Is farming salmon really a better alternative to fishing salmon in the wild? You might think that it would be better to farm salmon rather than fish them in the wild and have an impact on the species. But the issue is, that this method is not intended to replace traditional ocean-based farms, but rather to supplement them, meaning both facilities are operating at the same time. By adding the infrastructure and energy needs of land-based systems on top of already ocean-based farms, this dual strategy increases environmental pressure rather than lessening the industry’s overall impact. The industry aims to double the current annual production of 600 million salmon, reaching 1.2 billion per year.
To gain a better idea of what a land-based fish farm looks like, one can imagine a huge hangar with the equivalent of 50-round Olympic-sized swimming pools. In each of these pools, there are thousands and thousands of fish. These projects are located all over the world, even in the barren Gobi desert. The fish are born in the pools and can grow up to 5 kilos. Salmon are wild fish, a migratory species made to swim in the ocean. Farmed salmon, however, will never be able to see the sea.
Problems Associated with Salmon Production
An enormous energy consumption is linked to the fact that farms reproduce an entire ecosystem, with profound impacts on the environment. A large quantity of CO2 is emitted due to the operation of factories, food, and transportation related to the importation of fish to feed salmon, the supply of supermarkets, and the emission of methane from various infrastructures in the farm. Furthermore, to support land-based salmon farms, hundreds of specialized facilities, including feed processing and water treatment plants, will also need to be constructed and powered. However, because they require a significant amount of energy and resources to operate, often depending on external power sources and machinery, each facility increases the industry’s environmental impact. The emissions stemming from the onshore factory farms are equivalent to the current production of 10 nuclear reactors in France. In salmon farming, fish are raised in two different kinds of facilities: underwater cages placed in the ocean and land-based cages. Because land-based cages are usually much denser, fishes are kept in smaller areas with less water, for a greater number. Salmon might react nervously as a result, which makes them more susceptible to disease and increases their mortality rates. Furthermore, land-based farms have a higher carbon footprint because they need constant energy for water circulation and to maintain proper conditions. Fish in these regulated environments frequently need more processed and complemented feed to survive. This is a huge risk, as salmon is a carnivorous fish. To feed the salmon, smaller fishes must be caught, mostly coming from overfished areas such as West Africa and Chile. It takes around 440 smaller fish to breed just one farmed salmon. That is over 200 billion wild fish that must be caught in order to just simply feed farmed fish on land. It also creates a concern for social justice, since the production of small fish in West Africa and Chile leads to fishing activity which diverts resources and jeopardizes local food security.
There are also other risks associated with this production, such as technological maturity. As salmon farming still is an industry currently expanding, not all plants are fully developed, heightening the risks of accidents among workers. It is also affecting the health of consumers. Traces of medicines have been found in the salmon we eat, as well as eternal pollutants and microplastics. This also causes the degradation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Salmon farming also has an impact on indirect ecosystems, such as Antarctica, and its biodiversity. In fact, the pink color of farmed salmon is intentionally enhanced by adding krill—a small shrimp-like creature that’s naturally eaten by whales and other marine animals—to their feed. This diet is designed to give salmon a more attractive, marketable color. However, sourcing large amounts of krill for salmon farming disrupts marine ecosystems by depleting a key food source for ocean wildlife, especially in regions where krill is essential for the survival of species like whales and penguins. Therefore, it disrupts the food chain and endangers other species. There are also effects on the Amazon rainforest, such as deforestation, since soya is fed to the salmon. It comes from soya fields, like those located in Brazil.
Development of Projects and Campaigns by NGOs
NGOs such as Pink Bomb and Data for Good are working on alerting on developing projects for intensive farms of land-based salmon. Three such projects are planned in France. Today, only a tiny proportion of the world’s salmon is caught in the wild, and 99.9% comes from water cages or land-based farms. Lou Welgryn, co-president of Data for Good, points out that there are three main types of salmon production: wild production which is in decline, and thus represents less than 1% of salmon consumed in France. Finally, there are new large-scale projects to build land-based farms. Regarding the three future projects in France, Pink Bomb is calling for a moratorium to ban these factory farms, as they consider them to be unnecessary for the production.
Solutions to Reduce Consumption
For various NGOs, the need for a systemic solution is at the top of their priority list. It is not possible to solve this problem only by changing our individual consumption, as there is a whole industry behind it that encourages us to eat and buy. The State also plays an important role, as it has the capacity to regulate the production of salmon and influence how they are bred. However, there are several obstacles to put an end to it. First of all, the industry has been widely developed and is very profitable for manufacturers since salmon can be used in different forms such as sushi, poké, filet, and more, and overall, consumers like it. As an alternative to reduce fish consumption, the NGO recommends going plant-based. However, going plant-based is not a sustainable option for all. The solution: turn to smaller fish. The smaller they are, the less impact they have on oceans. That is why buying trout instead of salmon is not such a good substitute. They are fairly high up in the food chain and therefore feed on other fish that are going to be captured.
Moreover, for decades the State has been saying that people should reduce their consumption of red meat, so people turned to fish, without understanding that the real message should be to switch to a plant-based diet.
Recently, the impacts of human food are starting to be understood and disseminated to the general public. Thus, according to NGOs, reducing fish and switching to plant-based alimentation would only be beneficial for our health, our well-being, and our planet.
Blandine Morineaux
