Atlantic salmon

Scientific name:
Salmo salar

Market names:
Atlantic Salmon, farmed salmon

Summary:
This fish, which was once a luxury you could only afford at Christmas, is now available all year round in large quantities and low prices because large numbers of intensive farms following unsustainable practices have sprung up in recent times. Wild salmon stocks are far below the repopulation threshold however: Atlantic salmon are going extinct and some Pacific salmon stocks are also plummeting. But fish farming is definitely not an alternative!
The waste produced in one year by a fish farm containing 200,000 salmon is equivalent to the effluent from a city of over 60,000 people! The salmon are given feed which may contain antibiotics. Apart from damaging our health, this pollutes the sea due to the fish effluent and wasted feed. For every kilo of farmed salmon, 5 kg of fish are needed! In the Global South, particularly in Chile, some fish species are caught just to make feed for salmon, with negative effects on the balance of marine ecosystems.



Biology:
Salmon are anadromous, they move between freshwater and saltwater. They spawn in the late Autumn or early winter in the same streams that they were born. They mature in freshwater streams then move into the ocean where they live for around 3 years before coming back to spawn, often, salmon die after they spawn, but some will live to spawn 2 or 3 times. However, there are rare species that can only survive in fresh water habitats.

Alternatives:
Pacfic Salmon, especially that from Alaska

Sources:
www.montereybayaquarium.org
www.fishonline.org
www.blueocean.org