Farmed Salmon - good or bad?

[Francesca]

Mod Edit: Please note that this and the following few posts have been moved from another thread to start a new topic:

@morning glory

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Are you able to get fresh salmon or is it pre-frozen. Wild caught or farm raised?

I quit using farm raised when I heard that Bayer had introduced GMO salmon. I can find wild caught. It has usually been flash frozen then defrosted for sale. Every now and then I find fresh, wild caught salmon at Whole Foods. Expensive. The process used in flash freezing does not seem to compromise either the texture or the flavor. Like you I do not purchase the entire side. So for the folks at Whole Foods have been willing to cut out the center portion for me - if they do not already have center pieces in the cooler.

I make crispy skin salmon that George salivates over.

@ElizabethB

I do not touch farm raised fish .. It is gross period ..

I either buy wild at my fish Monger or when my dad, grand fathers, and sons take out the boat, someone drives down the catch ..

We also have distributors for foreign wild .. But most of our fish is from Cataluna, Spain, Portugal, the Marseille región of the Mediterranean which we fish, and Brittany, France (Blue lobsters from Saint Malo ) ..

 

[Francesca]

@morning glory

Lovely plating and wonderful photography.

To each his or her own on fish farmed fish ! Whatever one wishes .. It is all buyable ..

I do not ..

@ElizabethB & @morning glory

I do not eat industrialised foods, Gmos or Transgenetic food, or farmed fish or shellfish amongst other maladies of modern times.

I question every Chef, General Manager, Vintner etcetra as to their protocol on these matters.

Since all Michelin Starred Chefs & Chefs in general are dead set against these practices, and are fighting back by boycotting these poisons.

No one knows what these salmons were fed, as in Gmos and anti-biodtics ..

 

[ElizabethB]

@Francesca

You are fortunate to have a wide variety of wild caught fish and seafood at your disposal. I am able to source lots of wonderful fresh, wild caught seafood. Not all species flourish in our warm Gulf waters or the lakes where we fish. Salmon is a good example. So are other cold water delicacies - Main lobster, clams, mussels, scallops, Dungeness crab, Halibut, the list goes on. We both love salmon. In the past I have purchased farm raised. No longer. GMO salmon are being pushed into the farm raised market. I now pay a premium for wild caught.

Not every one can limit their dining to Michelin Star restaurants. We do dine at nice restaurants. Salmon is the one dish that I question before ordering - farm raised or wild caught? Most of our favorite restaurants are "farm to table", locally sourced - no salmon or other cold water seafood. OK with me. We have an abundance of wonderful warm water seafood available.

My country is so large that only those living near the coast have the luxury of fresh, wild caught seafood. Those living in the interior are limited to either farm raised or flash frozen wild caught. When we travel I avoid ordering seafood unless it is wild caught, fresh water trout or other fresh water fish that are caught locally. Call it snobbery if you wish - I do not eat Cajun food outside of south central LA.

Sorry - I ramble. My point is that none of us can be judgmental or critical. In a perfect world everyone would have access to fresh, wild caught seafood. Unfortunately that is not the case. Even if wild caught is available if it not indigenous the price can be prohibitive - salmon is now a special occasion dish for us.

There are places and times when the "Ideal" can not be met. Does that mean that people living away from a coast should be denied seafood?

 

[Francesca]

@ElizabethB

Unfortunately, the Gmo issues have gone too far due to uncountable government officials who take these Bayer Monsanto pay offs under the table and legally permit this drugging of our planet land or sea with their poisons .. However, it is not being stopped either .. The few presidents off top of think tank who have said, no to date is the Russian President, Putin .. The Michelin Star Chefs boycott these products as do a wide majority of Culinary insiders and top hotels etcetra .. Rural villages in the Mediterranean tend to eat very much as their ancestors and many grow their own food on their tiny plots of land .. All is made from scratch practically. There are zones of Spain where Bayer - Monsanto is totally prohibited ( Mallorca and the Canary Islands and The Basque Country for example ) .. All the products are marked or labelled clearly and specifically including eggs ..

I am aware that many inland or in the interiors of countries pay alot more for fish & shellfish than coastal dwellers especially in the Usa.

Well, I do not eat Paella when I travel outside of Spain as you do not eat Louisiana specialties outside of Louisiana ..

Salmon is expensive now due to the small amounts available, wild or farm fed .. The extensive penchant for fish has grown and the demand is enormous but the product needs to spawn as in salmon or créate their eggs ..

Fishermen fish up the waters ! And the Japanese are the largest group of fishermen and thus, it is very competitive to obtain wild salmon ..

Any way, have a lovely evening and have a marvelous holiday ahead .. Though we do eat at Michelin restaurants on special occasions we cannot afford to eat in one on a daily basis !!!

 

[Morning Glory]

In the UK stocks of wild salmon in the Atlantic are seriously depleted partly due to over-fishing so it is better to use farmed unless the salmon is caught in a certified well stocked river - that is the advice of the Marine Conservation Society.

 

[Elawin]

In the UK stocks of wild salmon in the Atlantic are seriously depleted partly due to over-fishing so it is better to use farmed unless the salmon is caught in a certified well stocked river - that is the advice of the Marine Conservation Society.

The MCS has a very good article on farmed fish on their website, which also explains the differences in farming in other places in the world (https://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/fisheries/Farmed_Fish.pdf). It's a shame that overfishing by other EU countries has depleted our stocks, but at least our salmon are not genetically modified unlike in other places in the world.

 

[Morning Glory]

The MCS has a very good article on farmed fish on their website, which also explains the differences in farming in other places in the world (https://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/fisheries/Farmed_Fish.pdf). It's a shame that overfishing by other EU countries has depleted our stocks, but at least our salmon are not genetically modified unlike in other places in the world.

Yes. It does seem that the main issue with our farmed salmon in the UK is sea louse which is requiring pesticides to control. There is an interesting article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/01/is-farming-salmon-bad-for-the-environment
It seems, the answer may be to site the farms further out at at sea where the louse can't survive and/or to introduce a natural predator such as wrasse.

 

[Elawin]

Yes. It does seem that the main issue with our farmed salmon in the UK is sea louse which is requiring pesticides to control. There is an interesting article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/01/is-farming-salmon-bad-for-the-environment
It seems, the answer may be to site the farms further out at at sea where the louse can't survive and/or to introduce a natural predator such as wrasse.

We luckily never saw any lice when we used to keep fish, but the most effective treatment for lice was organophosphates, which was/is illegal in the UK as a fish disease treatment and difficult to administer in a non-enclosed area. One fish farmer we knew used to keep trout and koi together in huge lakes and never had any problems. A lot of marine enthusiasts keep smaller species of wrasse in the aquarium. Unfortunately it only takes one infected fish to create havoc.

 

[epicuric]

@ElizabethB & @morning glory

I do not eat industrialised foods, Gmos or Transgenetic food, or farmed fish or shellfish amongst other maladies of modern times.

I question every Chef, General Manager, Vintner etcetra as to their protocol on these matters.

Since all Michelin Starred Chefs & Chefs in general are dead set against these practices, and are fighting back by boycotting these poisons.

No one knows what these salmons were fed, as in Gmos and anti-biodtics ..

Whilst I agree with you totally @Francesca, I am starting to wonder about fish. A recent MSC survey revealed that a third of all fish caught off our coast contains plastic, ingested from waste polluting the world's oceans. I am not sure what effects this is going to have on the fishing industry, or fish consumption in general. There is certainly no short term solution. I'm not sure what proportion of farmed salmon is produced in coastal waters (as in polluted seawater), as opposed to inland waters, but it might present an acceptable alternative.

 

[Francesca]

@epicuric,

In the southern waters of the Mediterranean (Marseille ) and northern Costa Brava, they have teams of fishermen and laymen alike, who are cleaning up the debris, plastic, cans or tins, amongst other garbage .. They have a variety of skilled divers and top technological "towers" or tow trucks which run on sea, more or less which pick up the "rubbish or machines which are driven to collect the garbage dumped by imbéciles and have a huge straining device or fine netting. It is also being done in India and other parts of Asia ..

It is quite an amazing support effort to clean the beaches too .. especially in the Calanques of Marseille and here in Costa Brava too ..

Must run, it is lunch time here ( 14.00 ) and we are in Madrid on vacation, and off to lunch ..


Have a nice day.

 

[Elawin]

Whilst I agree with you totally @Francesca, I am starting to wonder about fish. A recent MSC survey revealed that a third of all fish caught off our coast contains plastic, ingested from waste polluting the world's oceans. I am not sure what effects this is going to have on the fishing industry, or fish consumption in general. There is certainly no short term solution. I'm not sure what proportion of farmed salmon is produced in coastal waters (as in polluted seawater), as opposed to inland waters, but it might present an acceptable alternative.

One of my nephews used to go sea fishing, but he got put off by some of the awful things they found in the fish when they gutted them, but even inland fish are not immune. There are times when I'm glad I can't eat it.

 

[classic33]

@epicuric,

In the southern waters of the Mediterranean (Marseille ) and northern Costa Brava, they have teams of fishermen and laymen alike, who are cleaning up the debris, plastic, cans or tins, amongst other garbage .. They have a variety of skilled divers and top technological "towers" or tow trucks which run on sea, more or less which pick up the "rubbish or machines which are driven to collect the garbage dumped by imbéciles and have a huge straining device or fine netting. It is also being done in India and other parts of Asia ..

It is quite an amazing support effort to clean the beaches too .. especially in the Calanques of Marseille and here in Costa Brava too ..

Must run, it is lunch time here ( 14.00 ) and we are in Madrid on vacation, and off to lunch ..


Have a nice day.

It's the particles of plastic, would require a water filter for removal, that can cause the bigger problem. They are small enough to have neutral bouyancy that they can be eaten as they sink. But then they lay on the sea bed where bottom feeders "feast" on them.

The larger floating materials can be removed, but do you clean the sea bed?

 

[ElizabethB]

I was not anti-farm raised salmon until the GMO species were introduced. I do use farm raised catfish. The farm raised are cleaner and sweeter than wild caught and no GMO. The majority of our crawfish are farm raised. The farmers get double duty from their acreage - crawfish in season then rice when the crawfish are out of season. Smart. BTW - the crawfish or not fed. The ponds are "seeded" with crawfish from last season. They just do their own thing - multiply and grow!

NOTE: If you decide to order crawfish online MAKE SURE to order Louisiana crawfish. China has flooded the market with crawfish. A very sub standard product with no regulations on handling and processing. Also very detrimental to our local industry. Thanks.

 

[epicuric]

It's the particles of plastic, would require a water filter for removal, that can cause the bigger problem. They are small enough to have neutral bouyancy that they can be eaten as they sink. But then they lay on the sea bed where bottom feeders "feast" on them.

The larger floating materials can be removed, but do you clean the sea bed?

More importantly, the smaller organisms that ingest the micro plastics then get eaten themselves, so the plastics move up the food chain, ultimately ending up on our plates. It is estimated that unless we reverse our obsession with plastics, there will, by volume, be more plastic in the world's oceans than fish by 2050.
In 1950 global production of plastics stood at around 5m tons. Now we produce around 400m tons annually, and about 40% of that is for single use food packaging. The bulk of this does not get recycled and ends up in the eco system. Food for thought when filling your shopping trolley.