Marine biologist weighs in on the farmed salmon vs wild salmon debate
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ค. 2024
- As a marine biologist, the question of whether to choose farmed salmon or wild salmon, and what was better for the environment, plagued me. So I did a lot of digging, found a lot of misinformation and lies, and came to my own personal conclusion as to what salmon I'll be eating in the future. I hope my journey down this rabbit hole will help you decide which salmon to eat if, like me, you care about the ocean and want to help protect it.
00:00 Introduction
02:35 Lie 1 - we all need to be eating salmon for it's health benefits
04:04 Migratory detour - salmon are hugely important wild animals
05:55 Lie 2 - salmon farming is sustainable and eco-friendly
11:58 Lie 3 - "wild-caught" salmon is truly wild and natural
14:32 Conclusion - what salmon will I be eating going forward
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Who am I?
I'm Dr Chantel Elston (aka Telly), a marine biologist obsessed with all things ocean, especially stingrays!
My current postdoctoral research:
saiab.ac.za/research/scientis...
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Affiliate links:
Subscribe to the Nautilus science magazine:
nautil.us/ref/84577
Get 20% off your Wildlife Collections purchase! Use code TMT20 at checkout :) (myfahlo.com/)
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Other social networks:
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#marinebiology #salmon
I worked in the Scottish salmon industry for 21 years. We forged all of the paperwork with regard to anti parasite treatments and especially antibiotics. We routinely over medicated and overtreated in the last 6 months before point of processing. I've never eaten or allowed my family to eat farmed salmon or trout.
That is really SCARY to know its happening in a place like Scott
Your story is interesting, may I ask some questions as a concerned consumer?
Why did they use more anti-parasitic & antibiotics than regulations dictated? Was it really necessary, or were they just being overly cautious not to lose the harvest?
Was it all the time, or just during certain weather conditions, like in winter cold, or in times of lower rainfall, or they lost a pen fence so had to stock existing pens denser (or just overstocking pens to begin with)?
How long ago did you leave the salmon industry? Do you think this is still happening today?
Looking forward to your reply, thank you in advance! 3:52
@@deemelody2396 there are TH-cam videos on the industry - it shows the horrible conditions the fish are in - it seems the companies are trying to get them to market anyway while fighting a losing battle with nature (cramming in too many fish in too little water, with diseases and deformations raging).
Is that a confession of fraud?
@@gortnewton4765 Or rather whistle-blowing maybe?
I have lived in SE Alaska for 44 years. I live on a peninsula with a natural salmon stream at the head of the inner bight of my harbor. We used to have a native Pink and Chum run, Steelhead and a small run of Silvers, along with Dolly Varden Nd Cutthroat Trout. The bay used to be lively during the 70's, 80's and 90's with jumping salmon all summer long, as the various species had different timings for their runs. By 2005 the local salmon hatchery had started ramping up production and we were getting overrun with hatchery fish who were lost and trying to find someplace to spawn. They have almost completely wiped out all the native salmon. They forced a change in the timing of the Pinks that used to be first but now spawn later than the few chum who get in. There are literally no Silvers or Steelheads anymore and some Dollys. The bay used to be very alive with other sea creatures - Dungeness and King crabs, starfish of multiple species, clams, snails, sqid, Herring but now these populations are rare. No influx of life-giving salmon. The bears and eagles don't even get their share and have turned to alternative foods, often detrimental to the duck population. Also, commercial fishermen now stretch their nets almost fully across the whole span of Lynn canal so only a bare minimum of fish escape. I see Salmon hatcheries as a disaster
Thanks for this comment. This kind of information needs to be more widely appreciated; nothing happens in isolation in our world, we are all interconnected. Humans aren't the boss of all, we're just another member in the community of life, and we will either be that or we won't be, now or never.
Thanks very much for "the rest of the story" as we just came back from an Alaska cruise including a tour of the Ketchikan salmon hatchery. There we saw the massive influx of salmon coming to spawn upstream, caught and their eggs harvested and hatched. The young hatchlings were released again when they were 4-5 inches and were told they have a survival rate of 95% vs 2-3% hatched in the wild. Made sense to us, but we never heard of your side of the story. Thanks very much for relating your experiences!
Yes, and let's not ignore the fact that rising sea temperatures make an inhospitable environment for much of the marine life, as well. Just one more factor, among so many others. The earth is out of balance.
Thank You for your info. Spread the word because I truly believe you always get the truth from the people that live in the area!
A salmon river runs through my front garden here in Ireland and the salmon runs are slightly better than they used to be. I'm an angler myself (mainly sea fishing) and practice catch and release with the vast majority of what I catch, even though I am a seafood lover, but I never could take to the taste of salmon. Atlantic mackerel, haddock and monkfish, are perhaps the tastiest fish going. That said, I happily support any conservation programmes that prioritise the health of aquatic ecologies.
I'm from Norway. You'd never eat farmed salmon if you saw the destruction the farms wreak on the surrounding fjords with all the lice and parasites.
lices?
@@holasoyjose9683 Mices?
@@holasoyjose9683 just google Salmon louse
Seems to be OK with YOUR government.
Yes, and there’s absolutely no reason to eat salmon or fish in general for health - it’s just pumping your system with persistent environmental toxins. You can get all three essential Omega-3’s from plants - ALA is a plant omega, and both DHA and EPA are in algal oil (where fish and krill get their omegas from, but without all the trawling, toxins, and ecosystem destruction.) I really love the NutriVeg plant based Omega-3 oils. The liquid ones come is delicious flavors and don’t cause the gross fish burps!
As for protein, Stanford recently came out with a huge study debunking the myth that animal sources provide proteins that are in any way “superior” to plant sources for nutrients or bioavailability. In fact, the most bioavailable protein on the planet is spirulina. And people often don’t understand that animal tissues require much more energy for the body to break down to access the amino acid building blocks. The fact alone that people on plant based diets are the only dietary group in the western world with average BMI’s in the healthy range says a lot. We don’t need to be eating so many animals and our planet can’t sustain it. Nature functions with an abundance of plant-eaters & very few carnivores in the food chain because the laws of thermodynamics require this for sustainability. Having 8 billion humans eating animals flips this equation upside down and by the laws of physics is literally eating up our planet and its ecosystems alive.
"Hey, Salmon, we named a color after you!"
"Wow, cool! Is it silvery like my skin?"
IT'S PINK LIKE YOUR FLESH. SALMON FOR THE SALMON THRONE.
😂
If it is even more tragicomical if you have in mind how bright orange-red the meat is in a lot of wild salmon when they are able to consume crustaceans in the wild.
WE NEED NOT YOUR WILD-CAUGHT SALMON. OUR INDUSTRIAL LIVES ALLOW ONLY THE PINK OF FACTORY-FARMED FLESH BOUGHT FROM THE GROCERY STORE
It's fair to say that there are plenty of social media influencers exposing abusive farming practices, yet there is a lack of people willing to do the hard work of installing corrective practices. there is too much applaud within the ingroup of criticism to support change.
I asked my my local supermarket lady " Is this salmon wild?" she replied " well, it's not happy".
😂😂
"It's a real party animal"
😂
The best comment today!😂😂
I guess the lady was absolutely right.
LOL😂❤
We lived by a small river in the 60's and 70's, where I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. All through my childhood, when the salmon were spawning, the quantity and variety of fish was mindboggling. We used to joke that you could walk on thier backs to cross the river without getting your feet wet. By 1978 the generations of returning salmon had been decimated by poor logging practices, so that during the peak of spawning season it was difficult to spot a battered old Humpy now and then in the amber waters. The bountiful rainbow assortment of various salmon species was gone. This event helped inform my world-view and turn me into a conservationist. Thank you for your good works.
I live on a river the northeastern USA, the very spot was once a treasured salmon fishery for the natives famed for its productivity in the pre-industrial times. Dams and pollution completely killed them off. The river has been cleaned up and fish ladders added, and they have tried to reintroduce salmon but it was not sustainable. The spawning grounds are just not there anymore and the water is warming too much.
Yes they levelled our natural bushland to build schools and houses...some species are a deficit to the planet 😊
I remember seeing wild salmon jumping up falls on the Penninsula…also, up until about 25 years ago, it was easy to buy wonderful quality salmon..now, the fish is so inferior…..the high quality fish costs a fortune…endangered species prices…..people that have moved to the NW have no idea what good salmon should look or taste like…..
@@jennifers6435 indeed...we used to catch whatever we needed...times have changed along with human dependencies on resources
I grew up in Western Oregon and have similar memories of the fall run. They did just kind of stop in the early 80s. It is beyond sad. You can still see it in Alaska, even that is down though.
A very interesting video. I had no idea about the re-stocking of "wild" fish. To be honest, you've hardly scratched the surface with this video. A huge issue is the source of feed for the fish farms. I've witnessed first-hand how the artisanal fishing communities of West Africa have been completely disrupted by the setting up of fishmeal and fish-oil processing plants designed to produce feed for fish farms.
Traditionally, these fishing communities relied on the men to go out and fish in large dugout canoes, while mainly the women handled the onshore processing (salting, drying, etc) and sale of the fish to the local and regional communities. In The Gambia, for example, it has been the main source of protein for many years. Everybody got a piece of the action and the community got fed.
Introduction of the fishmeal processing plants (many operated by Chinese companies) provides a virtually insatiable demand for the fish, driving down prices, leading to over-fishing and cutting out the on-shore indigenous processing industry. It's also become a divisive issue within the local community. They are also starting to see "fishing disruption 2.0" in which neighbouring states and the Chinese companies are deploying large trawlers to improve the efficiency of their fishing, adding further to depletion, and further marginalising the local industry.
I read that it takes roughly 10kg of fish to produce 1kg of fishmeal, and 10kg of fishmeal to rear 1kg of farmed salmon; a 100:1 conversion ratio. Since we discovered this, two years ago, we haven't eaten any salmon in our household. We are fortunate to live in the UK where there are plenty of alternative indigenous sources of oily fish, such as mackerel and herring from the sea and brown trout from the rivers, as well as white fish such as haddock and cod.
I think a large part of the problem is that a product that used to be a luxury and eaten on special occasions has now become a weekly staple, due to fish-farming practices driving down prices. People justify this on the basis that they are eating "higher quality'` food as we become more prosperous. This is nonsense. It's not higher quality food; it's mass-produced trash with a luxury halo around it.
"mass-produced trash with a luxury halo around it." Well said!
yes thanks for that global economics lesson vvv
It's really sad when you really think about it how much of the world's economy China has single-handedly destroyed; and they're just an arm for Communism rather than the unique country full of rich history that they used to be.
Thanks for doing the work Chantel!
This was truly an amazing and thought provoking video.
And well done for hitting almost a million views! Pretty sure it will get there soon.
Alaskan here, born and raised in the salmon industry.
Here’s an option for you to not have to remove salmon from your diet all together.
-Look for a cannery in an area of Alaska that isn’t supported with hatcheries and buy your fish from them directly. All canneries I know of offer direct sales to consumers or you can find a fishmonger in that same community and purchase from them. My biggest recommendation is Troll caught (not by trolls but Trollers 😅, that’s a fishing style and boat type) in southeast Alaska, Juneau to Ketchikan. They are individually caught and treated as prizes.
Thank you for a very thoughtful and researched opinion.
Well, not really an option if you live in South Africa, LOL
Why not? He is referencing a cannery. The fish they sell has been canned. Easy to ship and much more tolerant of temperature variances (ie doesn't have to be kept cold or frozen). May cost a bit more, but if you really want Salmon...
@@spannerturnerMWOBut … canned salmon is mushy and nothing like fresh. I don’t see that as an option.
@@jeanneganrude8549 Exactly. I used to eat canned salmon when I was a kid. As an adult, I've been eating the "uncanned" variety. I will never go back to canned salmon again. Also, canned food has a high sodium content, not good for someone like me who has hypertension.
lol realy you consider a troller better :d:d , i understand you wana keep your job and won't say how bad it is and ofc supper trollers are worse but , all the by chatch , all the smaller fish that dy inside the nets or other like dolphins or other surface breathers.
not saying you are worse but def. equal bad
The sea floor in the sea lochs in Scotland are being destroyed underneath the cages. When the storms come, sometimes cages are damaged and the salmon escape. They often have lice and are weak and floppy as opposed to their wild counterparts. They then interbreed so the wild ones are being weakened. I lived on the shores of a loch in the NW Highlands of Scotland and saw the destruction first hand.
In the Northwest U.S., people let their cows trample the riverbanks, which removes shade and pollutes the salmon streams.
Yep, it is sad how we think we are able to mess with nature and not pay a price.
we have company in Gairloch (the orange rhib :p ) and i agree 100%
Just terrible when we get those darned weak and floppy fish.....
Just kidding! I tend to agree that about the only solution is to reduce ocean product consumption as much as possible. The levels of global overfishing are past any model of sustainability ....
@@stevengill1736The only way to truly reduce consumption is to reduce the human population.
Q: What kind of salmon should I be eating? A: Don't eat salmon.... Wow thanks
I visited a local restaurant here in the Napa Valley, California and saw a salmon entree on their menu. I asked the waiter "Is your salmon fresh or farmed?" He replied, "it's both - it's fresh . . . from the farm."
My cousin owns a fish processing plant and he told me never, never buy or eat farmed salmon. The Norwegian farmed salmon (that's most of what we get) swims in a large bay that is completely polluted. There is no way for fresh water to get in and the polluted water to get out. Its filled with fish waste from millions of fish. I will go with Cousin Arnie's recommendation.
And what was his financial interests?
Don’t know about where your cousin is but my grandson and I visited a salmon farm in Lofoten Norway this past summer. It seemed like a great way to produce a lot of good protein. Yes there is a lot of waste but it is dispersed rapidly. The water looked great. Good currents. I was impressed. Before going I was instinctively opposed
I'm 100% sure the farms don't drain, clean and refresh the water supplies, it'd be impossible.
@@davidwoods358 The farms are a cage 50’ or so in diameter. The ocean currents refresh the water constantly and carry the waste away to be dispersed. I forgot how many salmon are raised in each cage but it was a lot. There is no odor.
There is no way that water flowing through nets with holes too small for salmon to fit through could carry smaller objects and detritus away from the spawning location.
I live in the Pacific Northwest in salmon country. We eat wild caught salmon about once per month. They have removed some of the dams in our region to improve salmon runs and are working to improve the streams for the salmon and to replant many of the native plants that existed in the region to restore the ecosystem. I am hopeful that things will improve.
PNW-er here as well, and grateful to our Democratic lands commissioner, governor, and Salish Sea tribes for shutting down the commercial salmon net-pen operations in Puget Sound.
I've lived a few years on an island in the Puget Sound. The figure presented at 13:33 of $250-650 of US taxpayer money spent per salmon that returns the the river is shocking to me, but it's not all for fisheries and human consumption. The story that's often told is that the salmon resotoration effort is to support the diet of local pods of Orca whales, who have very picky diets and only eat salmon, despite having other food sources available. But it seems even those efforts have failed, since they cannot solve the greater climate crisis, shipping industry pressure, whale watching, human development of the region in general, and Orca whale pod culture. I agree with the conclusion of the video here, but if I catch a salmon I'm definitely going to eat it!
@@chazott F Jay Dinslee
Dumb,,enjoy the black outs , fish over people
Good to hear of this from Karengrice2303
I really appreciate your work here. I have had questions about salmon farming myself, but I did not know where to start finding answers. Thank you.
We came to the same conclusion recently and have eliminated salmon from our diet completely.
I live in New Zealand and the main source of salmon is farmed in hydro electric feeding canals. These drain the Southern Alps and are pure h2o which flows through the pens . I was a cook for most of my life ,here and mainly the States and Canada, the only farmed salmon I eat is this type of farmed fish . much healthier than semi-still fjord water or the onshore farms or the bays or "calm spots" in the ocean. A truly healthy farm needs a lot of water flowing through it to remove the poop and other dropped items.
Sounds cool. How is a salmon that usually spends most of its life in seawater able to be raised in freshwater?
@@Xalta_Sailorsalmon can live in both fresh and salt water... have a peek
more importantly is what the fish are fed
@@andyman8630 they feed farmed salmon 'fish pellets'. A foodstuff that is about the size of the end of your finger. The composition has been researched by scientists as being the best for good health, and efficient growth rate. I can confirm that the water of South Island (NZ) freshwater salmon farms is about as good as it gets. It's off glaciers, and down the river to the salmon pens with nothing in between, it is pure water with no pollutants. So they are raised in a very clean environment. They also have sea-pen salmon cage farms at Stewart Island and Marlborough Sounds......... they are salt water farmed salmon and in strong enough tidal areas. Enough to keep the farm areas clean with fresh salt water.
As far as I am aware, nothing in NZ including fish is routinely fed antibiotics or drugs.
Our producers are very aware of the dangers, and particularly market sentiment. It is huge business here, inspected by various Govt Departments, and 'cowboys' or 'dodgy' operations don't make it.
We also have introduced wild salmon here. They are from Canada and USA 100 plus years ago. They live in the southern rivers and lakes, do their salt water migration and return to spawn, beginning the next cycle.
And where does all that poop go?
The one misstatement I caught was that the omega fatty acids found in salmon can be found in plant sources. While true to a degree, nearly all omegas found in plants come in forms that the body must convert into the more desirable form the body needs, and it can only convert a rather small amount at a time. So yes, chow down on omega-3-rich plants. Just don't expect the body's natural conversion capability to come anywhere near the quantity that best benefits our bodies. It's really a biological back-up system for when animal sources are scarce. The situation is very similar to the complication of the various, slightly different molecules that we lump together as this or that vitamin, over-simplifying that the body prefers or expects certain versions more than others, therefore some being more bioavailable than others, and occasionally some forms that can be detrimental.
I thought the same exact same thing to myself, ALA vs epa/dha..She started out saying she sorted through all kinds of data and misinformation, but gave out misinformation herself.
This is true. Another aspect is the salmon we buy most of do not have the same nutrition quality as the wild thing. You get less of the "good" omega because they are not fed and live as they where meant to.
Krill oil omega 3
Bullshyt. for most people it's fish, for some people it's seeds. Salmon is just another great source. nothing singular though. plenty of other fish as well. You are taking generalities as absolutes.
@@erikred8217 No you are correct, but I think the argument is you can get the same omega-3 FA from plants and you can't. There are great alternatives to salmon, like mackerel, sardines, herring, tuna come to mind. Actually, mackerel provides twice as much Omega-3 than salmon. The issue is availability - mackerel isn't easy to find in grocery stores, you have the best chance near areas that fish like the US Gulf Coast. Herring is equally as good as salmon but again it's not easy to find in bulk. You can find it in cans like sardines or pickled but to find just raw herring for you to grill it yourself, good luck.
Great post my friend. I truly appreciate this information and am ready, willing and able to forgo Salmon.... period. Very happy to have found your channel. Have a great weekend. Charmed
Make sure to tell everyone all about it that's the vegan way.
I am ready, willing, and able to continue enjoying salmon a couple of times per week.
Two further notes about farmed salmon: millions of tons of smaller species of fish are harvested to make fishmeal. 1) 90% of that harvest could be consumed directly instead of a 25% conversion to salmon by weight. 2) fishmeal also contains soy and grain that has been treated with fertilizers, pesticides, etc and they are concentrated into the salmon.
Those pesticides and fertilizers used on land make into all fisheries eventually anyway due to gravity. They are natural concentrated in the larger fish we eat like salmon, cod and tuna since those animals eat anything smaller than them they can fit in their mouths. They become a repository for all the worst chemicals we use on land to produce feed for agricultural animals and for humans. Fish are the kidneys of the global ecosystem. Enjoy! :)
@@craigmilton9892Gee thanks
@@craigmilton9892 pretty sure it's not 25%. almost 1-to-1.
@@rogerderan5067 I never made that claim, the original commenter did, but are suggesting 1 unit of food energy in equals 1 out? Sorry. That's not how biology works. Otherwise, how would the animal's body have the energy to run and what would the waste (piss and shit) be made of? The animal uses most of the energy for its existence and growth. Only part of that is the tissue we eat. It is also producing bones and organs which we don't eat. 1 to 1 is a mathematical impossibility. For example. It takes approx 35 calories of plant matter to make 1 calorie of beef. That is the worst case scenario for all livestock, but all other animals are also inefficient sources of food.
Yes and also considering the multi billion dollar weight loss industry we humans would do well to move more, eat less, and eat natural foods instead of "franken foods". Learn to read labels.
Hello and thank you for taking up this topic. I fish commercially for salmon in Bristol Bay in Alaska. I am proud of being part of that fishery - since my family started fishing there in 1959. Our fishery has its challenges, but sustainability isn't one of them. The fishery is managed by biologists whose first priority is sustainability of the resource and second priority is the maximum benefit of Alaskans (which also benefits others). The biologists closely track the salmon return each season and allow the fleet to fish only if the return exceeds what is needed for sustainability. Our fishery has been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Check it out! You might be surprised. You might even decide it's OK to eat salmon. Although the fact that you live in South Africa might make it less sustainable from your perspective because of the transportation burden, but as a fishery, I think we're doing pretty well. Your thoughts?
Great comment.
Glad to hear that's the case. Just gotta keep the Chinese ravagers out.
Does Bristol Bay sell in California? I'd love to buy if it's available. I buy the Brunswick sardines in a can at the grocery store. They're wonderful! Do you know if those are from a reputable source?
the very nature of the MSC’s model, with fisheries paying to be certified, poses a conflict of interest.
@@mzahra1 the customers are the ones who have to pay. and they mostly are hypocrites.
I was raised in Alaska and have eaten lots of (then) wild salmon. This store stuff does not even taste good and we don't eat it. Glad to find out why.
on a side note along that thought, I had a 'real' avocado' in Puerto Rico and didn't even recognize it as an avocado, not by looks nor by taste. Wow what a difference.
I can very easily tell the difference in B.C too. The farmed salmon tastes terrible, wild caught salmon is delicious.
I still fish the Copper River and 100% of the fish i caught last year were wild (not hatchery - due to adipose fin). I even have the bumper sticker that says still doin' the wild thing! so its thriving out here. At least for now.
@@tylerspiegel3294 You are still part of the problem tho, if everybody was eating wild animals on a regular basis, these species would go extinct after only a few years. There is 8.1 billion humans living on Earth now. When I was born it was about half of that... Isn't that crazy? This number is growing exponentially. In 50 years we could easily be over 15 billion, and all these people are gonna need to be fed. Not only that but every 50 years we also get double pollution, double the plastic consumption, double the cars on the streets, etc...
I had read that farmed salmon does not even LOOK like wild salmon, unless the fish are fed (beta-caratine ?) as artificial coloring. This is because only the wild salmon eat the oceanic plankton, including krill, which is what imparts the 'salmon' color. Anybody else heard this ?
A very informative video thank you, I have stopped eating it a year or so ago.
A friend of mine catches trout and smokes it himself, I find it very similar in flavour to smoked salmon. Any thoughts on trout being a viable alternative?
Thank you for a very informative video. What fish do you consider safe and sustainable and are still part of your diet ?
Bugs~
Fish is some of most toxic garbage you can possibly consume as a human.
Good solid reporting, articulate and well researched. One thing you didn't cover was what goes into the pellet feed of farmed salmon which could be a whole episode by itself.
Shame the research failed to mention the Omega 3 content of the salmon is derived from the algae and plankton they consume in the wild. Farmed depends on the feed they are given.
If you're consuming salmon for Omega 3 then wild every time.
Also wild salmon are a strong orange pink colour due to the zooplankton they consume, so you can tell if you're being conned when you get that pastel grey pink shite.
The fact that contaminants will be far lower for wild caught is also another reason to stick two fingers up at farmed.
you arent what you eat. Whatever youre eating has ate (before it got to your plate) is what you are (eating). - Dr. Oz@@doctormarazanvose4373
@@doctormarazanvose4373 show some respect to the researcher. I am sure she knows that, but don't expect to cover every thing in few minutes.,
@@syedmohiuddin296 and I quote the OP "good solid reporting."
Show some respect to someone who expanded on the subject giving further insight perhaps.
Thank you for taking the time to do the research and share the info. It’s been enlightening!!
A "marine biologist" says hatchery salmon (as apposed to farmed salmon) are genetically different from "wild" salmon. She's WRONG.
A few years ago I was going buy some wild caught salmon at a popular store in the US. They had many worms crawling out of them. I have always known that they were there but had never seen them.
IF they come from the great lakes, they never see the ocean and will be wormy. Don't eat lake salmon raw...ever.
Thanks for researching all of this. Very informative & unbiased. Helps me a lot in my decisions.
Thank you for getting straight to the point early. You provided all the information I needed to make a definitive decision within the first minute and 50 seconds of the video. How refreshing. I watched the entire video twice and subscribed for that singular reason alone.
You're a rarity. Thank you.
A "marine biologist" says hatchery salmon (as apposed to farmed salmon) are genetically different from "wild" salmon. She's WRONG.
@@rhymeswithteeth You may be unaware of how rational people who possess legitimate disagreements with others go about addressing those differences in a public forum. Your comment suggests this, though you could simply have had a bad day. Either way the results are the same: you sound like a 15-year-old dilettante who has just mastered google but has yet to master rational discourse.
Your first sentence is a truth claim. Support it with a direct quotation and time stamp of its location within the video.
Your second sentence expresses disagreement with her _purported_ claim. Fine. _But the burden of proof is upon you to prove your claim of contention as YOU are the one making it_ , i.e. provide evidence to support your claim that " _She's WRONG._ "[sic] Otherwise there is zero reason to believe you, _or even to consider anything you said or will say in the future_ as you will have annihilated any and all credibility you might have had.
@@zippitydoodah5693 LOL!!! Well put, wabbit! That made my day. I couldn't have said it better myself!
First 1min 50s you could draw the conclusion farm raised salmon is bad based on animal rights and health concerns. But after 2min 5s you could draw the conclusion farm raised salmon is good based on environmental concerns. I didn't watch the whole video. But I've listened to other people on this topic and agree it's complex and important
@@bubblebobble9654 LOL! Thanks for that demonstration of flawed reasoning. Worth the chuckle.
I've talked to a person who has personally seen the destruction caused by salmon fish farms in Canada. His account of scuba diving beneath the farm enclosures, which is now considered trespassing by the fish farming corporations, was incredibly disturbing. In my mind, having a degree in Biology, fish farming is destroying the ecological web on a multi-species level that will slowly infiltrate other ocean harvesting occupations. If you look back in history of ocean fish harvesting, numerous populations have either been wiped out or reduced to nothing. It's all about money, nothing about sustainability.
Thinking about your statement, "considered trespassing"; those waters are federal jurisdiction and owned by every canadian as a taxpayer. Completely driven by greed. Every fish farm in Canada should be moved on land, the water filtered before returning to the ocean, and the wasted turned into compost. It's a no brainer - but the feds, as usual, are too stupid to realise they are contributing to the destruction of the ocean ecosystems while reducing fishing opportunities for recreational in the name of "protecting the species". Tell me in what reality this makes sense? LOL
Same in Australia’s southern waters & all over the world.
People have to eat. Are you going to fish wild salmon? Soon there wil be none. There's too many people, that's the problem with ALL the environmental issues. Do you think plastic is the problem? No,its the QUANTITY of plastic. CO2? its the AMOUNT of CO2. etc, etc. Are you going to use organic farming to feed 8 billion? that will never work. If the population doesn't stop growing in the third world, we will have an extermination event within this generation. But people still want to believe the solution is to ban plastic.... and it's all going to be fine...
@@Cobalt1520
“There are too many people on Earth”
That's the argument brought forth by Malthus, and the Earth's ’carrying capacity’ has been debated for centuries, with no clear conclusion.
“If the population doesn't stop growing in the third world, we'll have an extinction event within this generation”
The population in developing countries is plateauing, with access to education and contraception. So if you're advocating for culling, then it should start with those who are consuming the most resources and emitting the most, i.e. North America and Western Europe.
Since you're so passionate about this issue, why don't you go first?
@@deus_ex_machina_ I don't know where you get your information, but you should investigate further. Those who are emitting the most are, BY FAR, countries in the Asian continent like China and India. the US is in second but with 13% of CO2 emissions, while china is 30% (one third of the total emissions), India is 7.6% and the first European country is Germany with only 1.8% (compare that with the rest). So all added the Asian countries represent the majority of emissions. As to me, we in Europe are in population deficit already, we need to have more children ASAP, on the contrary Africa and Asia need to stop having so many children.
Thank you for your input. It was very informative. Thank you I didn’t know a lot of this information.
I used to eat salmon almost exclusively... likely almost ALL I ate was farmed. THANKFULLY I've switched to sardines... after seeing this video I'm glad I did and will continue to use them as my primary source of Omega-3's and other shared benefits to salmon!!
Great video!
Good idea.
Better yet to cut out the persistent environmental toxins in fish and just go straight to the source - algae oil. NutraVege plant Omega-3’s are my favorite, taste great, and involve no nasty fish burps, bi-catch, ecosystem destruction, or trawling. It’s worth a try & provide more consistent daily omega-3’s than random dietary fish consumption.
Also, fyi, sardines and many other fish lower down the food chain are now being severely over-fished and are at risk of population collapse - which in turn threatens countless species up the food chain. The fishing industry is essentially playing whack-a-mole with clobbering one fish species to collapse followed by the next. Switching fish consumption doesn’t solve the problem. So why consume them when we don’t need to? It’s time we give our oceans a break!
@@NewEarthAwakening Good thinking! I just get paranoid with supplements as for all we know, they could be placebo pills! Do you know 100% that your algae oil has the O3's that it says it does? At least with fish we know that it has to at least have some of the good stuff haha
Newearth...we need omegas from fish to thrive. Plant sources are proven inferior.
Very good video. Thank you. I respect your opinion and advice. Please keep your wonderful videos coming.
Thank you so much for providing this - I wasn't aware of all those background occurrences.
It's been more than 20 years since reading one of David Suzuki's books that I gave up Salmon entirely. I'm glad that BC is phasing out open pen farms, it can't happen fast enough, and I thank you so much for making this excellent video to share this information.
Fantastic work, thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge!
Salmond is my go-to fave fish, so I really appreciated hearing all of these points you share in this video. Thank you for the perspectives on farmed fish, kind of shocking but not surprising, I guess.
But, you are supposed to eat less!!!!
Thank you, I think I can follow you in every argument being expressed in your summary at 14:32. I love Salmon as Sushi for example but I think I will at least be able to reduce my consumption drastically and even let it go for a long while. You did not have to convince me to do so with your video since I have always been a deep lover of the sea and its species every since I was a kid. Surely your way of talking to your viewers is very sympathetic and open and I am sure you get a lot of confirmation and positive feedback for your passionate work which I am looking forward to see more of in the future.
Thank you for very informative explanation of Salmon farming etc.What type of fish would you recommend to serve in a restaurant in place of salmon?
Makreel is uitstekend
There's literally zero good reason to eat any fish at all at this point, since there are so many alternatives.
Thank you for covering the topic without being preachy and making folks feel bad for their personal decision on this. You shared your research based facts very clearly to reach the conclusion. I live in the Pacific Northwest and enjoy wild caught salmon on occasion. We don't eat it regularly since it is quite expensive, and we never knowingly eat farmed salmon.
Beautifully presented, excellent information organization, and a high-integrity based decision, Telly. Thank you for sharing your research and evaluation.
Thank you for your honest opinion and your sharing of your knowledge. I've often wondered about these issues.
Thank you for the informative summary. It will be a rare occasion that I eat salmon in the future, even though I live in the Pacific NW. We all simply need to start consuming less of everything.
Telly... I'm glad I watched your video. For the last few years, in an attempt to
eat healthier, I have been trying to make salmon a bigger part of my diet. Almost
everything I read about salmon lauds it as the #1 superfood. I'm not particularly
fond of the taste of salmon and if you go for the wild caught version, it can
be very expensive. Now that you mentioned alternative ways of getting omega-3,
I don't feel so bad about skipping out on the salmon. Thanks again Telly.
Mike
For the most part, we only eat sockeye salmon from Alaska, which is not available year round. So we only eat it, for a small part of the year.
Thank you for this informative review. I have two other concerns about fish. 1. What are the health implications of the salmon growing/catching processes? Antibiotics, hormones in land farms, stresses etc. 2. Do wild caught sardines and mackerel have these environmental and health issues?
Wow. Thank you so much for such an honest and heartfelt video. I have become quite fond of making sushi and sashimi at home since the covid quarantine times, and salmon is one of my favorites for that. You have challenged me to rethink my seafood choices. I really appreciate how dispassionately and objectively you presented all the facts here.
Thank you for this insightful take. You mentioned there are some fisheries getting it right - can you list those?
Can you also do a video on shrimp? I'm constantly trying to get friends & family to stop & would love a considered video like this to share.
I live in the Pacific Northwest. I am also a marine biologist. Our federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is in bed with the salmon farmers. That's why we still have salmon pens. I came to the conclusion, before I watched your video, that eating salmon, either wild-caught or, especially farmed, is not healthy for me or the salmon. I don't eat seafood at all anymore.
Why is wild-caught salmon not healthy?
Alaska, California, Oregon, and finally Washington have all banned commercial net pens from operating in their marine waters. Although Cooke Aquaculture is trying to use a loophole to start farming steelhead, I don't think it'll be without a fight from tribal and environmental groups. What and where is the continued net pen salmon farming occurring in PNW marine waters?
@@beemo9 Because it's been poisoned!!!
Really? No seafood at all? It's that bad huh? Yeah I often think of the little canned sardines I eat, do they contain plastics?
" is not healthy for me or the salmon" - Yeah, eating salmon is definitely not healthy for the salmon ;-)
Very informative video with really good production. Thank you for making this and taking the time to inform the public about it.
An excellent breakdown. Confirmed what I suspected. Thanks much. (And you are very easy to watch!).
What fish do you suggest as an alternative? Thanks for this information. It confirms my long-held suspicions about farmed fish and definitely makes me think twice about eating salmon at all, at least not until I can source it ethically. One thing that occurs to me is that the by-products from fish farms on land could be used as fertilizer for growing vegetables, couldn't it?
I came into this video not wanting to like what I heard and wanting to disagree, but this was so thoughtful. I came away 100% agreeing with your choice and absolutely agree with the reasoning.
Nicely done!
But she said that hatchery produced salmon are genetically different than "wild salmon".
@@rhymeswithteeth So?
@@rhymeswithteeth I wondered how this is true? If you take the eggs from wild salmon and fertilise them with sperm of the same run, the genetics should be identical.
@@georgevindo Zackery!
@@clarkgriswold-zr5sb How could a "marine biologist" be so dumb. As @georgevindo said, if - in a hatchery - you take eggs from a wild salmon and fertilize them with the sperm of a wild salmon, how could the resulting salmon be genetically different than wild salmon? The resulting salmon are NOT genetically different.
Great diversified research. I live Canada, have followed the 'salmon' thing for decades. The diseases from farmed salmon that are now affecting wild salmon off BC coast is systemic. One of diseases affects muscles, therefore the heart, which in the end compromises wild salmon to get back to home range to breed. I read recently that our wild salmon historically used to push 100lb, now are 30-40lb avg. The testing of farmed salmon from multiple pens up and down BC coast several yrs ago, consistently from every pen, in the lab showcased nightmare scenario. Thx for all the extra data.
Salmon is a generic name to variety of species, of very different size - which one you are talking about ?
Chinook Salmon have always averaged that size, even decades ago the largest of the BC salmon were in the 50-70 lb range. The only exception that would have resulted in the reduction in very large Chinook (the ~100lb fish) in BC waters was the building of the Grand Coulee dam in WA state (on the Columbia river), because it wiped out the largest sub-species that spawned upstream from there in Canada. But that was 80 years ago now. That had nothing to do with fish farms.
I imagine it depends on the conditions of the farming system. One of my profs used to farm salmon. He'll no longer eat farmed salmon because of the sheer number of worms that cropped up in the farmed variety.
Great video . thanks! What do you think about land based (circulating) systems that can take care of these issues? You mentioned them in the vid and the book "Salmon wars" also talks about it.I know they are currently sparce and expensive but in the big picture? they can theoretically provide multiple used as well in adeition to healthy and healthful salmon, exploring what can be repurposed salmon waste for various fertilizers etc. In a ideal situation with more localized systems servicing their areas, can that be a solution? fascinating topic. Thanks
Thank you for your research. I'm glad someone is out there to speak for them.
Thank you! Great source of information and balanced view of all of pros & cons. I cook salmon occasionally when I entertain since I don’t eat beef nor chicken. I have been eating sardines for just myself, but I will look into seaweed. Could you please do a video on sardines and let us know if they are truly sustainable?
I appreciated your video and your hard work researching salmon. I've been eating much less salmon overtime, first because of the expense (where I live), sometimes it's tasteless, and lastly because of the attention paid to the micro plastics now ubiquitous in all the oceans.
Can you comment on the micro plastics and fish? Thank you for your mission.
I am from Australia and until recently hubby and I ate a piece of salmon/week. The salmon is farmed from Tassie. Hubby saw an investigation into farmed salmon - what they are feeding them as well as the impact on the environment. As lovers of Tassie, we have been to the salmon farms and listened to the information given by the industry. However, concerns for both our health and the environment have caused us to stop buying salmon. It's sad cause we enjoyed it - but that's what we decided. However, we are heading to Alaska later this year and may be tempted to try a piece or two while ther - wild caught and not huge amounts.
Look for wild caught BC salmon.....lots of canned sockeye out there.
Australia is one of the most abundant fisheries in the world. I am sure there are local species caught by local people that you could eat instead
@@oxskillxoPlenty of fish - but not plenty of wild caught salmon.
From a Marine Biologist, we would like to know about the possibilities of toxicity of farmed salmon from synthetic dye/colour and dioxin in their deep sea food supply?....Please.
thats the big secret. no one knows what they get.....
A significant extra cost but how about mandating a membrane under pens to capture 90% plus of excrement and leftover food? Pump it out of the bottom of conical shaped catchment, maybe once per week, dry it on shore and sell for fertilizer to offset costs. It would be excellent fertilizer.
It would be fertilizer, but not excellent. You are forgetting their food is man made, with bigger, better, faster growing built in. Antibiotics and growth hormones quite likely included.
its not from the dye, its from the food they get and the processes that make that food. The dye is likely a minor thing in the big picture. It covers for the fact that they are not eating wild krill, which naturally color the flesh with something called astaxanthin. The same thing that basically colors flamingoes. Domestic flamingoes are white because they dont eat the brine shrimp the wild ones eat.
@@spearsinspines And, for similar reasons, captive-bred Poison Arrow Frogs are harmless, because they are not consuming certain wild insects and bio-concentrating
their toxins.
There actually is a difference between getting omega-3s from fish and seaweed or getting them from various plants. The difference is that you won't get the 20-22 carbon fatty acids from flax, walnuts, etc. (their fatty acids will be 18 carbon long). This potentially matters because the chemistry that omega-3s (eicosanoid biosynthesis, etc.) starts out with these longer chains; and, though we do have the enzymes to add carbons a couple at a time, the conversion is extremely rate limited.
Another question to ask might be whether that conversion step to the longer chain is rate limited for a reason and whether we actually need so much of the final product that we need these marine sources in the first place, but that's another kettle of fish (see what I did there?).
That last phrase was the only thing I understood.
@@kshepard52 the writer is saying there is a low conversion from flax omega 3, Linoleic or alpha linoleic acid to DHA/EPA which is the omega 3 from fish, roughly speaking, its well known just search google conversion flax omega 3 to DHA, the type your brain feeds on, .... just avoid vegeable processed oils, raw sugars in products and eat tinned sardines, eat grass fed saturated fat and butter, yes cholesterol is actually good for you, every cell in your body and brain is made of cholesterol, watch videos on carnivore diets by dr schafee and dr Ekberg, learn about he cholesterol myth (low carb down under) all on youtube. you`ve been lied to by the american medical foundation and heart association for years.
@@kshepard52 I'm not a biologist but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night (very clever marketing meme). Besides, our daughter is a geneticist/biologist and my wife and I have had more than one of those "what are these words?" reactions to papers for which she has asked for our editorial input on the grammar at least. But the experience has forced me to learn more of the jargon and has helped me in researching my own genome, so let me take a shot at this.
Our bodies are amazing chemical factories, not only in how we break down and use food, but in how we can change unusable or less-usable chemicals into the ones we really need. However, like operating a chemical factory, those conversions come with a cost in energy and other chemicals.
A good example is beta carotene. This is the plant form of vitamin A. In most cases, our bodies can change the plant form into several different forms of vitamin A that we need. However, besides the metabolic "cost" of doing so, the efficiency of this conversion can vary pretty wildly from person to person due to genetic differences (for instance, in the BCO1 gene which helps in this process), and those with poor conversion rates may be turning orange from the amount of beta carotene in their blood while still being vitamin A deficient.
As someone experimenting with a whole foods, plant based diet this year, I've had to learn way more than planned in order to continue optimizing my nutrient intake, including where deviating from pure plant-based is wiser than trying to supplement the difference. One of these is eating two tins of high-quality sardines packed in olive oil a week as a rich source of more bioavailable (doesn't need conversion) omega 3's.
BTW, the length of this post shows the value of the jargon associated with various fields. More words with less precision is the alternative.
@@WMHinsch Thank you for taking the time to explain this!
I hope you've had better luck with the sardines than I have. Some brands are unbelievably gross but I finally settled on Wild Planet and began looking hard for decent recipes.
I think we're bad at converting the plant fatty acids because we got way more from terrestrial animals. The fatty acids in ruminants grazing on open, biodiverse pasture is far different from the modern grain fed cows.
I have been aware of this farmed fish for sometime. So I too have stopped eating farmed salmon and any other fish that is farmed. At least in our markets, they confess that the fish is farmed, a hint to me to not buy. I did not know that wild salmon was not really wild in some instances. Thank you for that. You are performing a great service. Thank you
This was an eye-opener. Thanks. I won't stop eating salmon altogether, but in recent years, I have reduced the amount of salmon I eat in favour of other line-caught fish because I have been dubious about farmed salmon in particular. I had no idea about the hatcheries before seeing this.
Thanks for your "deep dive" into this topic and excellent presentation. What an eye opener - and so sad! I hate to give up salmon, but I will seriously look at alternatives.
I have just subscribed after watching your salmon video.
Is there any fisheries management jurisdiction in the world which has not seen major negative impacts on wild salmon populations after salmon aquaculture implementation?
doesn't seem to be any negative effects caused to the wild salmon in New Zealand by salmon farms, which have been here for 30 plus years. There may be bad conditions for the wild fish from time to time, but they are mostly living seperately from the commercial farmed fish. The wild fish live in the rivers and lakes, and migrate annually, then return. The farmed fish stay in their cages at sea mainly. There are a couple of outfits with fresh water farms in fast flowing fresh water....... but they don't appear to have any negative affects on the local wild fisheries.
Facts should not be controversial! Thank you for your research with this. Great work! 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟
Very helpful, thanks for this clear explanation!
This is a fantastic presentation on an important topic. Thank you for your work in educating the public! Subscribed!
What about trout fish? Can you do a video on that type of fish? It's similar in Omega's to salmon!
sardines are one of the best and they are not farm raised 🙂
And cheaper in the smoked version (at least in France)
Trout are actually ‘salmonids’. Same family, and have the same kinds of omegas, maybe not in the same quantities
@@non9886 and are way less contaminated
@@MMK86 yeah, i said one of the best. also from this point of view, as small not predatory fish...
Thanks so much for the research and sharing the info! Cutting down consumption immediately. I am a huge lover of salmon but now I know what info to look for on the packaging, I only want to support what's right.
I've seen an on shore organic salmon farm in BC, operating on saline well water. It was a caviar farm though. One thing I found out is that for any farmed carnivorous fish, such as trout, char, steelhead and salmon, it takes 2 pounds of protein to grow 1 pound of fish. Most of that protein is from wild caught fish thats turned into feed. Not a very good efficiency.
Agree 100%. I've seen SO many other videos and documentaries on the same topic as well. Wanted to check yours out as well. I've stopped eating ocean and stream fish now, + shellfish. Last taste of a Fish Sandwich at Culvers convinced me it was not worth the taste or money and I don't miss it, don't need it, don't want it. Thank you.
Thank you! Very good information.
A question: Since hatchery salmon spawn in the streams in which they hatched, how do they genetically influence other salmon strains?
yes
In my area not all hatcheries use eggs from the stream they are planted in. These fish then bread with native fish and change the genetics of the run. Some rivers have runs that no longer have native fish.
ya phil is correct thats why i think here in wv the stocked trout cant breed...unless some species that isnt native...but the stocked trout are picked for many reasons like can survive lower oxygen levels or just because theyre gold and look cool even thoe its basically albino
@@t9056My understanding is that trout need running water to spawn. Many of the planter trout are triploids. They don't breed and spend their life eating so grow faster and bigger making them better for put and take lakes.
All salmon and trout populations will have fish that "get lost" and spawn somewhere other than the place of their birth. Without that, the species would not have spread to so many rivers... at any rate, most wild spawners will find their birthplace, but they don't know that lost hatchery fish will be there too, so wild and hatchery will mate, polluting future generations with hatchery genes. Hatchery genes are bad because selection is geared towards rapid growth and survival in captivity, not the stressors that make a fish fit for survival in the wild.
It is really refreshing to find solid information on line. I never had the feeling that I was being "worked" by the presenter. So rare in today's world.
Thank you for giving it to us straight on! I have suspected that your conclusion was the one that i expected. I have reduced the amount of salmon that i eat and i am going to get what salmon that i do eat directly from an Alaskan cannery, per the recommendation in the comments.
I appreciate your mission and i hope it reaches as many people as possible!
So glad I watched this. I will never purchase farmed salmon again and reduce my consumption of wild salmon until I phase it out. The wild salmon issue you speak about is fraught with devastating futures. I am going to reduce salmon or not eat it and just go back to sardines. You are an amazing wealth of information.
Thank you. I've been saying this for years. Unfortunately, no one wants to hear it. There are too many of us, and we are eating up the world.
I lived in British Columbia Canada and was into subsistence fishing for salmon. I met a local marine biologist who educated us about the destruction the salmon farms were causing. I never bought salmon from the store before that and now that I don't live close enough to fish locally, I don't buy salmon unless I travel to local fisherman or fish for it myself. It's pretty simple. There's no need to eat any food product that doesn't grow close to where you live.
Thankyou for the information: I have been paying extra and eating Tesco "organic" salmon in the belief its better for the environment. I also eat line caught fish. I would like to know about yours thoughts on these products?
In the Pacific Northwest, all the major rivers are dammed and these hydroelectric dams provide for nearly all of the region's power without emitting any CO2 or leaving behind dangerous spent fuel. But the dams are bad for the fish. Fish ladders dont seem to solve the problem and neither do hatcheries.
So what should be done? Wind and solar power can reduce the need for hydroelectric power but only hydro can provide a sort of battery of power for times when the wind doesnt blow and the clouds are heavy, blocking the sun.
How to live in harmony with nature when every solution brings new challenges?
Why is spent nuclear fuel considered dangerous? Look up how many people have died as a result of spent fuel. It's absolutely not a threat at all. The stuff is encased in concrete casks which you can literally walk up and hug and it's completely safe. They are so strong that they have put them on trains and smash them in the walls and they don't leak. Nobody has ever died from spent fuel. Not one person has ever been harmed by the millions of packages of nuclear waste we've transported. Every single industry produces some sort of negative waste. 100% of them. Nuclear is actually the greenest by absolutely every metric, even including the fuel.
There are way more free flowing rivers than dammed ones in the northwest probably 200 to 1
Burn fossil fuels.
I used to know a zoology major who was being told by his professors that dams were inherently bad due to increased water temperature and that coal fired power plants were the way to go. Zoologists can have a rather bad case of tunnel vision. Contemporary lifestyles depend upon high energy production facilities located somewhere on the planet. There are limited ways to do this. Population collapse is the other alternative. Anyone want to volunteer for the Soylent Green program?
Nuclear
I worked putting up a fish hatchery in Alaska. The fish that are wild that ran up stream were not the same strain as the ones that were produced at the hatchery. Both are caught in the wild but not the same. That bothered me. Why wouldn’t they produce the the same fish that ran wild?
Why don't fruit and vegetable growers grow the same varieties that were found in the wild....because they select and improve the species to make it more commercially viable ie more disease resistance, faster growing, more temperature and water tolerance etc etc etc in order to keep prices down so consumers can afford to buy the product.
@@steviewonder8624 - In short = Business decisions. More product, more marketing, more sales, more gross revenue
I agree with your comment that they should maintain the purity of the run. That would require a hatchery for every stream or segregating the eggs at the hatchery. Economically I don't see hatchery managers keeping all of the different runs separated.
That is weird
Here on the west coast of Canada, farmed salmon are all Atlantic salmon, a species not normally found here. The reason they raise Atlantic salmon is all the information used for feeding and drugging them comes from Norway where all the companies do their research.. thus escaped Atlantic salmon interbreeding with our native species
Good piece. As a former salmon scientist my worry is just as you stated at the beginning - the increase of the demand for salmon is always greater than the increase of supply. So get got all the various methods to increase supply, most of which have major problems. Hopefully we will find a method (maybe land-based farms) that can keep up with demand. I don't think it will happen in my lifetime.
Living in South Africa sounds like way more of a concern than worrying about the salmon industry, there's a growing number of inhabitants living along side of you that would like to see you become compost.
It's always interesting encountering South Africans who are expatriated. I want to come to the conversation naturally not just ask 'So... what was it like?'
@@mikew3194 Does anyone know what the average IQ of South Africa is?
Having spent 22 years as a marine biologist at Scripps Institute and California Academy of Sciences,working with Mahi Mahi and yellowtail jack I appreciate your presentation. Thank You.😊
But what about the part where she said that hatchery salmon are genetically different than "wild salmon"?
Thank you so much for your honest and values-based (caring about the environment) analysis. I encourage you to think about what policy, what law could be passed in the US, Canada, or Norway that would have a positive impact on Salmon?
Well put together. Thanks for your input.
Would Soylent Green be a viable alternative?
🤣🤣🤣 BWAHAHAHA!!!
For sure 😆
In a planet of 9 billion large mammals, for sure! I'm happy to be recycled after I die, yumyum!
Free range, grass fed?
Or you could just eat plants like 1.75 billion people globally. 👍
I live in Michigan. Could you comment on lake salmon, trout and white fish?
she would have no idea of the fish you catch and eat in Michigan.
If you're talking about the Great Lakes, check out the consumption advisories put out by your state's Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. Unfortunately a lot of residual pollution can accumulate in marine life, especially in their fat.
nobody eats great lakes salmon. Well I cant say nobody but I dont think it tastes well compared to sea faring salmon. Theres also reccomendations of how much you should eat and in some parts its not recommended, with larger fish being most contaminated in any area. I would doubt there are comparable omega 3's too due to land locked fish diet.
Thanks for educating me Telly on the complex world of salmon ,and the debate of eating them less frequently or even at all.
I'm a recreational fisherman and fish the west coast for coho salmon once a year when they are running, keeping the odd one to eat that has an intact adipose fin. I wasn't aware of the severity of problems with fish farming along the inlets of British Columbia until reading Alexandra Morton's book, "Not On My Watch". I highly recommend it and have not bought farmed salmon since. I really appreciate the way you've presented this subject and so I too have subscribed. Nice work! Thank you.
As a fellow marine biologist, I have a question. "Was it a Titleist?"
@TheTussman LOL, why don't you have more upvotes?
It is an American brand of golf ball.@@erikarommel
@@finance7120 Ever watch "The Marine Biologist" from Seinfeld?
The sea was angry that day.
The sea was angry that day my friends lol
It is what the wild salmon feed on which makes them the healthiest food in the world. Farmed is commonly known to be SH#T food - that is very well researched and distributed on how bad these farms are. The red, wild salmon of Alaska cannot be compared to anything else. Unfortunately, it is the common, poor person who will be forced to eat food that is severely deprived of nutrients while the ppl who are telling us constantly how bad we are for the planet are flying in jet streams, limos, and flying in the most expensive meat, and fish in the world along the the most material goods like clothes and many mansions.
It is WE who will die soon, because for them, we are parasites on this earth. Human life has no value anymore (think of the unlimited ways they have encouraged us to become sterile?) unless you are born to a certain few having wealth beyond imagining.
thanks for the good effort here.. very informative
Thanks Telly. All the info I was looking for. Thanks for making the fundamental point about humans needing to share the planet - for everyone's well-being! No more salmon for me.
could you make soil fertilizer out of the fish poop?
It's high in Nitrogen compounds and Phosphates, so, yes.
But extracting it is nigh on impossible if you have a free-flow pen. In an enclosed, recirculated system, it's a lot easier. But that obviously costs a lot more cash moneys per unit of fish. And, don't forget that around half of the Phosphates are 'free' in the water column, while Nitrogen (as Nitrates) is likely even higher a percentage as free molecules. (A lot of the Nitrogen comes from the dissolved waste, excreted as Ammonia and converted by bacterial processes).
I asked a marine biologist this very question, and I got a very similar answer to what Andrew has said above.
I do wonder if there should be more investment into making it viable.
Good info - thanks for covering the subject. So, let me get this straight. Over population, lack of water flow and geographic net movement are the root causes of the problem. No different to your chicken concentration camps picture reference. Maybe as someone who understands this better than most should look into what should change to make this actually work. How many fish in a given area and how often the nets should be moved.
If that means I need to pay more for an ethically raised salmon I’ll do it.
Trout farms do it. How do you collect it out in the ocean?
If that fish is heavily treated with antibiotics wouldn't that be in their poop as well?
I grew up on a farm. What you are saying for 'salmon farming' is high intensity farming. Factory farming.
Farming is more than the factory. Unfortunately, you are very correct to say that feedlot farms (which the highly dense fisheries are a type of) are not eco-friendly.
When doing such large-scale farms, you run into the kinds of problems you indicate.
Now, if we look at how much salmon we actually consume - if we were doing that with wild-caught salmon, we would have driving salmon into extinction.
What we need is more sustainable, more eco-friendly approaches.
Fish farming can be done sustainably without the ecological impacts you indicate. What we need is an organizing effort to push for more sustainable farming methods.
We need farming, but we don't need to produce things without dealing with the pollution we cause....
Monocultures are only suitable for small areas of intensive farming. There is a problem when they grow so big that they dominate their environment.
When I was born, the World's population was around 2,000,000,000 people.
Today that number has quadrupled.
Enough said.
Very informative, thank you. Another huge thank you too for all of you who added your own truly revealing comments. Information coming from those who have worked in the salmon farming business are so convincing, I'm not ever going to eat farm salmon again!! Bless you all.
You can't get any of the DHA/EPA you need from any plant material except algae. The conversion from ALA to EPA/DHA cannot reach sufficient levels. Especially if you are on a plant based diet rich in linoleic acid. You don't need to eat fish, though. Fatty red meat, eggs, cheese also deliver EPA/DHA.
Can I get sufficient DHA/EPA from fatty red meat, eggs and cheese ?
Yes. Maybe. Will it be optimal levels? Maybe not. But be sure it's all organic and mostly grass/natural fed animals.
*except algae* Then I'll eat plenty of algae. Thanks for the tip.
@@okrimiksnajleb9635 human meat also rich source of omega-3
Linoleic (omega 6) and linolenic acid (omega 3) found in plants are said to be essential fatty acids but the conversion rate to DHA and EPA is not not very good. (omega 3 and omega 6 refers to the position of double bonds in fatty acid chain) I work in the edible oil industry and I have heard and read a lot about how eating linoleic acid and linolenic acid isn't sufficient to make enough DHA and EPA in our bodies. Then you wonder how we have all managed to survive without eating enough seafood.