Solutions

Marine Work Group Ireland agrees with the sentiments expressed by the Pure Salmon campaign: The adoption of marginally better "best practices" by the salmon farming industry, and finfish farming industry in general, is inadequate.

The Pure Salmon campaign rests on one simple premise: Salmon can be farmed safely and with minimal ecological damage, if the industry adopts standards that protect the environment, consumers and local communities. Essentially, this means (1) replacing open sea cages with enclosed tanks equipped with proper water filtration systems for wastes and (2) developing more ecologically sustainable forms of food to replace the current "fish chow" containing fish meal, fish oil, chemicals, drugs, and other toxic residues.

Pure Salmon calls on the salmon aquaculture industry to:

1. Adopt farming methods that eliminate disease transfer and salmon escapes;
2. Eliminate the use of antibiotics, biocides, and harmful chemicals in salmon farming;
3. Guarantee salmon farm waste is not discharged directly into the environment;
4. Stop the current depletion of wild fish stocks caused by the 3:1 ratio of slaughtered fish to salmon growth;
5. Prohibit the use of genetically engineered fish, feed, and other genetic modification;
6. Guarantee that salmon farming does not harm other wildlife;
7. Respect the views of coastal communities and other stakeholders in locating farms; and
8. Adopt and implement ethical business practices, including safe, healthy work environments and fair compensation.

Closed containment
If it is to be done at all, by far and the best way to farm salmon and other finfish is to do so by rearing the fish in cleaner, less polluting, land-based, closed containment systems.

Closed containers, including fibreglass, cement tanks, and heavy gage plasticized bags, physically separate fish from the external environment. The container's impermeable barrier prevents the transmission of diseases and parasites. It can eliminate escapes and discharges of wastes into the marine environment.

Eliminating these problems inevitably improves productivity and profits, but there are other environmental and health benefits, too:

• waste can be treated, virtually eliminating pollution of the marine environment,
• wild fish are protected from diseases and parasites,
• fewer chemicals are required, and
• feed use is reduced, lowering pressure on wild fish used in feed.

Pure Salmon campaign

According to the Pure Salmon campaign, the salmon farming industry has resisted closed containment systems on the basis of cost, even though all salmon must be raised in tanks for the first 12-18 months of their life. However, closed containment technologies could be considered financially viable when measured against the actual environmental costs of net cage salmon farming.

The vast majority of global aquaculture production, about 85%, uses non-carnivorous fish species — like tilapia and catfish — produced in land-based ponds for domestic markets. Most ponds are ecologically integrated into the agricultural, industrial, and community fabric, meaning, for example, that wastes become fertilizers rather than pollutants.

Instead of net cages, the David Suzuki Foundation believes that around the world, including on Canada's Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the fish farming industry must be transformed to use safe, fully enclosed systems that trap wastes.

David Suzuki Foundation