Seafood offers one of the healthiest forms of protein, with most options being low in fat and high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. We are in definite need of optimal seafood sources to feed our growing population. Fish and shellfish are the last commercially-harvest wild animals – we’ve simply domesticated everything else. There has been a huge increase in the demand for farmed seafood over the last several decades, but aquaculture has presented a grab-bag of unique challenges.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Natalie Maynor
Salmon are by far and large one of our favorite seafood items; taste, texture, and health benefits come to a beautiful agreement within a salmon fillet, and seafood lovers have an insatiable appetite for it. Our demand for salmon has been the foundation for a massive growth in the farmed salmon business. Even more than other species, salmon are singularly difficult to farm and the aquaculture industry has a long way to go before it can produce salmon fillets that meet the green list requirements. SalMar, one of the largest salmon farming companies in the world, is bound and determined to overcome these challenges and rise to the top as a leader in exciting and innovative ways to improve farmed salmon.
The challenges of farming salmon
Disease, lice, escapees, overcrowding – these are words we associate with farmed salmon. Farms tend to be open coastal nets, allowing waste to easily enter and pollute the environment, escaped fish to breed with local populations, and disease to spread rampantly among the overcrowded nets unless awful amounts of antibiotics are used. We feed them massive amounts of fishmeal (a 3:1 ratio!) just to produce a marketable fillet that has to be dyed pink to imitate the wild version.
SalMar intends to change all of this through a risky and expensive investment into a new way of farming salmon. They plan to build an offshore platform, similar to an oil rig, which will house a revolutionary type of salmon farm.
This massive offshore farm will weigh 5,600 metric tons, stand 220 feet tall, and will be equipped with the same netting used to repel sharks. It will be based off oil rig designs, able to withstand 30 foot waves without allowing any fish to escape. Increased water flow from open ocean currents will work to prevent disease and allow greater densities of salmon. Since the farm will be far from shore, there will be less chance that local fish could suffer from the waste produced by the farmed fish. Artificially bred fish will eat lice right off of the farmed salmon. These factors combined mean that – if successful – the new offshore farm would be able to house 1.6 million fish, seven times as much as a conventional salmon farm net.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Tom Ipri
A new age for salmon aquaculture
This design is still entirely experimental and will be very expensive. But the promise of increasing the production of Norwegian’s salmon farming industry will likely be unable to resist. With the current high demand for salmon, it would be a smart decision to invest in more innovative ways to farm the anadromous species.
Right now is the perfect time to experiment with improved aquaculture techniques, especially with salmon. The popularity of these delectable fishes is undeniable and the demand for them will only continue to increase. We cannot put all the pressure on wild populations and there are so many problems with the current salmon-farming situation. If we even have a chance to create a better salmon farm that doesn’t pollute the environment or harm local fish populations while producing a healthy product – it is worth it.
Although this “oil-rig” design is experimental, it has a tremendous potential to initiate the new age of salmon aquaculture. Once the design is proven to be stable, clean, and profitable, other salmon farming companies will immediately jump on the technology. There is serious competition within this industry to provide the most desirable products and right now there is an increasing number of people who demand eco-friendly, safe, and healthy seafood products. Consumers are taking notice of the source of seafood items, and a farm that can produce a farmed salmon fillet that has minimal impact on the environment will sell faster than other options. Not to mention that if this farm succeeds, it will be able to produce seven times as many salmon as the traditional farm, which will likely enable them to lower the cost of their products. Not only will they be more sustainable, but also more affordable!
“Open Range” salmon
There will likely be concerns over whether we’re turning the aquaculture industry into a massive farming operation similar to the way we produce some cows and chickens, where countless creatures are all shoved into one space, and fed antibiotics and growth hormones. In reality, this new platform has the opposite intention. Its final intention would be like taking those cows and chickens out of the giant warehouses and putting them in wide open pastures to be “grass-fed” or “open range”. These farmed salmon will still need plenty of added food, but the open ocean will provide a tremendous increase in water flow in the form of currents as opposed to coastal areas. Where salmon are concerned, the more water flow the better! Disease cannot travel nearly as well, since the waster matter will be swept away quickly and efficiently. The salmon will likely even get a large amount of food from the surrounding ocean (depending on the design of the farms nets), which will decrease some of the demand for added fishmeal and fish oil.
Salmon farmed in these better conditions will probably be healthier, bigger, and stronger, translating into a more healthy product for consumers. The seafood industry and seafood consumers must embrace new technology to improve aquaculture if we hope to continue to feed our growing population. One company stepping forward to take the risk will benefit all the rest of us in the long run and it’s important that we help support such efforts. Choose your eco-friendly seafood options from the Pucci Foods Catalog today!
