Salmon farms are killing wildlife

Seaspiracy Sea Stories

Dear Seaspirians,

The Canadian government just announced its decision to delay the closures of open-net farms in British Columbia to 2029. Yet, scientific evidence show that salmon farms are directly responsible for the stark decline in wild salmon, gray whales, orcas, and even bears and wolves.

We decided to focus this issue on understanding the now ubiquitous salmon industry that is ravaging wildlife globally.

Sea Stories

🇨🇷 Why is salmon on every menu in Costa Rica?

Photo by Corin Smith - Wild Fish Cons

I recently visited my family in Costa Rica, and in each restaurant we visited, salmon was omnipresent. It was my grandmother’s go-to meal, she even ordered it when we went to the fishmongers. It made me wonder, with two bountiful coast lines, why is this country obsessed with a fish that isn’t caught in its waters? How has the salmon industry infiltrated our global consciousness with its “glamorous” appeal that has blinded locals from their own delicacies? What is it about salmon that has made its way onto virtually every menu on the planet? When did salmon become ubiquitous?

I was speaking to my father in Italy, and commented on the world's salmon obsession. I asked him, when did salmon become a thing? He reminisced: well, I remember that when I was young in Rome salmon was considered a luxury, at the same level as caviar, just more accessible — we would buy it for celebrations. I thought of smoked salmon, blinis and caviar, and how salmon seemed to have had the opposite fate of lobster, going from occasional and high end to the second most consumed fish in the world. How did this happen? From Costa Rica to Jakarta, no matter which ocean you reside on, salmon is a thing.

Salmon farming began in Norway in the 90s as a solution to overfishing wild stocks. In fact, farmed salmon now accounts for 70% of salmon consumption worldwide and has played a key role in its meteoric rise — with a 500% production increase since 1995.

📺 What we’re watching: Coextinction

📚What we’re reading: The New Fish: The Truth about Farmed Salmon and the Consequences We Can No Longer Ignore (by Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli)
📸 Who we’re following: @the_gsfr: The Global Salmon Farming Resistance

the_gsfr

A post shared by @the_gsfr

🤯 Mindblowing ocean fact we learnt this month: The remaining Chinook salmon populations are at as little as 10% of their historic numbers