WiLD Blog

A New York Times report on a disease outbreak in the Chilean salmon farms reveals the many hazards that this industry poses to both the environment and the consumer. Feces and feed contaminate the surrounding ocean, disrupting existing fisheries and spreading disease. Some of the non-native Atlantic salmon have escaped, preying on native fish and invading rivers. As Wolfram Heise of the Pumalin Project (a private conservation initiative in Chile) explains, raising fish on an industrial scale simply cannot be done in a sustainable way. 

The FDA says that the current virus presents no risks to consumers. However, various questionable substances likely are and have been making their way to the dinner tables of many Americans. (Safeway and Costco carry salmon from Marine Harvest, the company whose operations have been hardest hit by the virus.) Farmers have responded to previous illness outbreaks (which are linked to the close proximity of pens to one another and the overcrowded, stressed condition of the fish) with antibiotics. Residues of these drugs have been detected in imported Chilean fish.  

Some antibiotics whose use in aquaculture is prohibited in the US, such as flumequine, are still legal in Chile. While the FDA has found no trace of such drugs in fish imports from Chile, oversight is patchy– only 1.93 percent of seafood imports were inspected in 2006, for example. The alarming lack of tracking of antibiotic use in aquaculture in Chile only increases the possibility that dangerous drugs will be used on export fish. Other risky substances include green malachite, used for its fungicidal properties but also a dangerous carcinogen, and the colorant used to give farm-raised fish a natural-looking color, which has been associated with retina problems in humans.

-Thomas Holder