Salmon News

[Kummok]

Just a couple of stories of interest, having to do with farmed salmon......both articles credited to the local newspaper, Homer News, 1/28/2010

Target pulls farmed salmon from its stores  http://homernews.com/stories/012710/business_4_007.shtml

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Target Corp., the nation's second-largest discounter after Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said Tuesday that it pulled all farmed salmon from its stores as it looks to be more environmentally conscious.

The retailer said it will no longer carry farmed salmon in its fresh, frozen or smoked seafood sections. The move impacts national brands and the chain's own Archer Farms and Market Pantry brands, which will now use wild-caught Alaska salmon.

Target said sushi carried in its stores that currently use farm-raised salmon will switch to wild-caught salmon by year's end.

"Target strives to be a responsible steward of the environment, while also providing our guests with the highest-quality food choices," Greg Duppler, senior vice president of merchandising, said in a statement.

Companies have increasingly shifted away from farmed salmon due to pressure by consumers and environmentalists, who want wild-caught salmon used because it can help preserve salmon levels as well as species health and doesn't hurt local habitats.

'SEAWATCH' by Cristy Fry  http://homernews.com/seawatch/
...Seafood Watch, one of the best-known sustainable seafood advisory lists, has lent its first-ever stamp of approval to a farmed salmon operation in Rochester, Wash.

The farming practices of AquaSeed corporation's SweetSpring salmon farm include raising the fish in onshore tanks, which eliminates the hazards of large-scale escapement and transference of sea lice to wild populations, and containing fish waste, as well as feeding the salmon a more mixed diet, such as poultry, rather than catching wild fish and turning them into pellets for farmed fish.

That traditional diet for farmed fish has led to some alarming news lately. Recent studies have shown that rats fed fish oil from farmed salmon developed insulin resistance, obesity and other related health issues.

In the study, adult male rats were fed for 28 days either crude or refined fish oil obtained from farmed Atlantic salmon carcasses. The crude fish oil contained the levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants that people are typically exposed to after eating the fish.

Adult rats exposed to the crude fish oil -- which contained the POPs mixture -- put on belly fat and developed insulin resistance and liver disease. The rats could not regulate fat properly. They had higher levels of cholesterol and the fatty acids triacylglycerol and diacylglycerol in their livers.

In contrast, none of these changes were seen in the rats that ate the refined fish oil without the POPs.

The production level of the Rochester fish farm, which is raising fresh-water Pacific coho salmon, is limited, but hopefully just a sign of things to come.

Sheila Bowman, senior outreach manager for Seafood Watch at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said, "Our advice is still for 99 percent of us out there to avoid farmed salmon. This species that's coming out in Washington state is going to be very regional in its distribution and it's not something that's going to be in the (general) marketplace for at least a few years."

Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at [email protected].