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The discovery of fish food as a source of resistance genes migrating into oceanic bacteria is worrying, and the researchers sauy more work is needed to determine if these resistance traits can find their way into the human food chain.

Recent research by the U.N., industry groups, unions, and labor lawyers indicates wider concerns tied to the treatment of workers across India’s aquaculture industry, which currently supplies almost 40 percent of the shrimp consumed in the U.S.

The Chilean Salmon Council (CSC), the group that represents eight of the Chilean salmon industry's 12 biggest players, has at last responded to a highly critical New York Times (NY Times) article published two months ago, calling the reporting 'flawed' and 'unethical.' By Jason Huffman

The growing number of Turkish fish farms is affecting the water quality of the Black Sea. One activist is trying to tackle this and other environmental issues, but she is not getting much local support.

Aquaculture has become a booming industry in Chile, with salmon and other fish farmed in floating enclosures along the South Pacific coast. But as farmers densely pack these pens to meet demand, diseases can easily pass between fish.

Parasitic infections can be occasionally severe in the European marine aquaculture industry, including the Mediterranean region, as they can incur considerable financial losses. Due to the lack of commercial vaccines, therapeutic approaches seem the only measure to battle parasitic outbreaks. Integrated strategies and increased resilience of the hosts, may limit to some degree the level of infestation. Ectoparasitic therapy is traditionally based on baths, with few exceptions. Several antiparasitic compounds have been registered in European aquatic medicine to combat mainly salmon sea lice; however, few of them are readily used against Mediterranean fish parasites. Formalin and less commonly hydrogen peroxide baths are applied against ectoparasites in the Mediterranean region. Most of the registered anti-lice antiparasitics have limited potential perhaps due to their adverse environmental impact. Future therapies against fish parasites will rely mainly on effective substances ensuring consumer, ani- mal, and environmental welfare. Ideally, dietary antiparasitics such as praziquantel exhibiting mild environmental impact and high efficacy against a wide range of patho- gens should be adopted. Moreover, combined strategies such as integrated pest man- agement, involving various management practices with limited use of chemicals, should be a priority for specific parasitic outbreaks. The information presented in this review can guide future research and promote effective and prudent parasite control practices for Mediterranean-farmed fish.

Aquaculture, the golden child of industrial food production, promises to feed the masses while saving wild fish. While farmed fish production has skyrocketed, its efficiency can’t hide the fact that wild stocks are still overfished, and ecosystems are paying the price. Does aquaculture rescue wild fish populations – or put them at greater risk? By Chuck Dinerstein

The spread of pathogens from farmed salmon is a conservation concern for wild Pacific salmon in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Three pathogens are prevalent in farmed Atlantic salmon in BC, spill over to wild Pacific salmon, and are linked to negative impacts on wild salmon: Piscine orthoreovirus, Tenacibaculum spp., and sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis). Molecular screening of infectious agents in farmed and wild salmon and environmental DNA highlights a further 4 agents that are likely elevated near salmon farms and 37 that co-occur in wild and farmed salmon. Pathogens likely affect wild salmon indirectly by mediating migration, competition, and predation. Current net-pen aquaculture practices pose these risks to numerous populations of all species of wild salmon in BC, most of which are not covered in Government of Canada science and advisory reports. Climate change, pathogen evolution, and changes to disease management and aquaculture regulations will influence future risks. By Martin Krkosek, Andrew W. Bateman, Arthur L. Bass, William S. Bugg, Brendan M. Connors, Christoph M. Deeg, Emiliano Di Cicco, Sean Godwin, Jaime Grimm, Leila Krichel, Gideon Mordecai,Alexandra Morton, Stephanie Peacock, Dylan Shea, Brian Riddell, Kristina M. Miller

Tasmania is regarded as one of the wildest, most pristine states in Australia. In recent years however that reputation has been tarnished by the boom of the local salmon farming industry. With environmental regulations struggling to keep pace with the industry’s growth, the marine environments that host the industry have been significantly impacted and in some cases have approached collapse. Increased scrutiny of the industry – aided by the mobile nature of ocean pen farming – has forced operators to find new locations. When the industry set their sights on opening up a new territory on neighboring King Island – adjacent to the world-class waves of Martha Lavinia Beach – they were unaware they were also picking a fight with surfers worldwide.

Open-net fish pens are the perfect breeding grounds for the parasites, which feast on the mucus, skin and flesh of wild salmon, causing infection and even death. But the tools industry has to deal with the legions of sea lice are becoming less effective. By Judith Lavoie

A new study says that the impact of aquaculture on wild fishes* is 'greater than commonly cited,' further undermining the widely held belief that it can be part of a sustainable food system. By Liam Pritchett

PinkBombs is the result of a collaboration between two non-profit organizations, Seastemik and DataforGood. PinkBombs is here to: -Alert about one of the biggest threats to the Ocean today: salmon farming. -Deconstruct the distorted popular perception around salmon consumption. -Guide companies, States and consumers towards positive solutions.

In 2023, the RAI Committee agreed to undertake a follow-up inquiry into salmon farming at the earliest opportunity and this inquiry commenced in April 2024. The RAI Committee's inquiry focused on the implementation of the main recommendations made by the REC Committee, spread across four key themes:

• fish health and welfare;
• environmental impacts;
• interactions between wild and farmed salmon; and
• salmon farm consents and planning.

The Chilean industry’s expansion has drawn repeated challenges from environmentalists and Indigenous people of the region, and prompted calls for a moratorium. By Lucy Meyer and Casey Ann Smith

Paradoxically, it is precisely the pristine nature of Poros that is marking its future: the absence of large production or tourist activities was considered by the Greek authorities a criterion for including the island in a list of allocated zones for the expansion of industrial fish farming.

A look into farmed Salmon and Asian Panga.

UN agency says aquaculture boom will boost food security but critics say it harms fragile marine ecosystems.

Today, wild salmon are an endangered species, gone from most rivers in the U.S. There are many culprits, from polluted waterways and habitat destruction to overfishing and climate change. In the last 20 years, however, a new threat has emerged: floating feedlots on the ocean known as open-net salmon farms. The $20-billion-a-year farmed salmon industry is the world’s fastest growing food producer, and it has made farmed Atlantic salmon the most popular fish on dinner tables North America. But at what cost? By Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins

We review literature on the displacement paradox and the Jevons paradox, with consideration of their implications for the potential effects of aquaculture on wild fisheries. The Jevons paradox refers to circumstances where improvements in the efficiency of resource use lead to growth in consumption and therefore undermine conservation. The displacement paradox refers to circumstances where increasing use of a potential substitute for a resource (e.g., farmed fish) does not lead to proportionate reduction in consumption of the other resource (e.g., wild fish). The literature on the displacement paradox and the Jevons paradox suggests that there may be unanticipated consequences from the rise of aquaculture that may be detrimental for fisheries conservation. Here, we present theoretical explanations, drawing on the tragedy of the commodity, for understanding the tendencies for these technological paradoxes to occur and emphasize their relevance for concerns associated with fisheries and aquaculture systems. By Spencer Roberts, Jennifer Jacquet, Patricia Majluf, Matthew N. Hayek

A new study by Laurie Sellars, postgraduate fellow of the Law, Ethics & Animals Program at Yale Law School, and Becca Franks, an assistant professor of environmental studies at New York University, investigates how marine aquaculture or ‘mariculture’ — the cultivation of aquatic organisms in the ocean — generates a suite of risks: environmental degradation, harms to wildlife communities and individuals, welfare harms for captive animals, and shifts in how humans perceive the nonhuman world. The article describes these risks collectively as 'dewilding,' defined as the process of privileging anthropocentric interests, perspectives, sovereignty, and agency at the expense of other interests and considerations The study, 'How Mariculture Expansion is Dewilding the Ocean and its Inhabitants,' was published in the journal Science Advances on Oct. 16, 2024. Sellars and Franks discuss their research.