For every wild salmon in the Atlantic there are estimated to be 48 farmed ones!
Whether this estimate is precise or not is irrelevant, the fact is there has been a dramatic increase in salmon farming in recent decades.
Unfortunately it adds to the depletion of many types of wild fish stocks like anchovies, herring, sardines and mackerel because of the amount of wild fish that are fed to farmed salmon, as fish meal and fish oil. According to a recent scientific study, 3 kg of wild fish are needed to produce 1 kg of farmed salmon.
Scotland’s fishing industry
Salmon farming makes up a large part of Scotland’s fishing industry and is worth around £336 million to the Scottish economy. In 2008 alone nearly 130,000 tonnes of Atlantic farmed salmon was produced from 257 fish farms around the coast. Often found in the far west and north of Scotland, the industry supports many remote and rural communities with jobs. The popularity of salmon is partly because of its promotion as a ‘superfood.’
Salmon contains the essential Omega-3 fatty acid, said to promote general health and intelligence in growing children. Its popularity also comes from the fact that farmed salmon is a fraction of the price of wild salmon, allowing many more people to enjoy one of our traditional luxuries.
Pollution
Across the UK, around a third of salmon rivers are thought to be at risk in one way or another. Pollution caused by nutrients and pesticides seeping into the groundwater from farming is causing concern. Polluted water can kill young salmon that are developing and harm the adult salmon on their way up rivers to spawn.
There are also concerns about maintaining the genetically pure populations of wild salmon, as they interbreed with escaped farmed fish, and about the transmission of infection from the farmed to wild salmon. The good news in South Wales is that salmon are returning to rivers previously polluted by the coal industry.
