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[...While there is growing consensus about an impending underwater crisis, there is less agreement regarding what to do about it – particularly as it concerns the behavior of consumers, whose appetite for seafood seems to be growing with each passing year.

Americans ate a record 16.3 pounds of fish and shellfish per person in 2003, up from 15.6 pounds in 2002, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, say ocean activists, these seafood lovers will also have to learn to be stewards of the seas' bounty – or risk seeing their favorite fish disappear forever...]

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this website - Seafood Watch - gives the clearest picture i've found of what not to buy, and why. click on view the online cards to see a great list, and you can specify seafood availability according to your region, altho canada isn't there.

download wallet-size cards that rank fish species according to whether consumers should purchase them or not - here

i will be asking my chef if the yellowfin tuna we promote is longline caught, or troll/pole-caught (better). if you are in a position to influence your grocer, or local restaurateurs (sp?), or employers, this is valuable.

There is some good news there and some bad, from my point of view. I didn't know how sea scallops were commercially collected (dredging, which is probably not good) -- how disappointing. I luv scallops.

I knew about the salmon, though, and I've always liked haddock better than cod anyway, not that I ever see haddock in Toronto. Does anyone else?

[ 09 December 2004: Message edited by: skdadl ]

Tilapia are very popular around here as the (East and South-East) Asian groceries sell them whole and a lof of Asian and Caribbean folks - and others - buy them - they are very cheap there.

The Monterrey Bay aquarium site gives them a green light: http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=27

Fish and seafood are the only dead animal protein I really crave ...

[ 09 December 2004: Message edited by: lagatta ]

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Originally posted by dokidoki:
I notice a lot of the "best choice" options at that 2nd site are farmed. I thought farmed fish was supposed to have worse environmental and health consequences than caught fish, and I've been avoiding because of that. They seem to think freshwater fish farming in OK though... so that makes my choices a bit harder. Was the anti-aquaculture thing overhyped or is this site just watering down (pun not intended) their stance to make it practical?

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quote:

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What's unfortunate is that this site is far from complete. I looked up the Walleye (Pickerel) and found no listing. That's something I'd like to know about, since it's one of the tastiest kinds of fish.

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Here in Ontario, I've seen little booklets published by the Ontario government that give you advice on what freshwater fish you should and shouldn't eat. It all depends on what lake or river the fish was caught in.

I used to see them in beer and LCBO outlets.

What I've heard about salmon is that most Atlantic salmon is farmed and therefore all the potential hazards associated with that.

As for Pacific salmon what I've heard is that the canned stuff is mostly wild and therefore okay. The salmon steaks though tend to be farmed. The label should say "Pacific wild salmon".

In general though the thing to stay away from is any predator fish and that includes tuna. The higher they are on the food chain the more concentrated the environmental nasty stuff gets.

That's of course setting aside the issue of whether a particular fish species is endangered.

[ 11 December 2004: Message edited by: radiorahim ]

quote:

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Originally posted by radiorahim:

...What I've heard about salmon is that most Atlantic salmon is farmed and therefore all the potential hazards associated with that.

As for Pacific salmon what I've heard is that the canned stuff is mostly wild and therefore okay. The salmon steaks though tend to be farmed. The label should say "Pacific wild salmon"...

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also in response to dokidoki's query about framed(sp)/farmed fish:

when i lived in sooke, i could see a nativeindian-run farmed-fish compound in the harbour from my window. apparantly it was well-run, from what i was told, but that they had been warned repeatedly to observe best farming practices. what i know about it (not much - heresay) is that farmed fish are good in that they preserve the wild-fish habitat/species from extinction. where they falter is when there are so many piled on top of one-another that the excrement has nowhere to go except ingested or coating the middle-to-lower fish. the same goes for chicken farms where layers upon layers of (genetically mutated) birds shit all over one-another. it's sickening, really.

furthur to this, reading about yushchenko's revealed poisoning this week, cbc had a few links about dioxin on their webpages. holy crap! fish are no longer a part of my diet!! i'm disappoined with my milk and cow intake, too. must search for alternate sources of protein. i hear fried soy beans are good. can't eat tofu (maybe will have to force myself - tough for an aspiring chef to rule out 90% of food.) i digress...

here's a link about dioxin, and a blurb:

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How are we exposed to dioxin?
The major sources of dioxin are in our diet. Since dioxin is fat-soluble, it bioaccumulates (bolded by me for emphasis) -- climbing up the food chain and it is mainly (97.5%) found in meat and dairy products (beef, dairy products, milk, chicken, pork, fish and eggs in that order... see chart below). In fish alone, these toxins bioaccumulate up the food chain so that dioxin levels in fish are 100,000 times that of the surrounding environment. (again by me) The best way to avoid dioxin exposure is to reduce or eliminate your consumption of meat and dairy products by adopting a vegan diet. According to a May 2001 study of dioxin in foods, "The category with the lowest [dioxin] level was a simulated vegan diet, with 0.09 ppt.... Blood dioxin levels in pure vegans have also been found to be very low in comparison with the general population, indicating a lower contribution of these foods to human dioxin body burden."
In EPA's dioxin report, they refer to dioxin as hydrophobic (water-fearing) and lipophilic (fat-loving). This means that dioxin, when it settles on water bodies, will rapidly accumulate in fish rather than remain in the water. The same goes for other wildlife. Dioxin works its way to the top of the food chain.

Men have no ways to get rid of dioxin other than letting it break down according to its chemical half-lives. Women, on the other hand, have two ways which it can exit their bodies:

*It crosses the placenta... into the growing infant;
*It is present in the fatty breast milk, which is also a route of exposure which doses the infant, making breast-feeding for non-vegan/vegetarian mothers quite hazardous.

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so dioxin carries itself UP the food chain, and is hydrophobic. fish are most susceptable in their environments. and women can reduce the amount of dioxin in their bodies by having children. how's that for a scary thought?

the reason we have to go vegan (the recommendation) is because we can't find protein in animals that isn't infected in ever increasing percentages. eg. we buy a free-range grass-eating cow from our local farm. but next door is a waste incinerator. the grass is infected with dioxins, the cow is infected, its offspring concentrated with infected dioxins...

my dilemma with food now is: our wheat in pasta comes from non-cdn-gov't-regulated genetically mutated strains, grown with agrium poisonous fertilizers detrimental to the land; milk and butter from cows...; fish poisoned from lead, mercury, and dioxins from industrial waste; farming and fish-capturing methodes bringing bystander/byswimmer species to the brink of extinction...

how long before the only food we can trust is synthetic, manufactured and wrapped in mylar, "just add water"?

oh - to be back in the days when woody allen eating an illegal fried egg in "sleeper" for fear of the chloresterol police was funny.

Ottawa under fire over toxin in salmon
Drug rules changed, green group accuses Chemical used to fight sea lice in fish farms

AMY CARMICHAEL
CANADIAN PRESS

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VANCOUVER—An environmental group is accusing Health Canada of changing the rules to allow salmon farms to use a controversial drug to fight sea lice.

The Raincoast Conservation Society said it has obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act showing that Health Canada has allowed fish farms to treat 170 million salmon with a drug called Slice since 1999.

Fish containing the drug residue had been banned from human consumption, but the agency recently hiked the allowable limit to 50 parts per billion from zero.

The active ingredient in Slice is emamectin benzoate, a known neurotoxin listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as highly toxic.

The aquaculture industry has been using it to fight off sea lice that can crop up around fish farms, including sites off Vancouver Island and the Broughton Archipelago.

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency wrote to Health Canada and said it was consistently finding Slice residue in farmed salmon and that it was prepared to halt shipment of the product," Raincoast said.

"Health Canada decided to change the regulations to allow a level of 50 parts per billion."

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the decal said: Heritage Salmon - Fresh Cultured Atlantic Salmon.

i smiled inwardly that "farmed" has now been changed to "cultured". after the supplier left, i asked my chef - my restaurant DOES NOT carry farmed salmon, it was only a box used by the supplier. but i've got him thinking now, and altho i'm new, he knows that his menu will have to be accountable to my scrutiny. 8O) i'll next try to ascertain whether the yellowfin tuna is pole-caught, as opposed to longline or purse seine.

on the heritage website (sales propoganda all of it - how good it is for you and Omega 3's [huh???] - nothing about farming practices or effects to the environment) they have this to say about their communities and their environmental goals in the company profile: "Heritage Salmon has committed to responsibly manage all aspects of its business to meet or exceed recognized environmental, health and safety standards and legal requirements."

recongnized environmental, health and safety standards. hmmm. but when i click on their what's new page, to check on the canada inspected information link - a two page pdf file takes forever to load and finalizes with nothing...2 blank pages. hmmm again.

apparantly the heart and stroke foundation offers their support as well through health check: "this product meets specific nutrient criteria based on Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating."

quite simply - i'm doubting our nation's health and safety standards, and the responsible food guide. you know the one: milk, cheese, beef, bread, poultry and eggs are part of a balanced diet. more likely the food standard is based on big business. maybe i'm being cynical here...but until our government follows european suit and starts to label our genetically modified products as a first step towards responsible product information, i won't trust the canadian culture of food and big agri-business.

here are the conservation notes from that monterey bay aquarium website:

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The U.S. market is flooded with inexpensive farmed salmon from Chile, Canada and Norway. Salmon is also farmed to a limited extent in the United States. Raising salmon in net pens releases fish waste into the water and can spread disease and parasites to wild salmon. Also, domesticated Atlantic salmon that escape from farms in the Atlantic can breed with and compete for precious natural resources with endangered native wild salmon. These environmental concerns have led some sectors of the aquaculture industry to improve farming practices. Progress has been made at reducing the amount of waste generated per pound of fish, decreasing the use of antibiotics and pesticides, and building stronger pens to prevent escapes. Despite these improvements, the environmental impact of salmon farming is still increasing, because production of farmed salmon has risen more than 400% in the last decade. In the market, there is currently no way to tell which salmon are coming from more-sustainable farms.

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here is a copy of the letter i sent to heritage salmon. below that will be their first response.

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hello heritage salmon:

please alert your webmaster that the canada inspected link on the what’s new page loads a two page pdf document of blankness. and even that takes forever.

http://www.heritageaquaculture.com/canadainspected.pdf

I have been looking over your website for information relating to cultured fish practices. I found nothing. I can safely say that without responsible reportage of all facets of farming atlantic salmon, or scientific links on your website towards that end, that I will recommend not carrying heritage salmon product in my restaurant.

please reply if you can provide me with details as to why I should carry heritage salmon product. do not refer me to your website – it has no pertinent information other than to say it is health food compliant. as I’ve said – the canada inspected link does not work. these inspection body standards provided, on their own, do not suffice regarding the problems inherent with farmed salmon. you’ll need to convince me that your product is responsible in order for me to serve it to my discerning clientelle.

yours, maybe…

(my name)

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their reply:

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Thank you for inquiring about Heritage Salmon, where we grow and market premium farm raised Atlantic Salmon.

My apologies for such a long delay in downloading the information you were looking for. We are in the process of switching servers, which will make your searching much easier. For your convenience, I have attached a copy of the link.

It is apparent that you have been made aware of the negative press farm raised salmon has been receiving - most of which is either not true or blown way out of proportion. I welcome the opportunity to combat these issues with the information I have to defend ourselves. As for your concerns about farm raised salmon, please advise as to which issues you are concerned about, and I will be able to provide you with the information you require.

Regards,

Shannon Patterson
Marketing Coordinator
Heritage Salmon

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“There is a great deal of misinformation out there and consumers need facts from credible sources to make choices that are good for them and for their families.”

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by the way - Heritage Salmon is a wholly owned subsidiary of canadian George Weston Ltd.

quote:

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George Weston Limited (“Weston”) is a Canadian public company founded in 1882 and is one of North America’s largest food processing and distribution companies. Weston has three reportable operating segments: Weston Foods, Food Distribution and Fisheries. The Weston Foods segment is primarily engaged in the baking and dairy industries within North America. The Food Distribution segment, which is operated by Loblaw Companies Limited, the largest food distributor in Canada, concentrates on food retailing while increasing its offering of non-food products and services. The Fisheries segment is primarily engaged in the hatching, growing and processing of fresh farmed salmon in North America and Chile.

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Ms. Patterson

Thank you for the explanation of why your link was not responding, and, again, thank you for the attached document to said link.

If it is apparent to you that I have been made aware of the negative press about farmed salmon, it is equally apparent that your position decries this press as fried bologna. It is also apparent to me that you are prepared for the task of defending you company’s position.

As far as providing you the opportunity to “(combat the issues) of the negative press farm-raised salmon has been receiving - most of which is either not true or blown way out of proportion”, I too would like to discuss the “misinformation” of which your press release contends. Your company must have that data available, and must be reading the same “misinformation” that I and others in the public domain have available. Let me say, that I am not “out to get you”, simply, I just want to ensure that I continue to provide the best product available on the market to my clientele, and if I must choose wild Pacific salmon over Atlantic farmed salmon, at whatever their respective intrinsic value, I will do so for my conscience and reputation. Public consensus and perception are everything in the hospitality industry.

But, before we “combat”, now that you have provided me with the “Canada Inspected” document, could you explain to me, specifically, the following phrases from that document:

1) the “strict standards” of the Canada Inspected logo,
2) the “high standards set by the CFIA”, and
3) “Health Canada’s recent risk assessment”.

I quote from your document, and I agree with the statement:
“There is a great deal of misinformation out there and consumers need facts from credible sources to make choices that are good for them and for their families.”

I think a good starting point in our correspondance would be to address these questions first, since personal or company opinion wouldn’t get in the way of discussing the facts and data that these organizations will provide, the rules that they must follow.

By “specifically”, I hope that you will be able to provide scientific documentation with regard to the standards with which you comply, the levels of foreign substances (non-natural) allowed under these strict guidelines, and what risks that Health Canada has had to assess in your field of manufacturing.

Yours Expectantly,

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quote:

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Originally posted by unmaladroit:
i'm doubting our nation's health and safety standards, and the responsible food guide. you know the one: milk, cheese, beef, bread, poultry and eggs are part of a balanced diet. more likely the food standard is based on big business. maybe i'm being cynical here...but until our government follows european suit and starts to label our genetically modified products as a first step towards responsible product information, i won't trust the canadian culture of food and big agri-business.

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Unmaladroit, what have you heard about GMO'd Salmon in Canada ?. It sounds like an American company is all set to start feeding Yanks some kind of Franken-salmon that has a growth hormone gene permanantly switched to the "on" position. Yikes.

GreenPeace for GE free seas

[ 15 December 2004: Message edited by: Fidel ]

I worked as an 'Observer' for the Department of Fisheries for a few year. This job entailed going out to sea on fishing boats, while they were fishing. Over three years I spent about 400 days at sea, and had a firsthand view of the sheer volume of fishing going on out there, as well as the overal approach we take to the ocean.

In that time, my view of the fisheries changed dramatically. In the beginning, I saw my job as helping to enforce rationally developed quotas, based on scientific evidence. About a year in, I realized that until 1996, we had no scientific evidence on which to base the quotas.

The average 'tow' of a trawler holds about 2000 lbs. of fish, though they can include up to 100,000 lbs if the fishermen are lucky. In the best cases, 80% of the fish are 'marketable' and retained. In the worst, 10%. Since the fish have been dragged up from depth (as deep as 6000 feet in some cases) they are dead, keepers or not. Anything not marketable goes over the side, to make room for marketable fish.

More to the point, no 'tow' is entirely one species, except in the case of two species which are caught 'midwater'. 'Red snapper' is actualy a catch-all term for about 40 species, which are distributed in varying (and unknown) patterns across the ocean floor. We have absolutely no idea of the roles or relationships between these disparate species. We don't know when or where they spawn, we don't kow their life cycles, we don't know what their tolerances for harvesting are. All we know is that they taste good, and sell well in stores. Some are over 100 years old, and 12 inches long. Others are 10 years old, and 60 lbs.

Many of the tows contain coral, ripped up from the sea floor. This is particularly the case off the southern end of the Queen Charlottes (Haida Gwai). Some of the deeper tows contain things none of us (other than fishermen) have seen before. All of this stuff is dead when we see it.

Longlines, while less destructive than trawling, have their own problems. One, they are equally non-discriminatory in what they catch - turtles, birds, and other fish often go for the bait, and then drown. Again, we have no idea of the life cycles of most of these fish, or anything else about them.

Halibut, Hake (Pacific Whiting) and Salmon are three of the most studied species of fish in the world. And we know almost nothing about them, aside from some of ther patterns (i.e. spawning up a river).

Fish farming in saltwater has many of its own problems, which more than ensure that I will never eat a farmed fish. All Atlantic salmon is farmed, you cannot buy a wild Atlantic in the store in Canada. There are some Pacific salmon farms, and one organic self-contained farm that I would buy from, if I could afford it. However, there are some forms of inland fish farming that have been going on for millenia, and I see no problem in eating them (eels, tilapia, carp in Central Europe).

After my 3 years at sea, I came to the conclusion that we simply have to stop eating fish that is caught wild, at least until we get a grip on what is going on out there. Human demand for 'healthy' seafood is driving the oceans to the point of collapse, and our technology for catching fish far outstrips our knowledge of the impacts we are having.

There are some kinds of seafood I happily eat, however.
1. Wild fish caught recreationally, by me. This happens rarely.
2. Shellfish (with the exception of abalone, of course). Oysters and mussels are particularly fine, because they expand to fill any gaps in their ecosystem - harvest them and others will replace them. Farmed Oysters are harmless as far as I can tell (most Oysters in stores are farmed).
3. Crab - like shellfish, they spawn by the zillion, and replace their populations well.
4. Freshwater fish, caught by me. Not often, again.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fidel:

Unmaladroit, what have you heard about GMO'd Salmon in Canada ?. It sounds like an American company is all set to start feeding Yanks some kind of Franken-salmon that has a growth hormone gene permanantly switched to the "on" position. Yikes.

GreenPeace for GE free seas

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fidel - i know alot more now that i have read that article. thanks! altho i don't suspect heritage means genetically modified...yet...they are in the business of creating from scratch:

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Heritage controls all aspects of salmon culture. We select the finest quality salmon for our brood stock program, to produce superior eggs, which are then nurtured in freshwater hatcheries until they become smolts. Only the best smolts are transferred to ocean pens, where they reach market weight and are harvested on demand

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i've gone over the heritage website again to find the quote i saw yesterday, but they have updated the server, as mentioned in the letter i received. their former quote was far less flowery than the one above. they've also added a "Pure and Simple!" creed all over the site. somehow it reminds me of "Fair and Balanced".

also - "trace-ability" - with regards to genetically modified salmon making their way into the ocean...impossible. it sounds like alot of damage control is in effect, with heritage all over these reports of gm products and "food scares", "misinformation", the bse scare, "regaining customer confidence and their competitive edge", "the impact of widely disputed studies that have affected the perception of the health and safety of farmed salmon", and the leftwing propoganda that is out to destroy their market share. (Ms. Patterson: "It is apparent that you have been made aware of the negative press farm raised salmon has been receiving - most of which is either not true or blown way out of proportion.")

the Canada Inspected page makes reference to "...based on Health Canada's recent risk assessment, farmed salmon does not pose a health risk to consumers." this is the same Health Canada that has "decided to change the regulations to allow a level of 50 parts per billion" emamectin benzoate - a known neurotoxin listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as highly toxic, and the active ingredient in Slice (see Amy Carmichael CP TO Star blurb posted furthur above).

the page also refers to CEO of Western FeedLots Ltd David Plett. WFL are in the business, amongst other things, of genetically engineered beef. (i call them "'steered"):
Are GM Foods Safe?

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Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency share responsibility for the safety of products from agricultural genetic modification . Health Canada evaluates the safety of foods, while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency looks at the potential effects of animal feed and animal health products on the environment, and on safety of the feed for livestock . No genetically modified organism is sold in Canada until it satisfies these government regulations.

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also...the Canada Inspected page on heritage salmon refers to Dr. John Webb, director of genetics and science for Maple Leaf Foods.c "genetics". Maple Leaf is in agribusiness with Elite Swine Inc - genetics and swine marketing.

this is hardly the documentation that heritage should be providing as scientific research for healthy food choices, relying on their testimony and the "strict standards" of the CFIA and Health Canada to debunk all that dastardly negative "out-to-get-us" leftwing propoganda.

the greenpeace flash didn't work - here's the video page, click on Dangers of GM Fish - View the Animation. although, beware, it's taking forever to load.

this quote from the linked article you provided...

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A/F Protein has manipulated the GE Atlantic Salmon with an additional gene for growth hormone production and an anti-freeze gene promoter sequence. As a result, instead of only growing during the summer months, the GE salmon grows all year around developing two to three times faster than a normal salmon.

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quote:

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Heritage Salmon is dedicated to delivering fresh, great-tasting, premium quality Atlantic salmon 52 weeks per year. Look for Heritage Salmon - Pure and Simple!

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The best place to find answers to your questions, is to access the Gov't web sites directly. They do a great job of underlying the concerns you have:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/fispoi/product/prode.shtml - CFIA Canadian Food Inspection Agency

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/cs-ipc/fr-ra/e_pbde_fish.html - Health Canada

I have also attached a copy of the press release issued by Health Canada in regards to the issues you have.

I hope this proves helpful.

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i'm not surprised that i have been deflected. i have responded indicating i will continue my research and will contact her with direct questions pertaining to the practices of Heritage Salmon.

edited to add link to fisheries and oceans press release provided by ms. patterson

[ 16 December 2004: Message edited by: unmaladroit ]

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PEI’s debate is especially important now, as the biotechnology industry pushes ahead with genetically engineered crops and animals at break-neck speed. Ottawa will soon consider GE fish for commercialization. AquaBounty has announced its plans to submit an application for the commercial release of their "AquAdvantage" salmon in the near future. The company is developing salmon genetically engineered with a growth hormone to induce rapid growth traits. AquaBounty’s fish farming facilities are based in PEI.

"Knowing that Ottawa has never turned down an application for the commercial release of a GE product, we’d be fools to wait on Ottawa to stop this GE fish nightmare," says Broderick. "A ban on all GE products is our only guarantee against GE salmon."

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