Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Hazards of Farm Raised Fish

I don't know, but suspect most catfish consumed is farmed in the US.

As to farmed catfish, it's a pretty clean operation. I once watched lawyers argue for hours over a lawsuit where a guy sued one of the local catfish processors that refused to buy his fish because they didn't meet the taste standard. I work and live in the heart of catfish farm country...the area I work produces a huge number of cats for commercial sale. The processors are extremely picky about the fish they buy. In fact, farm raised cats are supposed to have virtually no taste. They're supposed to be a blank canvass upon which to season and create tastes you desire. That's the reason they're top fed, and why the soil make-up at the pond is so crucial.

sorry to inform you but I know of what I speak, rather than suspect. The local HEB posts the origin of the different fish they have on ice in the fish market. Shrimp too. Also, I have asked several restaurants where they buy their fish. Then I call the supplier and find they get the cheapest chit avail from Viet Nam or you get to pay extra for US raised.

It is amazing how many hundreds of houses are built on stilts over the river and above the shrimp and fish farms.

True and not true. They use animal manure to fertilize the ponds. The fertilizer produces algae and diatoms, and the tilapia, being filter feeders, feed of these higher order animals.

Same with China; but the Chinese don't give a hoot what else they throw in the ponds.

The imported catfish is mostly Pangasius from Vietnam, raised in the Mekong river and tributaries. Not a clean environment.

There is no amount of money you can pay me to eat the frozen imported stuff from China or other Far east countries. That said, the tilapia from Ecuador, Costa Rica and Honduras is all produced using modern production methods, and that's why they are three times as expensive as the frozen Chicom garbage.

We've lost about a third of our catfish acreage in this country due to competition from the cheap imported stuff.

You get what you pay for. The funny thing is that almost all the tilapia I produce is bought by Chinese and Mexicans in this country -- they are willing to pay the price for quality. White people want it as cheap as the frozen garbage at Wal-Mart, or they won't buy. Which is funny as heck.

We buy frozen catfish from Costco. It's labeled USA. I think their talapia comes from Costa Rica. They also carry farmed steelhead from So. America.

Not only fish, but also our meats and vegtables. Monsanto, Dow and host of other companies have been poisoning people with their GMO's for years. Most people have no idea how far their reach is, nor do they care.

BP...

Dutch, how about the fish raised in Brazil? Thanks for the info.

I don't mind farmed fish, as it takes pressure off wild stocks to feed the world. The poor need meat, and farmed fish fit the bill. Not everybody can afford $8.99lb + fish.

Why are you sorry to inform me?

Well, I'm not normally happy to inform someone I'm pretty sure they are wrong about something (unless it's someone like sac, nwa, etc). In fact, I wish you were right.

I did some checking. It's only since 2009 that imported farm catfish sales surpassed U.S. farm raised. It stands at about 57% to 43%. The US catfish industry could easily turn that around with some good marketing. There has been issues with safety of imported catfish, which is also apparently often mislabled, and not really catfish. I also imagine that if you could break sales down regionally, you'd find that US farm raised far outsells imported in the southeast, and southwest.

I wouldn't touch farm-raised shrimp with a stick. Same goes for farm-raised tilapia or salmon. I have no problems whatsoever with US farm-raised catfish.

Still prefer to catch my own and try to do so as often as possible. I also am pretty particular as to where I drop my lines.

I always opt for wild caught shrimp. I don't eat tilapia unless it's passed off as some other fish, and still don't get how restaurants can do that. Just now learning to like salmon, but think I'd prefer wild caught. Love farm raised cats, but don't mind wild caught either.

Where I live I'm stuck with buying farm raised salmon or doing without. The fresh wild caught salmon sold here is anything but fresh. By the time it gets delivered to the supermarkets it's already five days old at a minimum and it's nasty beyond belief. Same goes for fresh halibut and pacific "rockfish".

It's no wonder that I meet so many people from the midwest that hate seafood. The quality of supposedly premium wild caught fresh fish is abhorrent. For somebody that isn't familiar with what fresh ocean caught fish is like, it's impossible for them to know what to avoid buying.

Yup. And that's the reason why us trollers are only getting $4.25lb for kings and $1.75lb for Cohos. They manage to take the highest quality fish, and ruin them with poor handling practices before they get to the consumer.

The midwest and east coast is a wide open market for wild salmon/halibut, if they'd get the fish there without ruining it.

Calvin, can you freeze and send them UPS?

The distribution network from Alaska to here sucks. I can buy farm raised atlantic salmon from Chile that actually is fresh. It's probably no more than three days old when it arrives at the store. I assume it's flown direct into Denver within a day after being processed and then trucked here ... three days max and iced the entire time.

Alaskan seafood ??? ... from the boats, to the dock processors, to Seattle wholesalers, through a distribution network and then flown or trucked to Denver ... five days plus.

I don't know the exact ins and outs of the distribution networks but I do know how old it is when gets here. Those extra days in transit makes all the difference in the world.

The "fresh" Alaska seafood they sell in the stores here borders on wanton waste. It's that bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vekW4FgXefo

Infectious Salmon Anemia was found in wild BC fish this past fall. It will have a huge impact on the entire coast if it spreads...

Watch the video and see if they are playing games... Or rather, who is playing games. It looks very bad for wild BC salmon in the long run.

I'm very appreciative that sellers have to disclose wild v. farmed. Makes it possible to vote with my dollar.