Farmed Salmon Purchasing Policy

What It Means for Consumers

Posted: 13-Mar-2006; Updated: 13-Mar-2006

How will the farmed salmon produced under this policy differ from conventionally farmed salmon? How will suppliers change their farming operations?

In a nutshell, the policy includes standards that require producers to reduce ecological harm to wild fish and other marine life, cut waste and chemical pollution and meet a stringent standard for the healthfulness of their product.  Significantly, this salmon should not cost much more than conventionally farmed salmon.

Here’s a summary of the changes. (You can also look at the more technical, full version of the policy.)

• Salmon will meet a stringent health standard for levels of contaminants like PCBs.
  

  Studies show that some farmed salmon is higher than wild-caught salmon in cancer-causing dioxins and PCBs, which accumulate up the food chain. (Find out more about safe consumption levels and advisories for many kinds of fish).

• Farming methods will use fewer wild fish to produce farmed salmon.
  

  Conventional salmon farming consumes large amounts of small, oily fish, like menhaden and sardines. It normally takes two to three pounds of wild fish to raise one pound of farmed salmon. These fish, known as forage fish, are vital links in the marine food chain. They are eaten not only by larger fish but also by marine mammals, birds, other wildlife and even humans, in some parts of the world.

  Menhaden, for example, are a primary source of food for striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, Spanish mackerel, seals and whales, and are favored by seabirds like loons and ospreys. In conventional farming, forage fish are caught, then made into fish meal and oil that are fed to farmed salmon as well as other animals. 

  This use of wild forage fish can deprive larger fish of a critical food supply and ripple up the food chain that sustains both humans and wildlife. Salmon farms can dramatically curtail the wasteful use of forage fish by using fish processing byproducts (i.e. fish parts now discarded as waste) as well as using vegetable products for feed.

  The amount of wild fish used to produce salmon under these standards must remain at or below one and a half pounds of wild fish for one pound of salmon and suppliers must continue to work to reduce this ratio. Fish meal and oil must come only from well-managed fisheries and, as much as possible, from byproducts of fish processed for humans.

• Unprecedented steps will be taken to reduce and mitigate the impact of any escaped fish.
  

  Salmon that escape from farms can threaten local wild salmon populations. Farmed fish can interbreed with natives and make them less genetically adapted to survive in the wild. Escaped farmed fish can also spread diseases to native stocks and compete with them for food.

  Under the new standards, suppliers must not have had any major escapes for at least five years and will be held accountable for any escapes that do occur. Farms that supply Wegmans and Bon Appetit are required to immediately report escapes and to mark all fish so that the supplier can easily be identified in the event of an escape.

  Suppliers will also minimize the harm done by escaped fish by stocking all-female fish (which lowers the risk of escaped fish breeding) and not using any genetically modified salmon. 

• Drug use will be minimized or eliminated. 
  

  A variety of drugs are typically used in salmon farming. Some of these drugs are administered in open water and can accumulate in marine life (farmed and wild alike). In addition, the regular use of antibiotics in salmon farming can contribute to the spread of resistant bacteria that infect fish and humans. Under the standards, use of antibiotics and other drugs is tightly controlled and must be regularly reported. 

• Suppliers must reduce disease and sea lice and other parasites on an ongoing basis, and regularly report disease and parasite rates. 
  

  In addition to reducing disease and parasite rates on their farms, the standards require that suppliers take precautions to protect wild salmon from sea lice infestation by not operating in wild salmon migration routes where sea lice are a documented concern.

• Innovative measures will reduce water pollution.
  

  Typical salmon farming operations pollute coastal waters. Open net pens allow uneaten feed and fish waste to pass through. These can contribute to harmful algal blooms and other water quality problems. Moreover, cages are often treated with chemicals that can leach into surrounding waters and harm marine life.  

  The standards require that innovative systems be put into place to collect or recycle waste. One way to recycle waste is to integrate the farming of fish with filter-feeders like mussels that naturally cleanse water. The standards require suppliers to reduce the total amount of waste and pollution discharged per pound of salmon by a third from current levels. In addition, new production systems must be used that have zero discharges of metals and chemicals.

• Damage to sea floor habitat beneath salmon farms will be reduced.
  

  Wastes accumulate beneath net pens and can significantly alter the marine ecosystem in those areas. Under these standards, salmon suppliers must continuously reduce impacts on the sea floor,  and regularly report on seafloor habitat conditions beneath and around their facilities. 

• No killing or routine harassment of wildlife is permitted.
  

  In conventional farming, seals, sea lions, birds and other wildlife are often harassed or killed to discourage them from feeding on farmed salmon.

  Under the standards, wildlife cannot be killed or routinely harassed.  Exceptions to this rule can be made only when it is absolutely necessary to disentangle or euthanize a seriously injured animal, or when human safety is involved, such as when a seal cannot be removed from a pen without endangering workers.

  Purchasing Preference

  Bon Appétit and Wegmans are committed to further reducing or eliminating ecological harm to the environment from the farmed salmon industry. The policy includes a purchasing preference providing that a producer will receive preference if it can supply high-quality fish at reasonable cost and surpass the standards described above.

  This provides an incentive for salmon producers to develop innovative ways to dramatically lessen damage to the marine ecosystem – for example, closed containment floating tank systems that would replace the floating open-water net cages used now.  

  Implementation and Compliance

  An independent third party must regularly report on suppliers’ performance under the standards. Suppliers must meet at least five of the standards initially, including the health standard. Suppliers then have one year to put into place the operational changes needed to meet the remaining standards.  With a couple of specified exceptions, they have two years to show full compliance with the standards. This timeline reflects the two year production cycle for farmed salmon.  The policy will be updated as needed and guided by new scientific knowledge.