Nearly 2M metric tons of wild fish used to feed Norwegian farmed salmon

Reminds me of the statistic I heard recently that something like 95% of soybeans grown in South America are used to feed livestock in Europe, even though soy is already a complete protein and could be used to satisfy the protein requirements of more people locally, than the protein harvested from the livestock.

Here in BC, Canada, another problem with the farmed salmon is that diseases and parasites (e.g. parasitic sea lice) from the fish farms, which are in the ocean (surrounded by nets), get to the native population.

My family avoids farmed salmon. I think as long as it's fished sustainably in the ocean (and we take care of the rivers) that's a better option.

The effects are not just the ton of fish, or even the job lost, it's equivalent to scorching the earth and polluting the groundwater of land based farming affecting generations into the future.

This is so lazy. How many tons of wild fish are farmed each year? How many tons of fish does this feed produce?

This is very much word salad:

“ In the report, Feedback calculated that the Norwegian salmon farming industry’s "feed footprint" is equivalent to 2.5 percent of global marine fisheries catch. The report also estimated that Norway’s annual output of farmed salmon is 27 percent lower than the volume of wild fish required to produce the fish oil used in Norwegian farmed salmon feed. The Norwegian industry’s plan to more than triple farmed salmon production to 5 million metric tons by 2050 would create demand for over three times as much wild-caught fish compared to 2020”

I seriously question this report. If you listen VHF radio at Alaskan Coast there is active market going on all the time. If the "Cannery" does not want the lot, the "Fish Plant" will. So it is not like they destroy valuable wild fish to feed less valuable farmed fish.

Are there any viable solutions here?

- Larger vessels can only fish <increased distance> off shore? - Increase 'no fishing' zones which has shown great success in studies creating nursery locations

Even if there is a solution would it be enforced off the coast of Africa? Some nations fishing fleets dont have the best reputation for following rules.

Salmon farms need to go. They are a plague to the wild salmon populations.

Here in BC Canada, our local area wild salmon populations are finally recovering after the closure of the local salmon farms.

They crowd fish in biologically hazardous conditions, then pump them with antibiotics and chemicals to keep them alive. All this in open water pens shared with the rest of the ecosystem.

One better solution seem to be inland salmon farms.

Wild salmon are too critical to many food chains both in the water and on land.

Eating like a salmon is better than eating actual salmon:

https://www.foodandwine.com/health-benefits-of-eating-wild-f...

There is also an epidemic of farmed fish being passed off as wild fish, especially at restaurants. There are many videos that cover fraud in the seafood industry, because it is very hard to verify what you're eating or how it was sourced without a lab.

Meatless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWWe2U41N8 How Sikh Chefs Feed 100,000 People At The Gurudwara Bangla Sahib Temple In New Delhi, India

I always get severely downvoted on social medias when I say it but the most impactful way we have to impact the planet on the single scale is with food.

Obviously a full vegan diet is the greenest, but I can't do it.

But if you are at least aware of the insane cost for the planet of fishing (regardless of farmed/non farmed) and raising animals (beef especially) I invite you to try to limit your intake. Maybe by eating less of it you can also afford to also raise the quality.

fish/beef > pork > lamb/mutton > > poultry > cheese > eggs > vegetables

If every time you eat you're at least aware of this scale, you may decide to switch some of your meals. Hamburger? Maybe eat some pulled pork. Pulled pork? You can replace it with lamb. Etc, etc down to vegetables. And if you really want that hamburger, enjoy it without any guilt!

Do what you want, but know that changing your diet habits and sharing this information with others will have a more positive impact than buying an electric car (which will put some hundreds tons of CO2 in the atmosphere during production alone)

One of the main problems is the commoditization of salmon and race toward cheapest feed ingredients just like the other animal proteins such as cattle, poultry and pork. Its just that Salomon need marine epa and dha omega-3 oils and proteins while not being able to process carbs that well. There are promising alternatives but they have a hard time to compete since you cant carry the cost to the consumers. Ie few are willing to pay extra to get a Salomon fed with insect protein and gmo oil from plants or algae. Switching feed ingredients also have their own impacts that need to be taken into account.

Can anyone knowledgeable comment on if farming insects, like grasshoppers that are apparently very efficient in turning feed to protein, will become a viable alternative for salmon and tuna farms?

> Unfair competition from fishmeal factories, which offer more money for catches

Would it be better if they offered less money?

Overfishing should be regulated by law by the state that owns the resources.

This is of of interest I think.

"An Update on the Content of Fatty Acids, Dioxins, PCBs and Heavy Metals in Farmed, Escaped and Wild Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.) in Norway"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7766777/

We eat an extraordinary amount of the fish and seafood in the world from the ocean: “The global per capita consumption footprint in 2011 is estimated at 27 kg. [That figure also includes] the indirect use of capture fisheries production by the fishmeal sector.” “the conversion of wild-capture fish that would not be used for human consumption into fishmeal and subsequent use as aquafeed, results in an overall increase in human consumption of fish”.

Figures do seem to show that most ocean fishing is for human consumption, but 16Mt of forage fishing (non-edible) is still greater than 10% of our total ocean fishing.

About 75% of fish meal is used for farm fisheries (aquaculture), the other 25% for animal farming on land. Fish meal is ~3/4 made up of non-edible fish (forage fisheries) and at most 1/4 trimmings (in 2017).

Finding good information needs persistance - but the above quotes use some of the keywords.

I don't see the problem with refining resources.

We convert cheap fish to expensive fish with a small loss. We also incur energy losses when we convert fuel to forward momentum or electricity to light.

What have soy beans to do with it? This is about converting valuable wild fish to less valuable generic farmed salmon, isn"t it?

There is a great documentary that covers some of the other issues with farmed salmon (amongs other things)

Eating Our Way to Extinction, available on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaPge01NQTQ

They placed farms right in front of my house on a pristine part of bantry bay. Nobody wanted them and now the water on the shore is covered in orange scum. I don't dare swim anymore. They never should have been allowed because the flow of water is inadequate to clean the waste out into the open ocean, but they're very influential with the politicians. It's a disgrace.

Don’t know who would eat Norwegian salmon to begin with. It’s terrible tasting compared to salmon sourced elsewhere in the world.

Of course. All animals need to eat.

And don't make me talk about how many tons of wild fish consume the domestic cats in the planet each day.

I have never eaten a farmed fish and I do not intend to, ever.

Why would you do that?

Its not only the destruction of wild fish to feed farmed salmon its also the Diseases, the parasites and the chemicals used by salmon farmers.

Hundreds of thousands of farmed fish die in the fish pens. Crammed in like sardines, excuse the pun.

The life of a wild salmon is amazing.

Ecological destruction for profit. Yet again!!!!!!!!!

The worst health advice and most conspiratorial food theories usually come from other tech folks in my workplace. The comments here seem to reinforce that.

Yeah but it’s obviously the tiny little fish humans don’t want to eat.

I don't believe the African situation is stable or sustainable hence we will see large scale tragedies on that continent in this century, that will make everything happened in the century XX a cake walk.

I enjoy farmed salmon so I can't blame its growers for providing me food. If they are catching feed where it is harmful, some marine regulation should solve it.