“Lost” salmon, eh? (Sorry, that’s a little Canadian humor – or is it ‘humour’?).

I think we were supposed to turn left...
The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, today announced that there will be a judicial inquiry into the disappearance of about 10 million sockeye salmon that were supposed to show up this summer to the Fraser River. The Fraser River runs right threw the little town known as Vancouver, British Columbia – hey, Mr. Harper, you might want to start your inquiry there.
But many people have many fingers to point. Some suggest native fishermen illegally fishing, others suggest warming river temperatures. The list continues; over-fishing, pollution, habitat destruction, lack of food sources, flooding, urbanization, new predators (squid), salmon farms, fertilizer run-off, salmon ranching…yes, salmon ranching.
Dr. Craig Orr, biologist at Watershed Watch, today suggested that hatchery fish may have eaten the ocean dry – someones been reading this blog, huh Mr. Orr? Well, you may be on to something Craig, because 5 billion hatchery salmon are released from Alaska, Russia and Asia to compete for food with wild salmon. These hatchery fished were happily feeding in the Bering Sea before those Canadian sockeye had even shown their fishy passports at customs.
But before all the finger pointing gets put under oath, you may want to answer the most important question – Lost? Were they ever there in the first place?
Categories: Salmon Ranching 101
Tagged: Alaska salmon ranching, British Columbia, Bruce Cohen, canadian government, canadian sockeye, case of the missing salmon, craig orr, Dr. Craig Orr, federal government, fishermen, fraser river sockeye, fraser river sockeye salmon, habitat destruction, honourable Bruce Cohen, house of commons, illegal fishing, judge Bruce Cohen, judicial inquiry, lost salmon, missing salmon, ndp, peter julian, prime minister, sport fishing, stephen harper, stockwell day, vancouver, warming water temperatures, watershed watch, wild alaska salmon
Discharging fish waste from a fish processing plant without a permit: we’re pretty sure that’s not a good thing, but good to see regulators taking action.
An Alaska processing plant may be fined $177,500 by the U.S.

Illegal dumping
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Announced November 3rd, 2009, the Chilkoot Fish & Caviar plant has allegedly repeatedly violated its permit over the past four years and could face a penalty of $177,550, the maximum civil penalty allowed under the Clean Water Act.
“Fish processing waste, especially from shore-based facilities, can cause serious harm to the marine environment in the surrounding area,” said Edward Kowalski, EPA’s Director of Compliance and Enforcement in Seattle.
Fish wastes are the unused portions of the processed fish. Fish processing waste from the Chilkoot plant runs into Lutak Inlet. Lutak Inlet is a tributary of Lynn Canal.
Read the full release here.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: alaska, salmon ranching, alaska salmon, Alaska department of fish and game, seattle, sockeye salmon, chilkoot fish and Caviar, Chilkoot fish & caviar plant, clean water act, $177, 550, EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, ed kowalski, edward kowalski, Director of compliance and enforcement, alaska fish processing plant, fish waste, processing waste, lutak inlet, lynn canal, alaska caviar, illegal discharge, illegal discharge of processing waste
Well, well, well. We won’t take any credit here (well, maybe a bit), but it does seem that the information provided on this blog is catching on, quicker than we thought. Today, Canadian journalist Tom Fletcher has released an article in over 70 newspapers which describes the clever (and quite possibly illegal) marketing of U.S. salmon. This is good and echoes many statements made in this blog. You can view the entire article here, but in the meantime, here are some highlights;
If you go to the grocery store and buy a can of sockeye salmon right now, chances are it will say “product of U.S.A.” on the label.The can I’m holding was sold as a house brand at a large B.C. supermarket chain. The label states the ingredients – sockeye salmon and salt – along with Canada’s mandatory nutrition facts chart. It doesn’t specify that it’s from Alaska, which it likely is, but it does have a logo that says “wild Pacific salmon,” which is, to say the least, debatable.
With some B.C. sockeye runs in an apparent state of collapse, our commercial and even aboriginal food fisheries banned this year, Alaska and Washington state fisheries are relatively strong. The reason for this is the U.S. practice of salmon ‘ranching,’ where billions of salmon fry are raised in tanks, fed pellets until they’re big enough and then released to sea.
Ranched Pacific salmon don’t just flood the whole West Coast habitat, they interbreed freely with wild stocks. The Americans ranch chum, pink and Chinook as well as sockeye. As a result, Koenings testified in a Seattle court Oct. 23, all but four of Puget Sound’s watersheds are now dominated by hatchery fish. He warned that if the state focuses strictly on access work now, they will soon dominate the rest and the state’s wild salmon will be gone.
As I described last week, none of this is discussed in B.C. political circles. Here it’s all about the alleged evils of fish farms. Why? According to research brought to my attention last week, one reason is a staggeringly big negative marketing campaign financed by U.S. private foundations to discredit farmed salmon as a food source.
Former Kitimat resident Vivian Krause has assembled a heavily documented critique of the campaign, which has flooded North American media with exaggerated warnings, first about PCBs in farmed salmon, and now about the hazards of sea lice.
In the past two years, Krause has pestered two of B.C.’s environmental demigods, David Suzuki and Alexandra Morton, to detail the extent of the funding their foundations have accepted to take part in a “demarketing” campaign that demonizes fish farms and coincidentally benefits Alaska and Washington interests.
She documents that the David Suzuki Foundation has received more than $10 million from these U.S. sources.
Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_central/nanaimonewsbulletin/opinion/68866257.html
Categories: Media Watch
Tagged: False Advertising, ocean ranching, alaska seafood marketing institute, wild alaska salmon, ranching salmon, slamon, ocean ranching salmon, david suzuki foundation, New York Times, david suzuki, alaska wild salmon, wild salmon from Alaska, Marine Stewardship Council, British Columbia, sockeye salmon, King salmon, vivian krause, Canadian salmon, sustainable salmon, tom fletcher, US interests pulling our strings, US salmon, salmon wars, bc local news, unfair marketing, gerry furney, port mcneill, black press, U.S. foundations, mayor gerry furney, farmed salmon in Alaska, marketing salmon, de-marketing salmon, Washington state, pink salmon, chum salmon, coho salmon, fisheries and oceans canada, Jeffrey Koenings, ranched pacific salmon, puget sound, hatchery fish, kitimat, pcbs in farmed salmon, alexandra morton
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: aquaculture, fish farming, salmon ranching, Monterey bay aquarium, seafood watch, seafood watch program, salmon farming in Alaska, salmon aquaculture, governor schwarzenegger, arnold schwarzenegger, conan the barbarian, AB 1217, Bill AB 1217, Ocean Protection Council, California boycott of Alaska salmon, salmon certification, salmon standards, sustainable salmon, Alaska fish hatcheries, labelling of seafood, new California bill, bill monning, mike sutton, Alison Barratt, california fisheries, california fishery, sustainable seafood
It has long been accepted practice for U.S. philanthropic foundations to support environmental groups who have a hate on for salmon culture.
Let’s ignore for a moment that Alaska is one of the largest salmon culturers in the world.
A new report now clearly shows that there is a strong link between these U.S. Foundations and the Alaska salmon fishery. It’s no secret that Alaska has hated competition from salmon farmers (again, let’s ignore that Alaska farms 1.5 billion salmon each year). But, it is now becoming clearer that Alaska has enjoyed the support of these wealthy foundations to create a “smear” campaign against the competing farmers.
Bruce Lloyd, columnist, writes:
In a nutshell, an American fishing industry organization named ”SeaWeb” has paid in excess of US$8.5 million to co-ordinate a program called “Seafood Choices”
This marketing strategy puts pressure on such stores as Wal-Mart and the like to only sell seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council which is primarily Alaska salmon.
The overblown claims and constant attack on fish farms that we have witnessed here in B.C. has in large part been proof of the veracity of the old adage that “if you say something long enough it becomes fact” to be sure.
Never mind that such “green” organizations – such as the Packard Foundation and others - have drawn monies from this “innocent” industrial fund to pay for “research” that runs contrary to a lot of the peer-reviewed research other organizations have been doing.
Check out the full piece at;
http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/64003957.html
Categories: Salmon Science
Tagged: alaska salmon, Alaska salmon fishery, bruce lloyd, Canadian salmon, echo bay research, farm-raised salmon, living oceans society, Marine Stewardship Council, ocean raised salmon, packard foundation, ranched salmon, salmon culture, Seafood Choices, seafood watch, seaweb, smoking gun, US philanthropic foundations, vivian krause, Wal-mart salmon, wild salmon
A new study supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation takes aim fish farms….again. The study concludes that half of the fish consumed globally is now raised on farms.
It also raises concerns that this may put additional pressures on fish meal and oil fisheries that provide protein to most farmed aquatic species.
This is a valid concern and must require a careful approach to ensure sustainable development of the global aquaculture industry.
But, what we found particularly interesting is the special focus on one farmed species -salmon. One of the authors, Rosamond L. Naylor (Stanford University) claims that it takes “5 pounds of wild fish to produce 1 pound of salmon”.
- First of all, her math is way off (it takes less than 2 pounds to produce 1 pound of salmon, and this ratio continues to improve quickly).
- Secondly, it fails to recognize that salmon farming only utilizes about 10% of the world’s fish meal – the rest is fed to chickens, pigs, cats and dogs at a far less efficient ratio than salmon).
- Thirdly, it fails to mention that fish (salmon included) are the most efficient users of fish meal. Salmon are cold-blooded and don’t waste valuable energy heating their bodies like chickens and your cat Fluffy.
- Finally, and most strikingly, is the apparent (purposeful?) omission of important context…
Salmon isn’t just farmed, it’s also ranched. Ranching salmon utilizes far more fish meal (pound for pound) than farming (ranched salmon consume 100% fish meal whereas farms now utilize less than 20% fish meal in their diet). Japan, Russia and Alaska ranch over 5 billion salmon each year – far more fish than all the salmon farmers produce in the world.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEXT PART:
The main funder of this study, the Packard Foundation, is also the main sponsor of Monterey Bay Aquarium’s SEAfood Watch program. The SEAfood Watch purpotes to base it’s seafood grading system on science and has given all Alaska salmon a green light (eat lots!) and all farmed salmon a red light (do not eat!). According to officials at SEAfood Watch, the #1 reason for the red light to farmed salmon is because of the fish meal consumed.
WTF Ms. Packard? Why do you continue to ignore the fact that Alaska salmon consume more fish meal than farmed salmon? Why do you sponsor paid spokespeople like Ms. Naylor and make them sound so stupid? Do you have to make it that obvious that your Foundation and your SEAfood Watch program is light on science and heavy on politics?
If Ms. Lucile Packard is actually dead, we apologize. Please forward this to her next of kin for us.
Categories: Salmon Science
Tagged: alaska, aquaculture, bristol bay, cats, chickens, david and lucile packard foundation, dogs, farm-raised salmon, farmed salmon, farming salmon, feed ratio, fish farming, fish feed, fish meal, fish oil, green light, japan, lucile packard foundation, Monterey bay aquarium, monterey bay salmon, new study, pigs, prince william sound aquaculture corporation, ranched salmon, ranching salmon, red light, rosamond L. Naylor, rosamond naylor, russia, salmon aquaculture, seafood watch, seafood watch program, stanford university
This is really cool!
Just place your mouse over the fish and watch them follow you. Then click away and drop feed pellets in the water and watch them feed. If you really enjoy this, then you can apply for a job in Alaska – they feed 1.5 billion little salmon fish food pellets every year!
Categories: Salmon Ranching 101 · Uncategorized
Tagged: 1.5 billion salmon, alaska fish and game, alaska fishing, aquaculture, blue revolution, farming salmon in Alaska, feed pellets, feed your salmon, feeding fish on the farm, feeding the fish, fish feed, fish pellets, growing salmon, having a lot of fun, how to farm salmon, how to feed fish, how to feed salmon, protein use, salmon farming, salmon hatcheries in alaska, salmon ranching, salmonids, start your own fish farm, the truth about alaska salmon
Posted by Sean Holman at Public Eye Online:
Last week, (Canadian) federal Liberal parliamentarian Ujjal Dosanjh called for an cross-border conference to address the collapse of the Fraser River’s sockeye (2009) salmon run.
But, in an interview on Public Eye Radio, former (Canadian) fisheries and oceans minister David Anderson said, “If we want successful salmon summits, we have to start bringing in the Russians, the Japanese, the North Koreans and others.” “We have about five billion artificially-raised Pacific salmon going into the ocean from hatcheries from mostly on the Western side – in Russia, Japan, North Korea – on the other side of the ocean,” he explained. “So we don’t know what those artificially-raised fish do to the natural populations of fix they mix with on the other side of the ocean.”
Correct David and well said. By “others“, we assume you’re referring to Alaska. It’s OK, don’t be afraod to say it! Afterall, of the 5 billion ranched salmon, Alaska is responsible for 1.5 billion of the little suckers.
If wealthy U.S. Foundations won’t talk about it, then we’re glad Canadian politicians are!
Categories: Salmon Science
Tagged: alaska hatcheries, alaska wild salmon, artificially raised fish, canadian, david anderson, fishing in Alaska, fraser river sockeye, moore foundation, packard foundation, pew foundation, public eye radio, salmon ranching, salmon summit, sean holman, ujjal dosanjh, where did the salmon go?
The King Salmon (commonly referred to as Chinook) has disappeared from many rivers in Alaska in 2009. No one is sure exactly why, but here are some possibilities, as reported at redorbit.com;
- availability of food
- predator/prey imbalance
- changing river conditions

- changing ocean currents
- plankton blooms
- incidental capture of Kings in pollock trawl nets
Any other ideas? Oh yeah, we’ve got one!
Alaska’s salmon ranching program pumps out billions of salmon (mainly Pink and Chum species)that compete with wild salmon in the ocean for food, but only produces minimal amounts of King salmon. Could ranched salmon, given the head start in a hatchery, be outcompeting wild King salmon for food? It’s seems a little too coincidental that the one species not heavily enhanced is the one not returning at historic levels.
Please welcome the elephant that just entered the room.
Categories: Salmon Science
Tagged: 2009, Alaska department of fish and game, alaska fisheries, alaska fishery management, alaska salmon returns in 2009, alaskan king salmon population disappears, bering sea, chinook fishing in alaska, chinook salmon, dwindling king population, elephant in the room, herman savikko, jack schultheis, King salmon, King salmon disappearing from Alaska, leslie hunter, nick andrew jr., north pacific fishery management council, ohagamuit traditional council, pollock fishery, pollock fishery catches salmon, salmon enhancement, salmon ranching, the king is dead, trawl nets, where have all the King salmon gone?, yukon river
This blog has featured Vital Choice Wild Seafood and Organics a couple of times. We’ve exposed the fact that this company promotes its products by attacking the competition. You know, the ‘ol “only eat wild, don’t eat farmed” rhetoric.
It’s obvious why – by attacking your largest competitor you can sell more of your product. Hey, it’s how politicians get elected and governments are formed!
But, someone the other day challenged us – do you have proof? So, we went looking…it didn’t take us long.
Here’s a quote from their website:
“Vital Choice contributes a portion of its net profits to the Weil Foundation, Raincoast Research Society, the Live Strong Foundation, The Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other causes devoted to improving the health and well being of people and the planet that sustains us.”
So let us explain the significance of three of these “payouts” – and it ain’t because they improve the health of people and planet.
The Weil Foundation: Dr. Andrew Weil (Nutritionist for clients such as Oprah Winfrey) is paid to endorse Vital Choice products. Fair enough. Simply endorsing is one thing BUT this is the guy that appeared on Larry King Live in January of 2004 and pleaded for people to stay away from unhealthy foods which included pop, chips and…..farm-raised salmon. Come on Andrew, can you be any more obvious?
Raincoast Research Society: This Society is being paid by commercial fishing interest groups to attack farm-raised salmon. The latest study produced by this Society claimed up to 95% (the low number in the range was 9%, but no one uses that number!) of out-migrating juvenile salmon were perishing from farm produced sea lice (sea lice are found naturally on wild juvenile salmon by the way). The study was ripped apart by no less than twenty of the world’s leading fisheries scientists as a completely unfounded claim.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium: Ok, these guys produce the Seafood Watch pamphlets. So, MBA gives wild salmon a “green light” (the main product for Vital Choice) while it’s main competitor, farm-raised salmon, gets a “red light”. Vital Choice smiles and hands over the dough. A match made in heaven.
WARNING! All this back scratching is going to leave a mark.
Categories: False Advertising
Tagged: 95% mortality, back scratching, best fishing spot ever, California, commercial fishing, Dr. Andrew Weil, dr. kenneth brooks, farm, farm-raised fish, farm-raised salmon, fish farming, fish farms, fishing in Alaska, green light, healthy foods, improving the health and well being, january 2004, ken brooks, larry king live, latest study, marketing 101, monte, Monterey bay aquarium, nutritionist, oprah winfrey, organics, raincoast research society, randy hartnell, red light, salmon, sea lice, seafo, seafood watch, the monterey bay aquarium, the people, the planet, the smoking gun, Vit, vital, vital choice, Vital Choice Seafoods, Vital Choice Wild Seafoods, wild salmon, wild sockeye salmon