Are we being fed a lie with salmon ?

hmm just earlier on bought two packages of whoopsie salmon for myself and dd not sure if I fancy it now.

Grannyknot However I have since bought wild sock-eye salmon a few times, and it is delicious (but very expensive).

I’d like to buy some.
Please would you let me know where you buy from?

I haven't eaten farmed fish for as long as I can remember. I eat wild salmon and mackerel when it's fresh, as well as white fish.
I buy kibble for my dogs that is made from free range fish or meat.
We eat more vegetable meals than meat or fish based and I try to buy free range from sources I can trust. I know it's more expensive but I'm fortunate to be able to buy quality rather than quantity. animal welfare is something I attempt to keep central to any flesh we eat.

A plant based diet has much less impact on the environment in terms of water and land use and emissions than a diet that is based on meat and fish. Reducing meat and fish in our diet is one way we can help the planet.

I've stopped eating salmon if it's not wild. ditto tuna, which is also farmed in the mediterranean. The damage done - and it's not just the lice that kills the other species - also includes the foulness dropping from fish which are effectively caged and again destroys other species. It's not easy - and then you have the Dutch electrofishing in the North Sea destroying sand eels and the stuff fish love.

greydusterand anja you're both absolutely right wrasse are being used, but only a few are specifically bred , most of them are being taken out of wild stock and therefore having a negative impact on yet another species

www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/10/salmon-farmers-put-wild-wrasse-at-risk--sea-lice-scotland-anglers

I did ask about sea trout,Greyduster because I know they look like salmon but are a different breed. The flesh is paler.
More natural?
Which reminds me, eldest daughter, who has a biochemistry qualification, had a job for a short time in a scientific lab. where they made an additive to farmed fish food which caused the fish's flesh to be more red.

Cavewoman, salmon which is caught in UK waters contain parasites and I knew of someone who'd been seriously ill after eating at a restaurant.

The only way to put a serious dent in the environmental damage done by humans is to drastically reduce the number of us there are.

We tend to eat a lot of vegetables too.

One thing puzzled me recently though - the report on tv about eating much less meat and fish, very few eggs and making our diet more plant and pulse based because of the methane given off by farmed animals.
As the animals we do use for food eat a vegetarian diet does that produce the methane? If we change to a more vegetable and pulse based diet will it be humans producing the methane instead. That would be counter-productive.

Jalima1108

Yes, it is the responsibility of every single one of us to try to eat in manner that is in sympathy with the environment and our need for sustenance.

In many countries meat and even fish, is a luxury, eaten in very small quantities and/or only on high days and holidays. I have reduced our meat consumption considerably because I now only buy organically farmed and high animal welfare meat, which is expensive. The same with salmon. I only buy wild salmon.

It has made surprisingly little difference to our diet. We have always been a casserole and stew based family rather than great lumps of meat family, so I continue with all our favourite dishes but with far more vegetables so that 1lb of meat will produce a stew sufficient to feed 8, and sometimes more. I love vegetables so we have always tended to have a fruit and veg heavy diet anyway.

Sorry Fennel I misconstrued your question; hence me banging on about sea trout.

fed to the masses
It's our fault.
Us
The masses
The plebs
Needing to be fed

Fennel Atlantic sea salmon is the breed of salmon. Salmon and trout can interbreed as they are very close genetically.

I don't think it is cw. You can eat it raw in sushi can't you?

EllanVannin After a little research I cannot find any information as to why it is so dangerous to eat undercooked salmon.

Intensive farming of any sort is bound to cause problems and the only choice is to buy organic and free range, or eat less meat and fish. Same with cheap clothing, not eat.............but buy less. Clothing manufacture and dying causes much of the world's pollution. I think it can be a problem if your only choice is to buy cheap food and clothing because not everyone can eat organic or invest the time in cooking veggie based meals from scratch.

Sea trout (which is actually a form seagoing brown trout) migrate from the sea into rivers to breed in the same way as salmon, but unlike salmon, they don’t die when they have spawned. 75% of sea trout return to the sea after spawning. They are, as you say, caught at sea or in estuaries, mostly at night as they are difficult to find in the daytime, but they are caught in spate rivers also. Some of the Welsh estuaries, and one in Sussex, produce excellent sea trout.

If the salmon is labelled Atlantic sea salmon does that mean it was caught out at sea, or farmed in a sea loch?
We once had a holiday in NW Scotland, and were shown a salmon farm in a sea loch there. Can't remember the name now, but there are a few.
It was neat Glenelg.
There's another variety called salmon trout, which I think is caught out at sea. Could be wrong.

Undercooked salmon is so dangerous and if you overcook it to kill the bugs it chokes you--------I only eat wild red tinned salmon, but mostly smoked mackerel ( which has gone expensive I notice )

Food used to be so reliable at one time. It isn't any longer.

There are several species of fish, including ballan wrasse and lumpfish, which naturally eat sea lice. These fish are introduced to salmon pens to eat sea lice off the salmon. This is a biological approach to sea lice management, and there are research projects underway to identify more potential cleaner fish species.

Behind all these problems are us, the consumers, who want more and more delicacies to become much cheaper and normal fare.

We do not want know at what price this food is made available to us, just complain if the price rises following the introduction of better welfare standards for the fish and that that is making it too expensive and out of consideration for those on below average incomes.

It takes as few as eleven lice to kill a juvenile salmon. The problem is they are attacked as they wait at the mouths of rivers for the perfect conditions to begin their swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Large numbers now never make it. We lost vast numbers of river salmon in the North if England due to industrial pollution. After a Herculean effort to clean up the rivers, they are slowly coming back. I never thought I would see salmon back in our local river in my lifetime, but they are here. They, and sea trout, grayling and brown trout, are major indicators of the health of our rivers. We must do all we can to protect them.

It is fish farming in general , not just salmon farming which has real problems. If I buy salmon I usually go for wild salmon, but buying any fish is a huge issue. Tuna is currently really under threat.
One interesting fact that shows how things have changed. In the Middle Ages salmon was caught in huge numbers and was regarded as food for the poor. It is said that apprentices in Newcastle had written into their contracts that they should not be fed salmon more than twice a week!
There is a Greenpeace campaign to change things and protect species by creating areas of protection.
act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action

Salmon farming has always been controversial not just because of disease but their feed is highly questionable.
It is the product of industrial fishing of sand eels and other non edible species, it is these fish that are the main food for sea birds, puffins, gulls and all the others we like to see on our coasts. These “industrial fish” are also a large part of the diet of cod and the other edible fish, so in environmental terms salmon farming is bad news.
It’s well overdue to have a sensible fisheries policy but there are far to many vested interests, not to mention national interests for that to be achieved.