Farmed salmon has raised concern among consumers

Fresh wild salmon is a beautiful seasonal delicacy, but these days more than half of the salmon eaten in the United States is farmed. Even within the farmed varieties, there are many different tastes, and all kinds of aquaculture systems in place.

What has worried consumers in recent years are reports that farmed salmon are being given antibiotics, that the fish are eating other fish with contaminants, and that salmon are being fed color-enhancing pigments to turn the flesh its characteristic pink. Becky Goldburg, senior scientist at Environmental Defense in New York, says that there have been a lot of improvements in salmon aquaculture, but many still need to be made. "There is no easy answer on farmed salmon," she says. "Some fish are better than others but there is still no single source that's low in contaminants and ecologically benign."

Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, whose group represents Atlantic farms, thinks that raised salmon in Maine and Eastern Canada may come pretty close. "We have some of the cleanest fish and strictest regulations in the world," he says. "Everything is available for public scrutiny. In places like Chile you would never be able to find out what's really going on."
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