Health Warning: Read This if You Eat Salmon or Other Fish

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist
& Cat Ebeling, RN, BSN -- coauthors: The Fat Burning Kitchen

While fish used to be considered a healthy addition to any diet, farmed fish is now barely any better than eating a Big Mac. From both a nutritional and environmental impact perspective, farmed fish are far inferior to their wild counterparts:

Despite being much fattier, farmed fish provide less usable beneficial omega-3 fats than wild fish.

Due to the "feedlot" conditions of aqua farming, farm-raised fish are doused with antibiotics and exposed to more chemicals than their wild kin.
Farmed salmon, are given a salmon-colored dye in their feed, without which, their flesh would be an unappetizing grey color.

Aqua farming also raises a number of environmental concerns, the most important of which may be its negative impact on wild salmon. It has now been established that sea lice from farms kill up to 95% of juvenile wild salmon that migrate past them.

Nutritional differences of farm-raised vs. wild fish:

Farm-raised fish have a higher fat content. It�s not very surprising, since farm-raised fish do not spend their lives vigorously swimming through cold ocean waters or leaping up rocky streams like their wild counterparts. A marine version of couch potatoes, they circle lazily in crowded pens fattening up on pellets of grain-based fish chow. It's a very similar comparison to commercial feedlot grain-fed beef vs grass-fed free range beef or wild game.

In each of the species evaluated by the USDA, the farm-raised fish were found to contain more total fat than their wild counterparts. For rainbow trout, the difference in total fat was the smallest, while cultivated catfish had nearly 5 times as much fat as wild catfish. Farm-raised Coho salmon had approximately 3 times the total fat as wild samples.

However, total fat is not the real issue at hand here -- after all, fatty wild fish is good for you...that's why most of us take fish oil for health benefits.

The problem lies in that farm-raised fish contain more inflammatory omega-6 fats, and a large imbalance of omega-6 to omega 3 fatty acids. In three types of fish evaluated, the amount of omega 6 fats was substantially higher in farm-raised compared to wild fish. The total of all types of omega-6 fats found in cultivated fish was at least twice the level found in the wild samples.

Generally you can figure that farm-raised fish will have 10-30% more fat (and that�s mostly omega-6 fats which you already get too much of) and calories than wild-caught fish.

The fat in farmed salmon contains far less of the healthy omega-3 fatty acids than the fat in wild salmon. Salmon fat is usually rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Not so with farmed salmon!

Disease and parasites, which would normally exist in relatively low levels in fish scattered around the oceans, can run rampant in densely packed oceanic feedlots. To survive, farmed fish are vaccinated as minnows. Later, they are given antibiotics or pesticides to ward off infection.

Sea lice, in particular, are one of the worst problems. While salmon farmers have discounted concerns that sea lice are also found in the wild, at the first sign of an outbreak, they add pesticides to the feed.

Scientists in the US are far more concerned about two studies: both of which showed farmed salmon accumulate more cancer-causing PCB�s and poisonous dioxins than wild salmon.

Tests on farmed salmon at grocery stores which contains up to twice the fat of wild salmon, has found 16x the PCB�s compared to wild salmon, 4x the levels in commercial beef, and 3.5x the levels found in other seafood. Most of these toxins are stored in the fat of the fish, so guess what you are eating when you eat farmed fish?

Farmed salmon usually has dye added to it to improve the looks of the product. Even with the coloring, it never looks as good as wild salmon. These colorings also come with recently documented cancer-causing agents. These dyes have zero health benefits, and have no other purpose than to fool you, the consumer, into thinking the product is naturual looking and flavorful... Don't believe it!

Aqua farms, or �floating pig farms,� put a major strain on the surrounding environment. The fish consume huge amounts of highly concentrated protein pellets and it makes a terrific mess.

Uneaten feed and fish waste cover the ocean floor beneath these farms, which are a breeding ground for bacteria that consume oxygen vital to shellfish and other bottom-dwelling sea creatures. A good-sized salmon farm produces an amount of excrement equivalent to the sewage of a city of 10,000 people. Think about that the next time you swim in the ocean!

Fish used to be a bit of a rarity on the standard US dinner plate. Today it is a common dinner at the homes of health-conscious consumers. Last year, salmon overtook �fish sticks� as the third most popular seafood in the American diet (trailing tuna and shrimp). The increased consumption was made possible by the explosive growth in salmon farming, an industrial system that produces the fish in vast quantities at a price far lower than wild salmon.

Although portrayed as �healthy�, most tilapia sold at restaurants and grocery stores is farm raised, and therefore is not considered the healthiest of choices.

More than half of the fish sold in supermarkets, fish markets, and restaurants are raised in high-density fish pens in the ocean, managed and marketed by the farmed fishing industry. These fish are eaten by over a quarter of all adults in the U.S. and experts predict that the exponential growth of the farmed fish industry will continue. Although it seems like a healthier choice, eating farmed fish is actually almost as bad as eating a fast food burger from commercial feedlot grain-fed beef.

Note that when you're choosing healthier wild fish, it is a good idea to try to limit your intake of fish that are higher on the food chain (such as tuna, swordfish, shark, striped bass, bluefish, etc) to more occasional meals due to the higher levels of mercury in these fish. Fish that are lower on the food chain such as sardines, herring, sunfish, and even trout and salmon have lower levels of mercury and are not as much of a concern.

Interesting topic, but I don't know if it is necessarily applicable to all species. We stock a pond on our property with channel cats for sporting purposes and for food. This practice probably is in a gray area between wild and farm-raised fish. They cats are fed fishfood (often daily) but also feed on stocked minnows and perch. The pond is big enough that they are able to navigate it and are not over-crowded. As far as nutritional value, I can't say. BUT, I do know that they taste delicious!

P.S. "OrangeOkie"? You must be an OSU alum like me! Go Pokes!

Class of 1980! How 'bout dem Cowboys!

Interesting info. Thanks for the post.

Ernie

My uncles Holstein bulls have always been a hazard of our farm raised fish.

I agree with you on the catfish. The only species I saw in the article was tilapia and salmon. If my pond raised channel cat ain't good enough, so be it.

Class of 2010 and 2012 here. It was a heck of a football season!

No bias in that article, nooooooo, none at all.

75% of all fish consumed in the world is farm raised. Telling people they should eat wild fish is a childish argument: there's isn't enough to go around. And given the price of much of the wild stuff, it's financially out of reach of a large portion of the population.

So, the proper question is: how does farmed fish compare to the alternative: Chicken, pork, beef?

When you compare the nutritional profile of fish to other protein sources, fish, whatever kind, does pretty darn well.

I mean, really, feeding a child a tilapia fillet or a McDonalds hamburger? What do you think is going to be better?

I'll just keep feeding the fish -- people sure like eating them....

I always like to have a good backup list of things to worry about in case the world's problems get solved too soon. I wouldn't want to run out of things to worry about.

"75% of all fish consumed in the world is farm raised."

I didn't know that! 90% of the fish consumed in this house is caught by me or one of my sons. Usually salmon or steelhead.

I guess that would depend on what sewer the talapia was raised in.


Mike

Is wild salmon hard to get at you guy's locales?

It's all over around here.

We try to avoid farmed fish.

I've never tried to figure out percentages, but I'd say at least half of the seafood I eat and feed to family is caught/trapped by me. Tautog, seabass, bluefish, cod, haddock, pollock, hake, striped bass, flounder, fluke, bluefin tuna, scup, lobster, crabs, steamers, sea clams, quahogs, mussels...I could never be landlocked.

And to the OP, I do have concerns about fish farming, but my concerns relate more to genetics, and captive/farmed fish getting loose and breeding with wild specimens. I don't know enough about it to make an informed judgment, but the thought of 'bad' genetics getting into a species is troubling to me.

actually i'm glad that 75% eat farmed raised fish.
i would hate to think about what fishing would be like if they all actually started fishing rather than buying

That there's not enough non-farm-raised fish to go around isn't an argument in favor of eating farm raised fish.

Was that article written by PETA or HSUS?

I have to agree with several other posters. The stocks of wild fish are being depleted world wide. If we have to rely on them, we'll be out of fish very quickly.

I'd be more concerned about eating those farm raised catfish and talapia from brazil, tialand, etc where they are raised in rivers just below cities where the effluent is fed to them, and that probably includes most catfish served in restaurants.

winner winner, chicken dinner.

Also known as the "Eat Sh$t and Die" theorum.

GTC

You are right. when I was stationed in Hawaii the reservoir had the town sewer running into one end of it, the Talapia was so thick you could toss a hook in and yank it and you would hook one. if it got off you yank again and would hook another. I could never eat a Talapia for that reason.

in south america, the farmers supplement their food sources with ponds with tilapia. They use animal manure as feed.

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.

Very interesting video. Seems that the simple solution is going to be fought tooth and nail by a team consisting of government bureaucrats (on the take) and large corporations.

And public perception.

I remember a few years ago being appalled when a regular here stated that he'd never believe there was a problem with salmon stocks, when he could buy it in the grocery store. IE, farmed = wild; salmon on the shelves = healthy species.

I have a confession to make. After years of buying and eating grocery store salmon, a guy I know on Vancouver Island Fed Exed us a huge box of fresh, wild salmon, and we didn't like them as much.

Now, being from New Orleans, I don't like store bought shrimp, oysters, crawfish, etc.

In the big scheme of things though, and to tie it into the title of the thread, Medicare won't be fixing my knees, hips, heart, etc., like it did for my parents, so I'll take my chances with farm raised fish.

Salmon doesn't have to be far "off", to be kind of yucky.

I hear you on Medicare. You must be about my age (40's)?

There's a hell of a lot more wild fish that are caught, stripped of eggs and left to rot on the beach by our local indians. Even a wild Chum or pink (saltwater caught) is a hell of a lot better table fare for city folks than the farm raised chit. Not to mention how much of OUR wild caught fish is exported to Asia for high $$$$ restuarants for the fat and rich...

I've never heard a legitimate, scientific argument against GMO's, just scare tactics.

You ought to see one example of how Pacific seafood gets to the SE mainly trucked in. There's a company in Chatt. TN. that runs teams hauling carpet rolls out to Kent, WA. from the carpet mills in GA. just S. of Chatt. This Co. uses reefers to haul the carpet out to WA. state with the reefer off. They back haul fish or fruit with the reefer on to the SE.

Everything you buy is hauled that way. Truckers must have backhaul to survive. I couldn't care less what else is hauled in a truck as long as it's clean. That's for frozen stuff, of course. Fresh is another matter. If it doesn't take wings, it won't be fresh when it gets there. However, if you want it fresh, be prepared to pay for it. Transportation costs more than the product with $4++ fuel.

Rush has explained the marketing of the very best fresh produce to the major population centers. He explains that only the largest cities (ie. NYC, Chicago, LA, etc) get the very freshest and best produce, beef, and fresh fish because of economy of scale. Because there are so many consumers of the very best food that America has to offer in these population centers, it makes economic sense to over-night the food (ie. wild caught salmon from Alaska to NYC) because you can ship such large quantities at once, and be guaranteed to sell it the next day at the highest prices, thus maximizing profit. Not so with smaller population areas were the market share is miniscule in comparison. Here we must settle for frozen fish; lesser quality fruit; USDA select or maybe choice, but rarely prime. According to Rush it is all about economy of scale in the over-night market.

Everything you buy is hauled that way. Truckers must have backhaul to survive. I couldn't care less what else is hauled in a truck as long as it's clean. That's for frozen stuff, of course. Fresh is another matter. If it doesn't take wings, it won't be fresh when it gets there. However, if you want it fresh, be prepared to pay for it. Transportation costs more than the product with $4++ fuel. [/quot

I realize that backhauls are neccessary, it's just a good market on both runs since the majority of carpet mills are in the SE and the SE has a market for PNW seafood & fruit.

Seems to be that's how it works. If you go to a higher end supermarket like Lunds or Byerlys in the TC area the fish is flown in fresh daily. The price reflects that too. Salmon is usually about $15.00 a pound. Halibut is more like $29.00 a pound.

An overweight diabetic is a nutrition expert!

I forgot to add that at these aforementioned grocery stores they specify farm raised or wild caught. The prices I quoted were 'wild caught'. The 'farm raised' fish is usually cheaper by a few dollars per pound. I stay away from the farm raised fish.

If your mom ever said you were nice, she may have been a liar.

Here's a quote from the article posted to start this,

"Later, they are given antibiotics or pesticides to ward off infection".

So which is it? Pesticides or antibiotics? Or is the author a bit confused about which does what.

Maybe we can get Rush to expound on this!

As for me I will no longer eat farm raised fresh tune.
If it don't come out of a can it must be bad for you.
How about them turd wrasslers,you know the young blue catfish.
They are just re-cycling.

Obviously the original reporter is biased and not up to speed on the science... But the facts are there that show a large chunk of danger ahead for wild salmon because of the farms.

The Fraser River sockeye explanation in the video link has been published by Alex Morton in peer-reviewed science journals in very non-Chicken Little fashion and her studies are coming out to be correct...

My dad (85 yrs old) commercial fishes (mostly catfish and buffalo) in north central Louisiana in the Ouachita River.

He sells his fish for more than the pond raised fish and sells out every week. Most weeks he has a hard time filling all the orders. The fish just taste different and the public will pay for the better tasting.

I agree with you, wild fish, especially anadromous fish, are in for hard(er) times.

Depends on the sort of infection. If it's a parasite infection, pesticides would be used. Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics.

Oh, please DO TELL which pesticides fish farmers use for parasites, pretty please? With sugar on top?

There are NO pesticides used in US fish farming -- none are legal. The Canadians use a product called "Slice" which is basically Yvermectin, to control sea-lice in salmon. Not legal in the US.

For parasite control we use either salt (table salt, to be correct), Hydrogen peroxide, or potassium permanganate. We are allowed to use formaldehyde as disinfectant (for saprolegnia fungus) on salmonid eggs, only.

99% of parasite control is done by husbandry practices.

As far as anti-biotics are concerned, there are no legal antibiotics for tilapia culture in this country. None.

Pesticides.... what a crock.

Hit em with the facts Dutch, They ain't going to like it. But don't expect them to believe it.

that's not entirely true. One of my hunting partners sells fish vaccines. He worked for Novartus for years and and currently works for AquahealthUSA. I asked him about the tilapia deal and here's his reply:

That is a silly question

Everything we get here is frozen and usually farm raised stuff. Gulf shrimp are an anomaly. Usually it is fresh water Indonesian crap. The rare times I see "wild caught" salmon in vac sealed packages at the store I always buy a couple.

I like walleye and perch better and can catch them locally.

Wild may be better but we will and are having problems with stripping the seas.

We just have to farm fish or we will have serious problems.

I find it amusing that while the article bemoans the nutritional difference between �wild� and �farmed � fish he seems to leave out the environmental impact of commercial fishing.

If anything, we should look at expanding and improving fish farms.

Rant over

Snake

Not even a bit of bunny hugger shining through in that article, is there?

that's not entirely true. One of my hunting partners sells fish vaccines. He worked for Novartus for years and and currently works for AquahealthUSA. I asked him about the tilapia deal and here's his reply:

[/quote]

Dick, tell Jerry I said "Hi" will ya? Is he moving ok with the new hip?

There are a couple of commercial vaccines available for Tilapia, but of course, vaccines are not anti-biotics, they prevent us from having to use anti-biotics.

Autogenous vaccines (derived from a culture of the organism creating the problem on that individual farm site) have been instrumental in reducing the use of anti-biotics, and have saved several farms, including mine. FWIW, Dutch.

Ah, you know Jerry, eh? We've been hunting and going to church together for MANY years. For a guy 66 years old and with 2 store bought hips, that guy can CLIMB!!