Atlantic salmon are native to rivers in North America and Europe.
They spawn in fresh water but spend much of their lives in the
ocean. Atlantic salmon are similar to King salmon in oil content,
but its meat is more orange in color.
Wild Atlantic salmon stocks are at depressed levels and those
spawning in U.S. waters cannot be sold. Fortunately, Atlantic
salmon is relatively easy to farm and is grown in large quantities
by farmers in the United States, Chile, Canada and Norway and are
available year-round. These fish are reared to smolt size in shorebased
fresh water hatcheries and then transferred to floating sea
cages. They remain in the cages for about 18 months, until they
are ready for market.
Salmon farmers operate under very stringent regulations regarding
the siting of their farms, farm practices, fish health and treatment,
site management, environmental monitoring, research, and
food product safety and inspection. The end result is a system that
ensures environmental protection and a sustainable product.
Because salmon need a healthy environment to survive, farmers
must protect the environment or their salmon will die. Advancements
in technology and science have significantly reduced the
amount of salmon excrement and unconsumed feed released into
the ocean. In Maine, for example, divers regularly sample the ocean
floor beneath the salmon pens to monitor the health of the ecosystem,
and farms must shut down if they dont meet strict
pollution standards.
Because salmon are susceptible to bacterial, viral and fungal
diseases as well as parasites, salmon farmers also rigorously maintain
prevention and control systems to prevent the loss of their
fish and the potential spread of diseases into wild populations.
Concerns have been raised regarding antibiotics, vaccines, and
other therapeutants used in farming. Use of medicated feeds,
however, is low (less than 2%) and must be conducted through
veterinarian prescription.
Sometimes sea cages fail and release salmon into adjacent waters.
Although escaped salmon tend to remain near their farms, some
can enter nearby rivers to spawn and possibly interbreed with wild
salmon. Conservation groups and Maines salmon farmers have
signed a precedent-setting agreement to monitor and improve
measures to reduce the accidental release of salmon through
mandatory, verifiable containment systems.
Genetic experiments are being conducted to accelerate growth
rates, improve flesh color and increase disease resistance of Atlantic
salmon. One firm has engineered an Atlantic salmon to grow four
to six times faster than a wild salmon using a promoter gene
from either a flounder or an ocean pout and has applied to U.S.
and Canadian officials for approval to market the product. Plans are
to sterilize these fish before putting them in net pens so that they
cannot establish breeding populations if they escape. Critics argue
that the risk of interbreeding cannot be eliminated and are opposed
to this proposal. Another issue surrounding genetically modified
organisms is the use of genetically engineered ingredients in some
of the salmon feed (e.g. soy protein).
Salmon farming is a very efficient way of producing protein
because it takes less than two pounds of feed to produce one pound
of salmon. In the wild, salmon must eat about 5 pounds of fish to
produce one pound of salmon. Production of fishmeal used for fish
and animal feed has remained relatively stable for the past 15 years,
and stocks of food fish, such as menhaden, are healthy.
Farm salmon help conserve wild salmon populations by providing
an alternative source for consumers and by ensuring that the
species continues to have a broad genetic pool.
For more information, visit the National Marine Fisheries Service
website at www.nmfs.noaa.gov, the FDAs Fish Encyclopedia at www.fda.gov or the National Fisheries Institute website at www.nfi.org.
Source: National Fisheries Institute - August 2004
