Chile's Salmon Farms Verging on Breakdown

It seems like not a week goes by without industrial animal food production somehow making headlines -- the H1N1 flu pandemic, astounding meat recalls, high levels of arsenic in chicken feed, or any of a dozen other concerns. One recent story that should have generated some rather large waves, however, has made only a minor splash. Chile's salmon farming industry, second only to Norway's, is on the verge of collapse.

Salmon are not indigenous to Chile, but grown in crowded cages installed in the bays and estuaries of the country's otherwise beautiful southern fjord region. These "farmed" Atlantic salmon are fed a steady diet of wild fish--perfectly edible for humans, but more profitable when converted into "value-added" finfish. The approximately three pounds of wild fish needed to produce each pound of farmed salmon has caused some people to refer to finfish aquaculture operations as "reverse protein factories." Equally alarming, salmon farms have become excessively dependent upon toxic pesticides to combat sea lice and antibiotic medicines to thwart infections that can run rampant among the high concentrations of rapidly growing, penned fish--not unlike industrial-scale hog, poultry, and cattle CAFOs on land.

But these are no longer working. According to industry source Intrafish, Chile's 2009 salmon output could decline by as much as 87 percent from last year--a drop from 279,000 metric tons in 2008 to between 37,000 metric tons and 67,000 metric tons. The cause is the widespread outbreak of a virus known as infectious salmon anemia (ISA). When the virus first appeared in 2008, many offshore aquaculture companies moved their production farms further south in Chile, into waters still unaffected by ISA. Instead of lessening the problem, the industry actually spread the virus into the southern waters.

The Chilean government and regulatory agency are now implementing measures to address the crisis, but their efforts, for the time being, have been too little, too late. Chilean salmon stocks have been devastated, and this is expected to send ripple effects throughout the world's food supply. A 20 percent shortfall in the global supply of farmed Atlantic salmon is predicted for this year and perhaps 2010 as well. The human toll in this saga is also significant, as the salmon industry has become a primary employer in the southern region of the country, and could lead to the unemployment of as many as 15,000 people.

Experts had been cautioning for years about the hazards of unsanitary conditions and overcrowding in industrial salmon cages. The first widespread die-offs due to ISA began to mount early in 2008, but the industry declined to take protective measures to guard against further spread of the infection. Critics have called for improved conditions by limiting the number of salmon in the cages and by spreading the farms farther apart from one another to avoid transfer of disease and to lessen the concentration of harmful chemicals, antibiotics, and other adverse affects of large-scale fish production.

Unfortunately, this has not been the only alarming news in 2009 about Chilean aquaculture. In February, the Pew Environment Group obtained documents from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealing that the Chilean salmon industry has been using antibiotics prohibited on fish destined for the United States. Apparently, the FDA notified the three companies guilty of using the unapproved drugs that they can no longer use them on fish raised for the U.S. market. But questions remain whether or not the FDA will enforce these restrictions, and if so, how they will go about ensuring that the banned substances are not used.

Concerns over antibiotic overdosing and its potential to create antibiotic resistant disease organisms that could harm humans may become less of an issue if the Chilean salmon industry suffers an even further decline. Many are calling for a dismantlement of the industry. Others caution that without real reforms it could implode of its own unsustainable production practices. At a minimum, we should take this as one more in a long series of wake-up calls that our concentrated animal food operations -- whether on land or at sea -- need to be urgently reconsidered, before they are all on the verge of collapse.

Pew Press Release on Unapproved Chemicals
Pew Letter on Unapproved Chemicals
New York Times article on Chilean Salmon Virus
New York Times article on Chilean Salmon Industry Rehabilitation efforts

Follow Dan Imhoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/watershedmedia

Comments

[pons1595]

Since I worked as a seafood clerk at Giant in VA in 2005, I always ask where the salmon comes from; never buy farm raised anything. Just go eat garbage.

[dsws]

Some farmed fish are among the worst, but there's also a bunch of farmed seafood on Monterey Bay Aquarium's "best choices" list.

[BannedNBoston]

Farmed raised salmon is full of mercury and lice.

Mad cow disease is only in MEGA-COWS cows that are bred to be too big and give to much milk.
Regular cows dont get the disease they are immune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOJ4z8yqa54&feature=related

[lbrty 2112]

Banned, just for the record, there have only been 3 cases of BSE ever recorded in the US. Don't give the Vegans or enviro goose steppers anything to go on about.

[peacefull1]

just saw a study linking the human form of mad cow disease to farmed fish. Go veggie.

[JScott]

Why do humans have the urge to do this but are real leery and standoffish about restoring maintaining healthy waterways and such, in the long run that's much easier. Just think if they restored the salmon runs on the US west coast there might be no need for farmed salmon in Chile. Sometimes folks get it backwards.

[pinkylee23]

Aren't we all stupid, greedy, fools?!

[Lavina]

Thank you, Mr. Imhoff, for this report. This aquaculture should never have been allowed to develope, and we should close them down. They have contaminated waters and wild fish, already. How can they be closed down environmentally? I'm afraid the operators will just dump what they have into the ocean.
Can you advise governments on how to close them down?
Sources for the impact from these fisheries: http://www.wildamerica.com, http://www.environmentaldefense.org,

[gregoriew]

mad fish disease ?

[deweaver]

Mr. Imhoff's article is one of the most biased and misleading pieces I have recently read on this subject. He starts out saying that humans would eat the fish that are used to make fish meal, but it is more profitable to produce fish meal. The fish that are used to make fish meal in Chile sell to the fish meal producers at 5-7¢ per lb. Despite the low price, humans simply will not eat small, bony, oily fish.

He falsely claims it takes 3 lb of these forage fish to make a pound of salmon (it now takes < 2 lb). However, he ignores the fact that a wild salmon eats 7-10 lb of forage fish to produce a lb of salmon (the wild fish spend energy catching his dinner).

The disease in question (ISA) arose in Europe and was a transfer from wild fish to farmed fish. Norway and others have developed and are using a vaccine to elimination of this problem. The new smolts going into the pens are probably now vaccinated in Chile, however, the market will be disrupted for the 2+ years it will take this fish to grow to saleable size.

He then goes into the usual drug attack, but doesn't note that the drugs in question are all approved in Europe, Canada and Chile and some are approved in the US under an exemption.

[realpolitic]

Your critique raises several diversions! The antibiotic drugs in question are not approved in the U.S., as he said. Who cares if they are approved elsewhere. If the U.S. law changes let me know.

Who cares where the disease (ISI) arose? Chile probably has the largest salmon farming industry on earth. Whether a vaccine has been developed for now, says little about the "unsanitary conditions and overcrowding in industrial salmon cages."

In fact, what you point to as a savior- the vaccine- he points to accurately as part of the problem. "Equally alarming, salmon farms have become excessively dependent upon toxic pesticides to combat sea lice and antibiotic medicines to thwart viruses that can run rampant among the high concentrations of rapidly growing, penned fish--not unlike industrial-scale hog, poultry, and cattle CAFOs on land."

The fish meal given to salmon may be edible by humans before being turned into small, oily, bony compounds.

The amount of protein wild salmon eat and what farmed salmon eat are two different equations. The wild salmon would not be in such great concentrations as the farmed, so it is valid to ask how many pounds of protein they are consuming for each pound of protein they yield.

Yours is the kind of false indignation seen on Fox News all the time!

[kt kiwi]

Never let the facts get in the way of a good argument huh ?.

Chile is not the largest Salmon farming country in the World, it is Norway, (by a considerable margin)...
Generalizing by using Chilean production methods as a yardstick for all Salmon Producers worldwide is inaccurate and defamatory... I produce farmed Salmon without chemicals, antibiotics (which by the way cannot treat virus's), lice treatment, antifoul on nets etc etc etc.

Small bony fish used for fish meal (from certified fisheries... in case you really are interested in the facts) give very poor flesh yields (the bit we want to eat), Salmon give very good flesh yields (almost twice as much)... so in fact 1lb of 'edible' Anchovy or Pilchard produces around 1lb of 'edible' Salmon, and the production efficiency is getting better year on year.
If you really want to help, ask why 1/3rd of the worlds fishmeal is used for Poultry & Pig production (and the like). They are very inefficient feed converters (in comparison to Salmon).
Many Salmon producers in the world are now 'net protein producers'...

[BassMonk]

Friends don't let friends eat farmed fish.

[patianneb]

Sadly a million or five persons will need to keel over at a whack for anything to change.

[LeLoup]

LOL!
How many times will the paragons of the quick buck need to be reminded that you just do not negotiate with, nor impose anything to biology.

You adjust your practices to what Nature allows you to do. Ignore the advice at your peril.

[Mogamboguru]

Read these links for more details and direct engagement:

http://www.mapuche-nation.org/english/html/environmental/enviro-53.htm

http://www.patagoniatimes.cl/index.php/20070613111/News/Business-News/CHILE-SALMON-FARMS-INFILTRATED.html

http://www.patagoniatimes.cl/index.php/20080414458/News/Political-News/CHILE-GOVT-THREATENS-TO-DEPORT-DOUGLAS-TOMPKINS.html

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/1466/tompkins-takes-a-stand-against-salmon-industry-in-chile