Biomagnification, of course, at lower concentrations than can also affect farmed fish. carcinogens. The FDA also Because farmed salmon have fails to mention that while the 52 percent more fat per ounce contaminant levels found in than wild salmon, the effects the study are acceptable by of concentration can be, their standards for commercial well, concentrated. In fact, a fish, they exceed those of 2004 study in the prestigious the Environmental Protection journal Science revealed that Agency’s (EPA’s) rulings for the concentration of fourteen recreationally caught fish. different organic contaminants According to the EPA, the wild were higher in caught A 2004 study in farmed Atlantic Pacific salmon from Science revealed that Salmon in Europe and study organic contaminant the North America are safe to than in wild eat twice a concentration was caught fish week; the significantly higher in from the farm raised same regions. farmed Atlandtic Salmon Atlantic The study salmon are than wild caught fish concludes that toxic. the difference from the same regions. But on the in contaminant point of concentrations must related to the two groups’ contaminated fish, Steve begs to differ. He tells me that with diets, with wild fish consuming smaller fish directly and farmed farmed fish, “we can control what goes into the animals.” He fish being fed not just wild even contrasts salmon raised in fish, but also fish oils (that is, Washington with other products fats) that contain concentrated like butter, which now have toxins. more PCB’s than fish produced For the 25 million Americans by American Gold Seafood. who eat salmon, the question And herein lies an important of how much fish to eat difference. Steve would be and how often is a bit of a quandary. Based on the level of the first to admit that their contaminants in the 2004 study, business is imperfect, but the Federal Drug Administration compared with the overall farmed salmon scene, AGS (FDA) says consumers should appears to be a diamond in the feel safe eating one meal of rough. In large, bold letters on farmed salmon per month the corporation’s website, they without risking cancer. They maintain that even those not in does not, however, advise the “natural program” “dine on consumers about how much a mixture of anchovy, herring, fish they can consume without wheat, soybeans, and corn. risking other ailments linked They receive no hormones or to the chemicals in farmed steroids and are NOT genetically salmon flesh that take effect engineered.” They are not
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dyed pink (though Vitamin A supplements do help with coloration), and they are given only three antibiotics to combat disease. AGS calls their famed salmon production a “part of the global environmentally sustainable solution.” I had no means of testing organic contaminant levels of the fish at Cypress Island, but the 2004 study listed farmed salmon from Washington State as containing the lowest levels in all of Europe and North America (though contamination levels still merit FDA advisory of less than one meal per month). However, I could see that the operation Steve oversees is very different than those at my next destination, the Broughton Archipelago of British Colombia, or BC, as the locals call it. As my ferry sailed North along BC’s coast, I considered the state of fish affairs in BC. One hundred and thirtyseven open ocean operations distinguish the province as the world’s fourth largest producer of farmed Atlantic salmon. (As compared to the four sites in Washington, which Steve says cannot even satisfy the local market.) As BC’s largest farmed export, Atlantic salmon rake in over $214 million, a sizeable sum compared to the U.S.’s $40 million per year salmon industry. Unfortunately, the economic boon is proving bust as farmed fish devastate the wild Pacific salmon populations that have supported the people of BC for centuries.