Aug 19, 2024

Fish: The Farmed v. Wild Debate

Many of us are trying to eat more fish these days. It's often seen as a healthy choice, and it tends to be better for the environment than beef, pork, or even chicken.

But should you buy farmed fish or wild fish? What's better for your health, the animals, and the planet?

This can get quite complicated, so let's break down the basics to help you make informed choices at the supermarket.

Farmed Fish

Health Concerns

Farmed fish are often treated with antibiotics and pesticides because, like other farmed animals, they live in close quarters, which increases the risk of infection and parasite infestations. These chemicals can harm your health.

Genetic modification is another concern with farmed fish. Fish are often modified to make them grow faster, become sterile (to prevent them from breeding if they escape into the wild), resist infections, tolerate colder temperatures, or maximise nutrient use.

While many of these modifications likely pose little risk to humans, they have not been extensively studied. Many people feel uncomfortable eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs) without assurance of safety.

There are also concerns about whether GMO fish have the same nutrient density as non-GMO fish. Altering an animal's genetics could impact its nutritional value in ways we don't fully understand. To avoid these issues, opt for organic farmed fish.

Health Benefits of Farmed Fish

Farmed fish generally have higher omega-3 content than wild fish, partly due to their diet and because they move less. Farming fish in closed environments allows for monitoring contaminants, keeping them out. The ocean is highly polluted, making this a significant concern with wild fish.

Governments enforce strict regulations in fish farming. Both enclosures and fish are routinely inspected and tested for safety.

Environmental Concerns

Fish farming methods vary, with the two primary approaches being open-net cage farming and closed systems.

Open-net cage farming, the method that worries environmentalists, involves raising salmon from eggs in cages set in the ocean. Farmed fish often differ significantly from wild fish. When these fish escape, which happens frequently, they can outcompete wild fish for food and space. If not sterile, they can breed with wild fish, and if they're GMOs, they might pass on their genetic modifications, altering the natural gene pool.

Additionally, because these cages are in the ocean, any chemicals (like antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides) used can spread into the surrounding ocean, potentially harming other marine life. For example, pesticides used against parasites like sea lice can kill crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs, and shrimp, affecting the ecosystem and other seafood industries.

Diseases and parasites prevalent in densely populated fish farms can be disastrous for the environment and wildlife if they spread. Moreover, fish farmers sometimes shoot seals, sea lions, and other wildlife to protect their stock. These animals can also get caught in nets, leading to injury or death.

Feeding farmed fish also impacts the environment. Wild fish are often caught and turned into feed, primarily sourced from the Southern Hemisphere, depleting food sources for poorer nations. It can take up to 5 kg of feed to produce just 1 kg of farmed fish.

Fish Farming Responsibly

Closed off fish farms do not affect the ocean ecosystem, because there is no possibility of fish escaping and no possibility of contaminating the water with antibiotics and other chemicals. If you are trying to choose your fish with the environment in mind, this is definitely the better option as far as farmed fish goes.

This doesn't mean that there aren't reasons to be cautious.

Fish raised in closed environments are often treated with antibiotics, hormones and pesticides just like those in open-net cages. They don't affect the ecosystem, which is a plus, but they can still affect your health when you eat the fish.

Dyed Fish?

You may be aware of the fact that fish farmers often use artificial colouring to make their salmon look pink, the way wild salmon does.

Many people argue that this practice is deceiving and that it puts harmful chemicals or dyes into the fish and thus, onto our plates.

In the wild, salmon get their pink flesh from the crustaceans that they feed on. Farmed fish usually have whitish-grey flesh. By feeding them synthetic astaxanthin (the chemical in crustaceans that makes them pink) farmed fish develop a pinkish hue.

Pink flesh, after all, is what people expect to see in salmon. Fish farmers maintain that there is nothing harmful in the synthetic astaxanthin, and compare it to synthetic vitamins being used in human supplements when the real thing is not available. Natural astaxanthin is safe and even has some health benefits. Unfortunately, no studies have been done to test the safety of synthetic astaxanthin.

If this concerns you, you may want to avoid farmed salmon.

Wild Fish

Health Pros and Cons

Sadly, the ocean is not very clean. Fish from the sea are exposed to environmental pollutants like plastics, petrochemicals, antibiotics, and pesticides. However, wild fish are not deliberately treated with chemicals and are naturally pink.

Wild fish have fewer calories per serving and more minerals than farmed fish, although they contain less vitamin C and fat. Fish fat (omega-3) is beneficial for heart and brain health.

Health and the environment aren't the only factors when making decisions about food, of course. The way food tastes is obviously high on everyone's list too.

SparkPeople.com reports on why a lot of people like wild fish more: “Many people prefer the taste of wild fish. Farmed fish do not have as much room to move as their wild counterparts, which reduces the amount of muscle they can develop and affects texture and taste.”

The impacts of wild fishing

Overfishing is a significant issue, with many fish species driven to extinction by human fishing practices. Although restrictions have slowed this, numerous endangered species are still caught and sold worldwide.

There is not an unlimited supply of fish in the oceans. Plus, when you overfish one species, there are consequences for the entire ecosystem. The World Wildlife Foundation expands on that idea: "More than 85 percent of the world's fisheries have been pushed to or beyond their biological limits and are in need of strict management plans to restore them. Several important commercial fish populations (such as Atlantic bluefin tuna) have declined to the point where their survival as a species is threatened. Target fishing of top predators, such as tuna and groupers, is changing marine communities, which lead to an abundance of smaller marine species, such as sardines and anchovies."

Even fish and other wildlife that are not sought out by fishing industries may be at risk or endangered because of fishing practices that are used to catch other species. Fishing with certain kinds of nets, for instance, often entangles other animals. This is referred to as bycatch.

Bottom trawling, as well as poison and explosive fishing are all extremely destructive practices that have major impacts on the world's oceans and the animals that live in them. Hook and line is a much more responsible approach.

Knowing which fish are at risk and which practices are being used to catch the fish you eat can go a long way toward making your choices sustainable ones.

It's not an easy choice

It's true. Making a commitment to choosing fish that is both good for your health and good for the environment is not easy. Once you've decided which factors are most important to you, you can start narrowing things down.

Remember, that what's true for one species of fish when it comes to farmed vs. wild, may not be true for another species. You really need to know the specifics of where and how each individual type of fish was raised or caught.

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