Although salmon farming has been around for centuries, the current popular method of using floating sea cages to raise fish from juveniles (smolts) to their adult market size was popularized in Norway in the late 1960’s. These open net aquaculture farms now produce over two million tons of salmon annually, outproducing the wild harvest by a margin of two to one. Although these salmon aquaculture techniques were developed with the best of intentions, the industry has been in the environmental community’s cross-hairs almost since the technique became popular.
Most salmon farms focus on producing Atlantic salmon. Wild Atlantic salmon were once common in North America from Connecticut north through the Canadian Maritimes to Labrador. These salmon were driven close to extinction by overfishing and habitat destruction, especially the building of dams which blocked their spawning runs. Concerted efforts were taken to protect those that remained. Atlantic salmon rivers that once saw tens of thousands of fish return each year to spawn, counted the few returning fish manually in annual surveys. All commercial fishing for Atlantic salmon was banned in North America (except for a few Canadian First Nation tribes that were allowed to fish certain rivers). Convincing the Greenlanders to give up their nets has been more difficult. Recreational fishing was for the most part limited to catch and release fly-fishing with scrupulous enforcement and licensing requirements that were cost-prohibitive for most anglers. Given the sorry state of the Atlantic salmon fishery, any alternative that offered a reprieve was welcomed for consideration.
Aquaculture was originally looked to as the salvation of wild fish stocks. By taking the pressure off of a wild fishery besieged by a fleet of trawlers and long liners seeking to satisfy an exploding global population, the wild fisheries could only benefit. Or so we thought. As open-pen salmon farming proliferated around northern coastal communities chosen for the colder water temperatures necessary for raising salmon, the many pitfalls of the technique became more apparent. Farms located in the cold Chilean waters of South America would suffer the same fate. Fish contained in such close quarters would develop diseases, necessitating treatment with antibiotics, mirroring the feedlot issues of the beef industry. Sea lice and effluent from the farm raised fish would contaminate the sea floor near the nets, and wild fish passing nearby would be impacted. Scientists began to question the rationale of using three or four pounds of the forage fish feed needed to produce one pound of marketable salmon.
No good deed goes unpunished, or the horror of unintended consequences.
As open net aquaculture proliferated up the coastline, wild Atlantic salmon advocates took notice. In addition to the environmental degradation in the immediate area of the pens, farmed salmon escapees became problematic during storms and mechanical malfunctions. Even marauding seals were suspected of releasing these genetically inferior invaders, which schooled up with the returning wild salmon to spawn. South American fish farms did not pose this threat to local fish, as salmon were not indigenous to South Ameican waters. Escapes did occur, however, and millions of invasive feral salmon have taken up residence in Chilean rivers.
Adirondack brook trout advocates will recognize this familiar turn of events. After decades of stocking hatchery-raised brook trout to accommodate recreational anglers, we now realize that those introduced fish debased the gene pool of the original wild fish, and the New York State DEC is desperately trying to identify and isolate remote wilderness ponds that still contain genetically pure strains of the original brookies.
Due to consumer pressure, open net aquaculture has made significant strides in recent years, specifically with regard to fish feeding techniques. In an attempt to cut down on the harvested forage fish (typically anchovy) in the feed that is used in raising salmon, some farmers like Verlasso in Patagonia have introduced omega 3 enhanced yeasts to the feed, reducing the fish content by up to 75%. Verlasso’s ocean raised fish were the first to receive Seafood Watch’s “Good Alternative | Buy” rating. Alta, in New York, had “Verlasso Salmon” listed right on the menu when we had dinner there last Saturday night.
Other producers are now attempting to produce fish using “organic” techniques, even though there is not a USDA – “organic” descriptor or certification for farmed fish. The bigger issues of environmental degradation and escapees are even more difficult hurdles for the open pen farms. A land-based, closed container system would be the obvious solution, but salmon have presented a unique problem because they are particularly sensitive to containment, requiring large amounts clean, highly oxygenated water. Other popular aquaculture species like sea bass, catfish, and tilapia can survive in less pristine conditions.
A promising potential solution is the land-based closed container Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS). Two such operations are being developed, one by Kuterra and the Namgis First Nation of Vancouver Island, Canada, and another by Atlantic Sapphire Salmon, which is working on a new farm in Florida. Land based fish farming is nothing new. Environmentally friendly land-based fish farming is. Recirculating aquaculture systems address the issue of dealing with discharge water. Contaminated discharge water often makes headlines when a Southeast Asian shrimp farmer’s pond waste ruins thousands of acres of nearby mangroves, but your local catfish farmer can create environmental problems with their discharged wastewater too. Recirculating systems that filter the discharged waste deal with that issue. They are also very expensive because of the advanced technology involved.
Atlantic Sapphire has one RAS salmon farming operation already up and running – in Denmark. The Florida operation will be their second. The majority shareholder in Atlantic Sapphire is Johan Andreassen, former founder and CEO of Villa Organic salmon farm in Norway. I contacted them to ask them why they would choose to raise a cold water fish like Atlantic salmon in a warm climate like Florida’s. The answer was amazing. They intend to drill below the Florida aquifer and tap the chilled water for their system. The combination of a year round chilled water supply and solar energy will help make the operation sustainable.
Most observers believe that sustainably raised farmed food is the only long term solution to feeding the planet. Companies like Atlantic Sapphire that are attempting to farm with an environmentally friendly process deserve our support. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for consumers, particularly restaurant patrons, to find out who is doing it right, and who is not. Most restaurant waitstaff have no idea if the fish they are serving is wild, or farmed, or flown across the world from New Zealand leaving a carbon footprint larger than a coal mine. SeaChoice.org and Seafood Watch provide good guidance, but using their app to order a restaurant meal is just not going to catch on. “I’ll have the US Georges Bank haddock if it was caught with a bottom long line, but if it is was caught with a handline in the Gulf of Maine, I’ll pass.” is something you have never heard in a restaurant. We can, however, ask one question: Does the restaurant use Seafood Watch or the Marine Stewardship Council as a guide for their seafood choices? We need to let the restaurant community know that we are paying attention, and we will appreciate it if they pay attention too. I go out of my way to support restaurants that focus on sustainable seafood. Mountain Brauhaus in Gardiner, Crew in Poughkeepsie, Le Express Bistro in Wappingers, and the Culinary Institute of America focus on serving sustainable seafood. It should come as no surprise that those same restaurateurs invariably also support our local farmers. They are paying attention.
I will also go out of my way to support Atlantic Sapphire when their salmon becomes available. They have just signed on with Samuels and Sons in Philadelphia as their east coast distributor, and they anticipate showing up in New York restaurants soon. Discussions with New York retailers are ongoing, but I’ll predict that Whole Foods will be selling their salmon soon. It meets all of their criteria – antibiotic free, GMO free, SeafoodWatch Best Choice. Atlantic Sapphire anticipates that their salmon will sell at a premium to traditional farm-raised salmon, but below the cost of wild Alaska king salmon. Their smoked salmon is available now on Amazon. You can view that link right here. Mine is on the way.