Now to decide just what else to serve....

I was shocked at the price. 7.99lb. Good Deal!

Jim

I'm jealous

I don't think the same principles apply to seafood raised in warm water ponds such as shrimp, catfish and tilapia. I could be wrong.

Jim

Jim - I use Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood watch program as my guide. Sounds like there are some, but not all, farmed sources to consider but one can't know where they sell so for now they recommend to avoid all farmed stuff. I'd like to be convinced otherwise! My BIL's sister is in the industry, he says that she won't touch farmed salmon. Got any questions I can run by her?

Tilapia: I don't eat Chinese tilapia (irks me to pick up a bag of 'American Seafood' frozen tilapia, small print on the back 'Made in China') - report also on the linked site. I once made a half hearted attempt to find USA tilapia, I think its time I tried again. Chinese tilapia: now I know why DH and others complain that its 'muddy'! Ack!

As a conservationist and recreational fisherman, I am sympathetic to preservation of fish stocks. I have seen the striped bass virtually disappear from Cape Cod waters and then, fortunately, make an astounding comeback. I could relate many stories like that one, some with less fortunate outcomes. But that is a different issue from food safety.

One of the few scientific studies I could find comparing wild to farmed salmon found parasites in every one of the sampled wild fish and none in the farmed fish. Other studies, looking for toxins such as PCBs, found insignificant differences at the parts per billion level between wild and farmed.

Atlantic salmon is raised in large pens which are constantly flushed with tons of cold sea water. The ocean is large. Waste products are quickly diluted, unlike ponds where the same water is recirculated again and again. The salmon are fed a carefully formulated diet, just as farm animals are. Farmed salmon are not exposed to parasites as wild fish are in foraging for food. BTW, wild fish do not become infected with parasites from penned fish as is suggested by the Monterey Bay site. The penned fish have no parasites.

An issue has been made about substances used color the flesh of the fish. The substances used are carotinoids, the same as used in chicken feed to give the chicken a nice color and the same as occur in fruits and vegetables. This issue makes me recall the days when dairy farmers in some states were able to have yellow color prohibited from use in margarine, making the pale stuff less appealing. Ironically, commercial butter often gets an assist from carotene too.

I frequently make gravlox, using farmed Atlantic salmon. That way I can chow down inexpensively on a very tasty treat. I would not use wild salmon for this. Nor would I use wild salmon for sushi. Wild salmon is not suitable for raw eating unless is is first frozen to subzero temperatures to kill parasites.

This long post barely scratches the surface or the wild vs. farmed salmon controversy. There are many issues. For example, I suspect that the availability of farmed salmon takes fishing pressure off the wild stocks. Doesn't that make sense?

Unless I hear something convincing, I'll continue to enjoy lots of farmed salmon.

Jim

PS: But I'm still avoiding farm raised salmon, off shore shrimp, Atlantic sole (flounder) and the dreaded tilapia! But give me fresh lake perch, pike, pickerel...I think you call it Walleye...and send me to heaven.

I can't tell you how warm and welcoming your post is. Thank you. Here's to many more.

Jim

Meantime, my BIL wrote back to me...

'Jessica is right. Farmed salmon worldwide have significantly higher levels of PCBs, dioxins, dieldrin, and toxaphene than wild salmon. So much so that salmon from some locales triggered consumption recommendations of 1/2 to 1 meal per month. The contaminants are (largely) in the feed, not the water.

This was reported in 'Science' in 2004 and several subsequent studies have reported similar results. Generally, farmed salmon from Europe is more contaminated than farmed salmon from North and South America. The most contaminated samples coming from Scotland.

Further, Consumer Reports found that in a sample of 23 store bought 'wild' salmon packages, only 10 (or was it 13) were actually wild. The rest were mislabeled farmed salmon.

Tilapia in China is often raised in water contaminated with municipal waste water (heavy metals, pesticides, and industrial waste). I don't have the studies at hand that reported this, but they're out there. Viet Nam raised tilapia, I believe was the least contaminated.

If your interested in this, google it. The science is there.'