Farmed and Dangerous
So we all know that eating fish is a good way to get Omega 3’s, but because we’re all so hungry for the slippery suckers, wild-caught fish is expensive. But hell, we can farm corn and wheat, why not farm fish? Problem solved. Turns out that farming fish causes as many problems, if not more, than catching them from the ocean.
According to luluzine: Vol 2.6:
“The high PCB content these fish contain, not to mention their ubiquitous sea
lice problem, flow over into wild salmon runs and are responsible for 90-97%
of the collapse of these runs, according to marine researcher Alexandra
Morton. Add to that the fact that these fish find all kinds of escape
routes, (there are over a million reported to have gone missing last year,
and it’s suspected that number is actually much higher), and you’ve got
runaway Atlantic salmon breeding in open water, competing with indigenous
fish and consequentially spreading disease.”According to a 2004 study called, “A Global Assessment of Organic
Contaminants in Farmed vs. Wild Salmon: Geographical Differences and Health
Risks,” (reported to be the most thorough study on the subject done to
date), consuming farmed salmon more than once a month could increase your
risk of getting cancer by, “an unacceptable amount.”
Starre Vartan
Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick.com and the author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life. She's also a freelance science and environment writer who has published in National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, the NRDC, and many more. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her partner and black cat. She was a geologist in her first career, and still picks up rocks wherever she goes.
