Seafood Watch - Seafood Report: Farmed Salmon, Atlantic

0,88

MB

salmon (Salmo salar)

56

stron

6612

ID

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

2004

rok

Executive Summary

Salmon are an important component of the global aquaculture industry, and are farmed worldwide.

Farmed salmon available in the U.S. seafood market are primarily Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

imported from Chile and Canada; a smaller amount of Atlantic salmon is raised domestically.

Environmental concerns over salmon farming primarily stem from the fact that farmed salmon are

raised in marine net pens, where they are in direct contact with the surrounding marine environment.

As a consequence of being farmed in open systems, farmed salmon can escape during storms

and routine handling events. There is a growing body of evidence that when salmon farmed within

their native range escape they can interbreed with wild conspecific salmon and reduce the fitness

of endangered wild salmon stocks. Risk also exists that escaped farmed salmon may become

reproductive and establish populations in areas in which they are not native, such as the Pacific.