You may have noticed that salmon dishes are becoming less common on local menus. There’s been increasing awareness of the ecological harm being done by Atlantic salmon farms in Tasmania, as more information comes to light about how these industrial farms are polluting waterways in Tasmania and putting vulnerable marine species at risk.
Advocacy group Neighbours of Fish Farms (NOFF) is calling for Australians to take farmed salmon off the table.
For years, Scotland’s salmon industry has sold an image of cold, clean seas and “responsibly farmed” fish. Behind that marketing, regulators have been sitting on welfare inspection reports detailing mass mortalities, gruesome failures and shocking conditions on farms linked to supermarket favourites Co‑op and Marks & Spencer.
In a little more than 50 years, the population of wild North Atlantic salmon has plummeted by 75%. Today, it is estimated that fewer than 60,000 exist in and around Iceland. Unless we do something soon, we may be condemning what Icelandic environmentalist and wild fish advocate Orri Vigfússon has called the “king of fish” to extinction.
The rejection of salmon farms from the Beagle Channel to Buenos Aires, with a banner displaying the message “No to Salmon Farms in the Argentine Sea” surprised passersby this week in front of the Norwegian Embassy in Buenos Aires.