Seafood Watch’s Rating of B.C. Open-net-pen Farmed Salmon Inappropriate

September 22, 2017
PUBLIC STATEMENT

PACIFIC SALMON FOUNDATION VIEWS “SEAFOOD WATCH’S” RATING OF B.C. OPEN-NET-PEN FARMED SALMON TO BE PREMATURE AND INAPPROPRIATE
Statement of PSF President and CEO Dr. Brian Riddell

“The Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) wishes to clarify the recent recommendation by the U.S.-based Seafood Watch and the BC Salmon Farmers that B.C. open-net-pen farmed salmon are now a good alternative seafood choice for consumers.

We believe that recommendation is premature and inappropriate because it incorrectly characterizes and relies upon the research results to date of PSF’s Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI). Started in 2013, the SSHI is a partnership between the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Genome BC and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.  The purpose of the initiative is to clarify the presence and/or absence of microbes  in Pacific salmon.

The SSHI is not yet complete, so there are no final conclusions yet regarding farmed Atlantic salmon or anything else. While progress to date includes no detections of reportable diseases as listed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, there remain many valid questions relative to wild salmon health, and that is what the SSHI continues to study.

The SSHI research will continue and we have committed to communicate to the public any critical new information related to the health of wild Pacific salmon if and when it is found.”