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Anyone who made it through Biology 101 knows that fish have nerves and brains that sense pain, just like all other animals. Scientists tell us that fish nervous systems closely resemble our own, even including neurotransmitters like endorphins that relieve suffering – of course, the only reason for a nervous system to produce pain killers is to relieve pain.

Studies show that fish can learn to avoid pain as well. From one researcher, “Pain avoidance in fish doesn’t seem to be a reflex response, rather one that is learned, remembered and is changed according to different circumstances.” Scientists have even shown that fish feel emotional stress and “engage in a rocking motion strikingly similar to the kind of motion seen in stressed mammals.”

Whether they are farmed or fished from the ocean, what happens to fish before they end up on your plate is nothing short of animal cruelty.

Wild Fish

Overfishing

There is no doubt about it, we are overfishing our oceans and are dangerously close to eliminating many fish species.

Remember the cod, seemingly infinite in number and fished for centuries in North America? Well, the fishery collapsed in 1992 due to rapacious factory fishing and short-sightedness. The number of cod today is around one percent of what it was in the 1960s and in 2000, cod were placed on the endangered species list. Even with the North American cod fishing ban, the cod numbers are still struggling and it is unknown if the population will ever recover.

Similarly, the west-coast salmon fishery failed in 2008. The Atlantic bluefin tuna has been reduced to about 15% of pre-industrial numbers. In 2006, it was reported that 30% of the world’s fisheries had collapsed, with catches falling below 10% of the original yield. It is predicted that the remaining commercial fish species will be exhausted by mid-century, meaning no more wild fish, at all.

Mis-labeling (intentionally)

Given the dwindling supplies, consumers are now being fed a ‘bait & switch.’ Many packaged, frozen, and fast food fish are mis-labeled, substituting fish that were once considered garbage fish (like hoki), which are more abundant in numbers (for now),  for the species you think you’re getting. The FDA recently determined that 37% of fish and 13% of other seafood was mislabeled! As much as 77% of so-called red snapper is anything but.

The FDA has established guidelines for fish labeling, but thanks to industry lobbying, there are plenty of exemptions. This has led to some surreal mislabeling: Importers started selling Vietnamese catfish under the brand name Cajun Delight. The rock crab, once a garbage catch, was reborn as the peekytoe crab. The channel catfish has become the southern trout, dolphinfish is now mahi mahi, the Patagonian toothfish is now the Chilean sea bass, the Malabar blood snapper is now the scarlet snapper, and the fish known now as orange roughy used to be called the slimehead.

These less desirable fish now even finding their way into fancy restaurants because increasingly, that’s all that’s left.  So, why not switch to farmed fish, where the population is bred and sustained?  Unfortunately, farmed fish is even worse!

Farmed Fish

Health Effects

Just as with land animals, disease and parasites run rampant in densely packed fish feedlots. To combat these ailments, fish are vaccinated when young, then are continuously given antibiotics or pesticides to ward off infections. Sea lice, in particular, are a major problem. At the first sign of a sea-lice outbreak, pesticide is added to the feed.

Studies have found that farm-raised salmon contain more cancer-causing PCBs and dioxins than wild ones, typically originating in their feed. In some cases, the levels of contaminants are so high that by EPA guidelines, you shouldn’t even have one serving a month! (It’s more like one serving every 5 months in the case of some farmed salmon.) Researchers estimate that the risk of cancer from contaminants is about 3 times higher for farmed salmon compared to wild.

The Salmofan

In the wild, salmon absorb carotenoids from eating pink krill. On an aquafarm, their rich pink hue is supplied by canthaxanthin, a synthetic, manufactured pigment. Fish farmers can even choose what shade of pink their fish will display from the manufacturer’s trademarked SalmoFan, a color swatch similar to those you’d find at a paint store. Without this synthetic coloring, the flesh of farmed salmon would be a pale halibut gray. Canthaxanthin is linked to retinal damage in people who use it as a sunless tanning pill, leading Britain to ban its use, but of course it’s still available in the US.

Even the good stuff in farmed salmon comes with problems. Yes, farmed salmon contain more oil, including heart-friendly omega-3, but that also includes a much higher percentage of the not-so-healthy omega-6 (up to twice as much in some farmed fish).  Farm raised fish are also fattier, not surprisingly since they circle lazily in crowded pens and fatten up on fish chow. Cultivated catfish contain nearly 5 times the amount of fat as their wild counterparts.

Environmental Effects

Fish farming is extremely rough on the environment, too. Fish farmed in open pen nets are now about 50% of the world’s source of fish (hatchery fish are about 30% and wild fish are the remaining 20%).

Open-net fish farm

Fish hatchery

Aquafarms (often called “floating pig farms”) put a terrific strain on their surrounding environments. Uneaten feed and and waste blankets the sea floor beneath these farms, creating a breeding ground for bacteria that consume oxygen vital to shellfish and other bottom-dwelling creatures. A good sized fish farm produces the same amount of excrement as a city of 10,000 people.

The additives to the food pellets (pesticides, antibiotics, artificial coloring) drift into the ocean and pollute the natural food chain. Toxic copper sulfate, used to keep the nets algae free also drifts into the surrounding water. This pesticide and antibiotic buildup in the water has resulted in the development of resistant strains of bacteria and infections that can effect not only the farm-raised fish, but now the wild fish as well. Research shows that sea lice from fish farms kills up to 95% of juvenile wild salmon that migrate past an aquafarm.

And perhaps the most serious concern is the problem fish farms were meant to alleviate: the depletion of marine life from over-fishing. Salmon farming actually increases the depletion of marine life because, unlike vegetarian catfish which thrive on grains, captive salmon are carnivores and must be fed fish during the 2-3 year period when they are raised. To produce 1 lb of farmed salmon, 2.4 – 5 lbs of wild sardines, anchovies, mackerel, herring, and other fish must be ground up and rendered into pellets of salmon chow.  Farming fish creates a problematic redistribution of protein in the food system. Removing such immense amounts of small prey fish from an ecosystem can significantly upset its balance. This simply can not be sustained.

Other reported environmental impacts include seabirds ensnared in netting, sea lions shot for preying on penned fish, and escaped farmed fish (about 1 million salmon have escaped through holes in nets from storm-wrecked farms) competing with wild ones for food, mating, and spawning grounds. The interbreeding of wild and farm stocks poses the threat of diluting the wild gene pool. Biologists fear that Atlantic salmon invaders will out-compete Pacific salmon and trout for food and territory. An Atlantic salmon takeover could knock nature’s balance out of whack and turn a healthy, diverse marine habitat into one dominated by a single invasive species. (Not to mention the repercussions of the genetically modified “frankenfish” escaping into the wild!)

What To Do

Obviously, the best option for everyone involved is to refrain from consuming fish. This will not only help to preserve our precious aquatic ecosystem, but will also keep you free from the carcinogens found in farmed fish.

However, if you simply must eat fish (and I do not in any way advocate this, but I feel it is better to provide the information than to allow you to continue blindly consuming unhealthy and environmentally detrimental fish), then choose line-caught Alaskan fish. The healthiest populations and habitats exist in Alaska. In fact, due to the successful efforts of conserving and protecting wild salmon habitats, the Alaskan Salmon Fishery recently received the Marine Stewardship Council’s label for sustainability. The Marine Stewardship Council’s labels are intended to guide customers to species that are not being over-harvested. (But remember, those fish did, without a doubt, feel pain.)

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Breakfast: Smoothie with banana and pear
Lunch: Indonesian peanut noodles from Noodles & Co.
Dinner: Taco salad

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