Fish for beginners

[contadina]

Just so you are aware - there are justifiable concerns about farmed salmon. For a start there's the ethical one. If you've seen wild salmon you should be appalled at them being kept in cages. Aquaculture basically treats fish in the same way as battery chickens. Farming salmon in such a way means their proximity leads to outbreaks of parasites and diseases which are easily transferred to passing wild fish. Unsurprisingly the use of, antibiotics and pesticides is still widespread in fish farming.

Farmed salmon are fed smaller fish from the ocean - kind of defeats the object if you are depleting ocean stock, leaving less for wild salmon and other fish and humans to feed on.

Fecal waste, excess feed and feed additives from millions of captive fish goes directly into the ocean. In addition, the toxic chemicals used on the net cages and other wastes are polluting the ocean. In the Great Food Gamble by John Humprys tells how he was denied access to visit any salmon farms off Scotland so scuba dived to a site where one was once sited - the damage to the sea bed was irreversible.

Farmed salmon have been found to contain harmful PCB's to such an extent that scientists have advised limiting your intake to just one serving every five months.

[Odsox]

Farmed salmon have been found to contain harmful PCB's to such an extent that scientists have advised limiting your intake to just one serving every five months.

Surely that depends on the location of the fish farm. PCBs must be present in the water for the salmon to ingest them which implies that the fish tested came from an industrialised estuary.
That's tarring the whole salmon farming industry with the same brush.

[contadina]

The farmed salmon industry have made their very own sick sea bed to lie in. Millions of fish — raised in close confinement, eating an unvaried artificial diet, and constantly exposed to their own wastes — mean inevitable exposure to harmful chemicals. The increased carcinogens are thought to come from the addition of food dyes which are added to farmed salmon to make them the same salmon pink colour as those in the wild. These are not just my thoughts - they were first voiced by the World Health Organization.

[Graye]

Can I just throw in my absolute favourite salmon recipe?

I started eating some types of fish a few years ago after nearly 30 years being a "proper" vegetarian. This is the dish which "turned" me, prepared by a friend who hadn't really thought through what vegetarian means. I´ve never really progressed beyond salmon, tuna etc but am certainly glad that I ate that first dish rather than offend my friend. Fortunately I never was a vegetarian for ethical reasons!

Take two large fillet "chunks" of salmon (I use these rather than the cross section type slice with the backbone etc, mainly because I'm a wimp about encountering any little bones, it would probably work just as well though). Take a large doubled piece of foil, lay the salmon in the middle, douse with equal amounts of olive oil and lemon juice, lay some fresh fennel sprigs across the top with a couple of slices of lemon and lots of fresh-milled pepper, fold the edges of the foil over to make a sealed parcel and bake in a medium oven for about 40 minutes. You should use a fair amount of oil and lemon juice, the salmon needs to be sitting in a small pool on the foil once you are ready to seal the package.
Served with new potatoes and green beans. I can´t remember a failure with this method and everyone I've cooked it for becomes a convert too.

[Rod in Japan]

Graye, my missus does something similar but with mushrooms, finely sliced carrot and cheese instead of the lemon and fennel. Very good it is too. My sister in London also did a version using pie crust instead of foil, and that was fall on your face delicious. (I'm glad there are women around to make fish palatable...)

[Annpan]

Just so you are aware - there are justifiable concerns about farmed salmon. For a start there's the ethical one. If you've seen wild salmon you should be appalled at them being kept in cages. Aquaculture basically treats fish in the same way as battery chickens. Farming salmon in such a way means their proximity leads to outbreaks of parasites and diseases which are easily transferred to passing wild fish. Unsurprisingly the use of, antibiotics and pesticides is still widespread in fish farming.

Farmed salmon are fed smaller fish from the ocean - kind of defeats the object if you are depleting ocean stock, leaving less for wild salmon and other fish and humans to feed on.

Fecal waste, excess feed and feed additives from millions of captive fish goes directly into the ocean. In addition, the toxic chemicals used on the net cages and other wastes are polluting the ocean. In the Great Food Gamble by John Humprys tells how he was denied access to visit any salmon farms off Scotland so scuba dived to a site where one was once sited - the damage to the sea bed was irreversible.

Farmed salmon have been found to contain harmful PCB's to such an extent that scientists have advised limiting your intake to just one serving every five months.

Contadina, would you mind if I passed these comments on to my contact in fish farming? They are actually the marine biologist who is employed as government requirement to ensure that the company isn't causing damage to the surrounding environment (paid by the company but answers to the government)

I am sure they could give me some facts on it.



Rod in Japan, ehmmm not sure my darling husband would be keen on that

[Odsox]

That would be interesting Annpan, if you do please post the comments here.
I have relations and friends who work in the mussel industry here. "Farmed" mussels growing on ropes suspended in the bays around the coast.
Mussels and farmed salmon go together well as one creatures waste is another creatures food, as so often happens in the natural world.

[contadina]

Not at all AnnPan. Although I'm not sure how much faith I have in government advisors employed by the fish farming industry. Way too cosy for my liking. The Scottish Executive and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency have both declared toxic algal blooms a natural occurrence despite the fact there had been only one recorded instance prior to the late 80’s and the expansion of fish farming in the West Highlands and Islands of a toxic algal bloom in the area - and this was in Argyllshire, close to where a fish farm dumped untreated waste into the sea. Since then they have become an annual occurrence.

On the subject of mussel farming unlike salmon, they are sedentary. Once they have seeded, all they do is cling on and suck seawater. The act of farming is really just a case of providing somewhere for them to cling and suck until they can be harvested. I don't think anyone has a problem with this rather ancient form of fish farming. Wouldn't want to eat any which had been sucking in the waste from a salmon farm though.

[Millymollymandy]

How do you know if you are eating farmed salmon though? Ours is always labelled by the country of origin but that's all.

[old tree man]

The colour of the flesh is a big give away farmed salmon is a really red/pink colour but natural salmon is far less coloured as it has not been fed on rubbish and the taste is far superior, its one of my favourite suppers.

Russ

[contadina]

By law, all salmon sold should clearly say whether it is farmed or wild and its origin. If this information is not supplied don't buy it and report the retailer. If it doesn't say wild then it will most certainly be farmed.

[Millymollymandy]

Ours usually says in the supermarket promo magazines either Norwegian or Atlantic - I have never thought to look at any small print before on packets of smoked salmon, and stuff on the fresh fish counter just says the name of the fish and the price! Which of course is usually so exorbitant that I can't afford the stuff anyway.

[contadina]

I didn't twig you were in France TripleM, and I don't know if labeling, aside from origin is required there. It's the same here in Italy and we've never bought any as it looks farmed. Concerns over the safety and environmental damage caused by farmed fishing lead to labeling laws being passed in the UK and North America.

[MKG]

How to tell farmed from wild salmon - the wild salmon will be ten times the price of farmed.

If you think the price is reasonable, it's farmed fish. If it looks arm-and leggish, it's wild.

The argument also applies to sea bass.

Of course, there's always the post-price test. If you taste it and wonder what all the fuss was about, it's farmed.

[contadina]

It's the same as buying battery farmed chickens. Similar to the two for a fiver chickens, farmed salmon is cheaper than the wild stuff but it has been raised in a cruel and unnatural way, it doesn't taste as good and there are knock-on human health questions.