Farmed salmon is safe salmon

Regarding the article in the Jan. 24 edition of Folio: Good fish, bad fish? First an observation on your journalism. I note that Dr. John Volpe had the first and last paragraphs to forward his thesis. As a journalist you must recognize the inherent bias this presents as the first and last paragraphs are the most powerful pieces of any article.

I would agree with one aspect of Dr. Volpe's comments "I (Dr. Volpe) say let the weight of the evidence speak for itself." Consider these facts:

1) Antibiotic use in salmon farming is the lowest of any farmed animal species. Indeed for at least a decade, many crops of farmed salmon have been grown throughout their complete production cycle without ever being given antibiotics.

2) The levels of contaminants such as PCBs and dioxins are so low in farmed salmon that it would be virtually impossible to eat enough farmed salmon to reach toxic levels in one's diet. This is in contrast to wild salmon where the levels of mercury are high enough that if you only ate salmon, and huge quantities at that, you might be able to reach toxic levels. The fact is that both farmed and wild salmon are very healthy foods because of their high levels of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids relatively very low levels of toxic contaminants.

3) The red colour in farmed salmon and wild salmon are the same pigment (astaxanthin) and the levels of this pigment are significantly higher in the most high prized species of wild salmon such as the sockeye. These pigments are also a good dietary source of antioxidants.

4) The waste output of farmed salmon relative to the amount of edible product produced is much lower than other farmed species, cattle, pigs and chickens. The output from farmed salmon per amount of edible product produced is no greater than from wild salmon.

5) Atlantic salmon are not an invasive species. Despite more than a century of trying and many millions of salmon being planted in watersheds outside of the home range of the Atlantic salmon (the North Atlantic) there are no established anandroumous runs of Atlantic salmon beyond the North Atlantic.

6) Pacific salmon populations are not collapsing. The beloved Adams River Sockeye was a century high run this fall. Perhaps salmon farming should be given credit for this event if University of Alberta scientists are going to rely solely on correlation without the need to establish a causal relationship between events to come up with scientific conclusions.

7) The moratorium on salmon farming in B.C. was lifted to give rural coastal communities a chance to participate in the global salmon market. Farmed salmon now accounts for about 87 per cent of the value of the global salmon market. Currently B.C. has less than seven per cent of this market when local farmed and wild salmon are combined. B.C. has the potential to access about 40 per cent of this market and develop a multi-billion dollar coastal fish-farming industry by farming salmon and other species.

8) As much as "Hicks has a financial interest in the industry - why should he be believed?," Dr. Volpe relies on his thesis, that salmon farming is a threat to wild salmon, so that he can build a career and get funding support for his research. - www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/john_volpe - Why should Dr. Volpe be believed?

Thank you for consideration of the facts.

Dr. Brad Hicks
Langley, B.C.

(Editor's note: Dr. Hicks is a board member of the B.C. Salmon Farmers' Associaton)