Salmon is not Salmon

[CalvinFish]

I just had a conversation with my parents about grilling fish. They are planning a party at their house and called to ask how I had grilled the salmon last time I was there. Before I went into descriping my favorite methods, I asked them where they got the fish. It was from their local super market. I asked them what kind of salmon it was. After checking the package, my mother told me it was farm raised atlantic salmon.

If you are not aware, as my parent were not, farm raised salmon is not a good diet or environmental choice. Google "farm raised salmon" and you will find a lot of information on it. I will give just a few reasons that I don't eat the stuff.

• Because of the close quarters in which farmed salmon are kept, huge amounts of anti-biotics are poured into the water to keep them from getting sick.
• This dosage leaves the flesh with higher concentrations of antibiotics than traditional, farmed beef.
• These antibiotics create huge dead zones on the ocean floor below the raising pens, wiping out all life from micro organisms on up the chain.
• Because of the proximity of salmon pens to urban areas, farmed salmon are much higher in toxins, like PCBs and mercury than wild fish.
• Farmed salmon are carriers of Salmon Enemia (one of the reasons for all the antibiotics) and raising them in open water pens, wild stocks can become infected.
• Tens of thousands of farmed salmon (Atlantic Salmon) escape each year from their pens and pose a threat to wild stocks of the five species of Pacific Salmon.
• Huge numbers of sea lice infest penned farmed salmon. When these pens are located near out-migrating juvinile wild salmon, the small wild salmon also become infested. Because the wild fish are not being chemically treated for the lice, they are often left too weak to fend for themselves and become easy prey for other animals.
• Farmed salmon is artificailly colored. Because of the "fish chow" fed to the penned fish, their flesh is pale grey. To market the meat, they are fed huge amounts of artificial color to turn the orange.
• Farmed Salmon does not taste as good or have the quantities of Omega-3 fatty acids that wild fish have.

So, there are a few reasons to read the labels and only buy WILD Salmon. It may be more expensive and less available than farmed salmon in some areas. If this is the case, eat less salmon, and wait until you can find, afford wild fish!

Healthy farmed fish alternatives are catfish and tillapia. Both are desease resistant, and therefore chemical free, and are raised in enclosed ponds so they do not compete with the surrounding environment.

"Wild Salmon don't do Drugs!!"
Cheers,
Dave

[Miss Phode]

Re: Salmon is not Salmon

You are right calvin. People think farm raised makes it safer and healthier, but that's not true. I started buying Wild Caught Salmon to avoid mercury, which is especially dangerous to women of child bearing age.