Consumer campaign targetting BC farmed salmon launched

October 29, 2002 - VANCOUVER - Chefs, scientists, and conservation groups on both sides of the 49th parallel joined today to announce the launch of an international campaign to educate consumers and retailers about the environmental and potential health risks associated with the production of farmed salmon.

"Think Twice is what we're saying to consumers who need much more information to make informed choices about this product," said spokesperson Jennifer Lash, who lives on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island in an area with a high concentration of salmon farms.

"Farmed salmon is produced using pesticides, antibiotics, and chemical additives to alter the colour of the fish, and most consumers know nothing about this. In fact, people often don't know that the salmon they're buying is manufactured and not a wild fish," said Lash, a member of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) that launched the campaign.

The Suzuki Foundation is a member of CAAR, which has sent information to more than 2,100 grocery stores and restaurants along with a request that they stop selling farmed salmon. At the same time, more than 130 organizations sympathetic to the campaign are helping distribute information throughout the west coast of the US and in Canada.

"We are asking retailers and consumers to do an easy thing: to make a public commitment to stop buying and selling farmed salmon until its safe for us and safe for the oceans," said Lash, adding the campaign is especially targetted at US consumers because most BC farmed salmon is sold there.

"Salmon is in high demand, but the issues around farmed salmon are little understood," said acclaimed Portland chef Greg Higgins, who travelled to Vancouver to help launch the campaign. "When US consumers fully understand all the issues, they'll see the need to keep the marine habitat healthy and to consider the quality and source of their salmon."

Farmed salmon are grown in net cages that float in the ocean, which pollutes the marine environment with drug-laced excess food and waste. These floating feedlots also allow disease and parasites to flow out through the nets, threatening wild salmon and the ocean habitat.

Fisheries biologist Dr. John Volpe has studied salmon farming and its effects on the marine environment for seven years.

"Government and industry have not been forthright in providing the necessary information to allow the consumer to make an informed decision about farmed salmon," he said.

British Columbia exports most of its farmed salmon to the US. In fact, almost all the whole or dressed fresh farmed salmon consumed in the US is from Canada. And the lifting of a provincial ban last month on new farms is set to unleash a major expansion of the BC industry.

Already, retailers and restaurateurs in the US and BC are signing on to the campaign. So far 50 stores and restaurants have joined, including "white tablecloth" chefs in San Francisco and Portland.

Other BC campaigns targeting the marketplace have been very successful, particularly an international project urging Home Depot and other "big box" stores to stop selling BC old-growth wood. Lash is hopeful this campaign will raise consumer awareness as well as protect threatened areas of coastal BC.

The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) is a coalition of conservation and First Nations groups working to protect the ocean and humans from the dangers of farmed salmon. Full information on the campaign can be found at the and Dangerous)website.


For more information, please contact Lynn Hunter, fish farming specialist, at 250-479-0937 or Jean Kavanagh at 604-732-4228.