Do you know where your shrimp has been?

Shrimp and prawns are some of the only seafood that I will buy in the grocery store.  I love shrimp, but alas, my husband does not fish for them, so I must resort to buying them.  But lately I have been having a really hard time finding US caught shrimp in our local grocery stores.  Even as recently as a couple years ago I could easily find a selection of shrimp from different sources; some from Asia, some from South America, Mexico, and the (more expensive) US caught option.

I always check the seafood section when I go grocery shopping, but at several different grocery stores around Bellingham I have been finding nothing but farmed shrimp from Thailand.  EVERYTHING is from Thailand.  Peeled, tail-on, cooked, raw, every option, every brand = Farmed/ Thailand.  What gives?  I understand that the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery has had a rough go of it, what with the BP oil spill and all, but I was under the impression that the industry has since made a recovery.

The problem is that Thailand’s aquaculture industry has been booming in the last few years.  Thailand is now the biggest supplier of seafood to the US, and shrimp is one of the top products imported. In fact, Thailand is now the world’s biggest supplier of shrimp.  Shrimp farming has been wildly successful in Thailand, where farmers clear mangrove forests along the coasts to make way for shrimp ponds (60% of Thailand’s mangrove forests have been cleared – read Cheap Shrimp: Hidden Costs).  Due to poor farming practices, like overcrowding, the use of harsh chemicals, fertilizers, and antibiotics, these ponds are often unusable after a couple years.  The farmers then abandon the polluted ponds and move on to start new ponds along the coast.

an example of a shrimp pond, this one in South Korea

Even though Thailand has been increasing it’s environmental and health regulations, the fact is, their standards are just not the same as ours.  Don’t even get me started on their (lack of) labor laws, or the destruction done by their wild-caught shrimp fisheries.  And it’s not just Thailand – China’s fish farms have been growing at frightening speeds and they have the same disregard for environmental, labor and health regulations.

To add to the problem, only 1% of imported seafood is inspected, and only 0.1% is tested for residues of drugs that are banned in the US.  It is simply not feasible to test all seafood that comes into our country.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to eat shrimp from a country that has a reputation of feeding it’s farmed seafood with untreated animal manure and human waste (read this), I want it tested first.  And this is why I won’t eat imported shrimp, no matter how cheap it is, or any other imported seafood for that matter.  So until I find US shrimp back in the freezers at my grocery store (or even better, down in the harbor, fresh off the boat!) I will sadly not be eating any of those tasty little crustaceans, and I would advise all of you readers to do the same.  Read the fine print on the packaging – know where your seafood is coming from!

Advertisement

Study Shows: Fish Farms Harm Wild Sockeye

Another sea lice/salmon farm study was published this week.  Yes, I am going to write about sea lice again… I know the topic seems a  little dry, but I find this whole salmon farming battle really interesting.  It is probably in part because our family depends on the health of wild seafood stocks, but also because the heart of the debate is centered so close to home, just north of us in Vancouver, BC and the surrounding area.

The study that came out this week provides some pretty compelling evidence that BC salmon farms are infecting Fraser River sockeye with sea lice.  In short, scientists from the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University and several environmental organizations conducted studies pinpointing the routes that migrating runs of sockeye salmon take to get to the Skeena River and the Fraser River (Fraser River sockeye are a hugely valuable resource, not to mention a BC icon).

Fraser River watershed (in green)

The Fraser River sockeye, which must travel past some 18 open net fish farms in the Discovery Islands (between Vancouver Island and the mainland), picked up more sea lice than their neighbor salmon in the Skeena River where sockeye don’t pass by any fish farms.

You should read the whole article from the Vancouver Sun: Fish farms linked to sea lice infestations among wild sockeye. (It’s not very long, I promise!)

Many studies have been conducted on this topic and although there has been some contradiction (read my post on contradicting sea lice studies) the vast majority point to the same conclusion: open net salmon farms increase the levels of sea lice on wild salmon when they are in their most vulnerable stages.

I do feel some sympathy for Canada because salmon farming is a major contributor to their economy and provides jobs for their people.  However, there is also job potential in an alternative: development of closed containment salmon farms, which are much more environmentally friendly and do not put wild fish at risk.  Considering all the evidence, Canada is being irresponsible in allowing salmon farming to endanger one of their most valuable natural resources, the wild salmon.  Too little is understood about these wild salmon runs for us to be contaminating their habitat and exposing them to disease and parasites.  I vote for erring on the side of caution when it comes to the existence of an entire species.  Salmon farms need to clean up their act and move toward closed containment systems NOW!

A view of the Fraser River in Mission, BC

Want to know more?…

-Canada is taking some steps in the right direction… read here about efforts to develop closed containment salmon farms, aka the future of salmon farming.

-And watch a 90 second video of a closed containment tank being built and installed.

-I hate to assault you with too much info at once, but this is another great video “Farmed Salmon Exposed”, but I warn you… it’s 23 minutes long (but worth it).

-Read some of my other posts about salmon farming:

My Discussion with a Salmon Farmer

Out of Control Sea Lice

Well, which is it?: contradicting sea lice studies

BC Salmon farm, Photo Courtesy of the BC Salmon Farmers Association

Last month, a UC Davis study was published, claiming that the crash of wild salmon populations in British Columbia had no relationship to the local salmon farms and the sea lice that infest them.  These scientists can’t say what did cause the declines, but they essentially pardoned the sea lice of the crime.  Opponents of salmon farming were stunned and skeptical, and the aquaculture industry rejoiced.  I myself was a little skeptical, but willing to entertain the idea that sea lice might not be as bad as I thought they were.

Then, less than two weeks later, a new study was published in the online journal, Aquaculture Environment Interactions, which not only claims that sea lice are problematic for wild salmon populations, but also that the treatment methods that salmon farms use are non-sustainable.

Both sides of the argument claim the other side is using flawed science.

I look to the vast number of studies published on this topic over the last few years… the overwhelming majority point to salmon farms as the culprit for endangering wild salmon populations with sea lice and pollution of their environment.  Even if sea lice are not directly causing the decline in wild salmon populations, the use of chemicals like SLICE by fish farms to treat sea lice infestations is contaminating the oceans and can not continue indefinitely.

 

My Discussion with a Salmon Farmer

A little while back I wrote a post about sea lice infestations in salmon farms, with my main point being that open-net salmon pens can (probably) never work out environmentally, and that the only safe solution is to improve the on-land closed containment systems.

A couple weeks ago, a salmon farmer from BC posted a comment in reply to my sea lice post, claiming I needed to do more research.  I was willing to hear him out, so I investigated his claims, read his blogs, and various articles by salmon farming proponents.  I wasn’t convinced, so we debated back and forth for a few days.  Here is our unedited conversation…

Out of Control Sea Lice

Sea Lice on Atlantic Salmon

They might be tiny, but they sure can do some damage.  They infest the open-net salmon farms and then hop on wild salmon swimming past.  I have read studies that claim sea lice kill 95percent of wild juvenile salmon that swim past the farms.

Here is a fresh article from CBC News about the extent of the damage.

CBC News – Technology & Science – Fish-farm sea lice more widespread than thought.

In another recent article from CBC News, Canada has approved the temporary use of a restricted pesticide called Alphamax on farmed salmon in New Brunswick, that have developed resistance to other pesticides.  The salmon will be pumped into the hold of a large boat, the water will be treated with the chemical, and the fish will be pumped back into their pens, along with the treated water.  Environmentalists are concerned (rightly so) that the chemicals could kill other sea life in the area, such as the lobster that local fishermen depend on.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/10/20/nb-deltamethrin-approval-fish-farms.html#ixzz151B4kKh8

Basically, the only solution is to move all fish farms into closed containment systems on land.   We have seen over and over how unsafe these open-net systems are.  We have seen entire wild fish populations collapse in Norway, Ireland and Scotland.  Haven’t we learned our lesson yet?

Eat Smart: Shop Responsibly

I hate to sound preachy, but…   your consumption choices can make a difference!  Buy sustainable seafood. Don’t be embarrassed to ask a waiter or chef if the fish on the menu is wild or farmed. It lets the business know that customers care one way or the other.  Download a seafood watch cheat-sheet that fits in your wallet or a cell phone app from http://www.monteraybayaquarium.org that tells which seafoods from which areas are caught or farmed in a sustainable manner.  They even have a sushi guide!

Now I have to rant for a moment about farmed salmon…  DON’T BUY IT!  There are too many reasons why farmed salmon is an abomination, so I’ll just list a few.

-the fish are fed a diet of fish meals and oils which make them fattier than wild salmon, but lower in protein.  Eating other fish also concentrates contaminants and makes the salmon more carcinogenic (wild salmon eat mostly krill, not other fish).

-the fish are treated with antibiotics and pesticides

-off shore salmon pens contaminate wild salmon runs with diseases and sea lice infestations (which have become epidemic in salmon farms).  Also, salmon frequently escape from their pens, further contaminating the wild salmon.

-farmed salmon are dyed orange.  Wild salmon’s flesh is orange or red because its natural diet consists of pink krill.  Farmed salmon flesh is naturally grey colored because of its fish meal diet and must be dyed orange to appeal to customers.  (BC Salmon Farmers Association says their salmon is not “dyed”, but fed pigment in the fish meal feed)

I’ll just stop there for now.  I think you get the picture.

(I just have to add that this post is dedicated to my husband, who is a commercial fisherman, and who hates farmed salmon with a passion.  He likes to remind me of the time we were on vacation and ordered an all you can eat sushi dinner.  He could tell that the salmon on the platter was farmed, and refused to touch it.  I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I ate it and became so violently ill with food poisoning that I had to go to the hospital.  Of course he blames the farmed salmon, because it was the only thing on the platter he didn’t eat and he was fine.)