms cannot continue to be pass un-noticed for much longer.

In addition to the points raised in the previous post, there is one point that is barely mentioned, but in the shallow protected lochs of Scotland and Ireland (for our US friends this is water between high terrestrial ridges in glacial scours leading to the sea, much loved by salmon farmers) where tidal flow is limited or negligible, the penned fish not only suffer from poor water quality and the pollution of their own waste, but they actually EAT the excrement of their fellow prisoners as they swim in their pens. A fouler equation for poisoned flesh you could not imagine, when combined with the feed that goes into the fish.

The quality of Chilean, west coast USA and Canadian salmon in comparison is much better, but still dangerous. If I have one message I can give you all, is try to make sure the farmed salmon you eat comes from deep-water farms, serviced by tidal streams and good water and good depth. Norwegian and New Zealand farmed salmon pose little threat in these circumstances, but the user should allow for the feed issues.

When it comes to other species, most of the freshwater fish you see that are farmed will all suffer from some issue or another. Fish raised in running water such as some trout for example, are much better, but the tilapia that are raised as an adjunct to sewage farms in Africa are not. Indeed, this latter issue is also an important point to be considered when choosing far eastern shellfish such as freshwater prawns - they too are often raised in water contaminated by sewage. In some areas of Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and other Pacific Rim countries, operators sometimes flaunt basic health standards in their rush to feed the palates of the "civilized" western world.

Saltwater fish raised on open-ocean farms rarely suffer from water quality, but do suffer from the additions of medicines to feed, and the quality of feed itself.

The growing threat on the horizon though is the blinkered view of the general public to the supposed heath benefits of fish, which hinges on the the supposed advantages of farmed fish. This all pales into a fallacy when one then realises that the growing of this seafood consumes more than the end product produces, and that the continued and increasing catch of krill (which is a major ingredient of all farmed seafood feed) could have such major implications for the planet that the mind boggles. You can Google this for yourself, but amongst the information you will find is that many scientists link the mass daily vertical migration of krill with the greenhouse effect, and also that the unregulated plunder of krill (an industry quietly going about its business now for a couple of dozen years) may result in a barren ocean in years to come. Throw out your "Save the Whale" t-shirts, and start printing "Save the Krill" ones. Seriously.

I actually decry the passing of an age where fresh fish was seen for what it was, where every single fish from the sea had a recipe and was seen as an item of food should the captor want. Too often today, the buyer seems all intent on a thick slab of Costa Rican tuna, or a piece of Alaskan halibut, paying up to $30 for such a chunk, when far more fun and nutrition can be had from catching a handful of smaller fish and then grilling them. I admit as I get older that I find a cooler-full of small tasty/skin-on peasant-style grilled or fried fish have far more appeal than a thick, poorly cooked, expensive fillet of something that has come on a plane from somewhere.

Is there anything much more pleasant than grilling a humble mackerel, caught by your children ? Fresh from the sea, served with mustard and mayo, brown bread and a salad with small new potatoes, it's a far cry from the additive-enhanced salmon fillet on offer in my local Publix. A damn site more fun too.

[hubris 1]

I didnt read your entire post but I get the idea. I do have a question though. How come when I go to the Fresh Fields Food store, all the people look like............Hell? They have all free range chickens, all kinds of beef with no steroids, and chemicals. I will admit the produce is much better than the regular food stores but the people look like, act like, and smell like victims. They are all bald, skinny, short, ugly.....and the women especially.....shave nothing! I buy into the whole better food thing, but the people in the store buying it just aint me. I would rather die 5 years early than look like them. I think a few chemicals actually help my hair grow. I see guys with a total free range diet, decaf latte, macro biotic diet driving a volvo, and it just aint me. Now, I wont buy tilapia because its really a goldfish, but ill eat all the salmon you got, even if it is raised in a ghetto.

[Roddy Hays]

By your post, Hubris, I feel that you are truly not on Limnos, but still here with us in the 21st century, furrowing your plough through 1st-world living with the rest of us You're up north, Boston area ?

You would otherwise be preaching the benfits of various denizens of the Mediterranean, grilled to perfection on your sunset grill, would you not ?

And as for not reading the entirety of my post....... **sobs**

You charlatan, you !

[hubris 1]

By your post, Hubris, I feel that you are truly not on Limnos, but still here with us in the 21st century, furrowing your plough through 1st-world living with the rest of us

You would otherwise be preaching the benfits of various denizens of the Mediterranean, grilled to perfection on your sunset grill, would you not ?

And as for not reading the entirety of my post....... **sobs**

You charlatan, you !

Im stuck in the shitty suburbs of Philadelphia. I hate the Eagles, and dont drink beer, I have never worn a baseball cap and dont understand why guys do, And explain backwards.......I think I need to go live in greece, where the fish of the day is a fish no American would even eat....Bream! I would. Thanks, Im outta here and this is my last post.

[captnemo]

Everything we eat is farmed except fish these days, America stopped harvesting wild caught proteins 100 years ago, and somehow we have lived this long, farmed fish is the only sustainable answer to ever growing demand. The answer is better farmed fish, just like farmed beef is more risky then wild shot deer for example. Wild shot turkey is better then farm raised, but lets be realistic here, we eat farmed food all day everyday, there is a way to raise farmed fish and be perfectly healthy, in addition to being better for sustainable harvest.

Clinging to the delicacy of wild caught fish is nearing demise and is going to be ancient history before too long.

[Bud Man]

Hubris, Your right for some reason people at whole food type markets or those that live that life style do tend to look a little rough around the edges.

As Roddy has stated, the troubles with farms is the amount of pollution and filth these fish grow in. It is alarming. Salmon farms are not the worst. I will not eat shellfish from Asia. The growing conditions are absolutely terrifying. Sewage is a good way to describe it. I don't know how anything that has to be shot up with antibiotics to be considered safe to come into this country can be good to put into your body. The Chinese have been caught re packaging a container ship that was refused by the US to try and get it back in. Some stats show that less than 1% of the seafood coming into this country gets inspected
If you want to barf in your cheerios, read this testimony about how minimally protected we are from Asian seafood imports.

http://www.consumersunion.org/pdf/CUTestSeafood0408.pd


Tilapia i'll pass on that one also.

Deep water farming is one way to help with the conditions. But as of right now i think Hawaii is one of the only states that has gotten approval for deep water farming.

I eat alot of seafood but if I didn't catch it or it comes from overseas I pass.

Roddy you are correct as there is a wonderful feeling to consuming a meal caught by the kids and enjoyed as a family.

[whalebreath]

I read all of Roddy's post and living as I do @ Ground Zero in the fight against Salmon Aquaculture (British Columbia) couldn't agree more.

Ironically I have two filets of Sockeye Salmon thawing on the windowsill as I type-the last of the Sockeye from this past season although there's plenty of other Salmon in the freezer.

And reading captnemo's pithy and succinct post makes me realise just how lucky I am, my generation has had the Best of it all and and it's a downhill ride for wild seafood from here on.

[hubris 1]

If you saw it alive, you would never eat it. I agree. Go into an asian fish market. These things are nothing more than goldfish, swimming in dirty water, each one with his lips right in the rear of the one in front of him in some of the filthiest water I have ever seen. However, the fish looks good filleted, so americans buy it. I always tell a waitress when she tells me the fish of the day is tilapia........Thats a goldfish, not a real fish. I have not eaten it since I saw it in a tank alive with 2000 of his friends.
I think you raise a good point budman, Why do they say we should raise the fish in the ocean for better conditions yet not allow a state the permits to do it. I have a friend with a car dealership all the way out in the woods, he wanted to put up 2 windmills for electricity [the govt wants this right?] They looked at him and said, dont even think about it, we dont want it here.
So, my point is they release these reports to consumers, have a solution too, but refuse to make it better. I made up my own mind with tilapia........if you go to an asian fish market, you wont ever eat it again either.