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?

If an animal is on the ‘endangered’ list, do scientists ever recommend that we eat the animal at risk? Of course not. How stupid would that be – well, read on!

Randy Hartnell, lobbyist for anything fishy and Alaskan, recently admitted that “the planet’s wild fisheries are under great pressure right now and our oceans are in trouble.” Now, he probably should have stopped talking at that point because his next comment kinda exposes the fact that he is in the business of selling wild fish;

What did you say Randy?

…”the truth is that to save wild salmon…we have to choose to eat them.” 

Randy – wtf?  Did you fall asleep during that important ecology class that explained when a species is at risk, the last thing you should do is kill it and eat it? 

So, both the state of California and Oregon have shut down their salmon fishery, but Randy is still puts his pocket book in front of the survival of salmon. Nice Randy, real nice.

True to this blogs mandate, we’ve uncovered another lovely quote, this time compliments of the spin doctors at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

“No shortage of Wild Salmon in Alaska” (April 22, 2008)

We really hate to ruin their party up there in Kodiak country, but we think that beauty of a quote deserves a little more information:

1. The term ‘wild’ is false – up to 50% of ‘wild’ salmon in Alaska have been hatched in a plastic tray, fed pellets and then released from captivity to mix with real naturally wild salmon.
2. Of course there’s plenty of salmon in Alaska – Alaska releases about two billion (yeah, billion-not to be confused with the word million) cultured salmon into Pacific waters every year. By cultured, we mean hatchery raised, pellet fed, vaccinated little salmon.  Heck, they probably have names!  

It’s just as well the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has an annual budget of 50 million dollars – this might help fight a few lawsuits being filed for false advertising.

To read the full press release, click here.