A good reason NOT to listen to Fabien Cousteau

No doubt the man is nice to look at, but does that mean he actually knows what he’s talking about. Well, when it comes to aquaculture, apparently he’s a fish out of water (that will be the last pun, we promise).

In a recent article, called “9 Reasons to Listen to Fabien Cousteau“, he preaches about a number of things from DDT in Orca whales to plastic piles in the ocean. But then, predictably, he veers off into the typical “farm-raised salmon bad, wild salmon good” rant.

He says it takes 12 pounds of forage fish (anchovies etc) to produce one pound of farm-raised salmon. WTF? Even the most slanted estimate has the ratio at about 3:1 – but 12:1? His grandfather must be rolling in his grave. He must know that the same forage fish (which has been fished sustainably for decades by the way) is also fed to chickens, pigs, dogs, cats and other aquaculture species such as trout and shrimp. None of the fore-mentioned consumers are as efficient as salmon. Current diets have salmon converting forage fish to marketable salmon at about 1.7:1. So why does he only pick on one consumer of forage fish?

He then goes on to recommend the Seafood Watch as a good source of what not to eat and what is good to eat. Wouldn’t ya know it, the Seafood Watch recommends staying away from farm-raised salmon and, of course, gives Alaskan “wild” salmon the green light. So, does the fact that 1 in 3 Alaska salmon are cultured by man and consume more (per capita) forage fish than farm-raised salmon factor into this…

Of course it doesn’t, why would facts get in the way of a good, emotional, politically motivated, de-marketing campaign?

Dear Fabien, just a reminder of what your grandaddy said a few years ago;

“We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about – farming replacing hunting”.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997)

Need we say any more?