My Eco Movie 9

Aquaculture, or fish farming, both on land and in pens out at sea, is the fastest growing form of food production in the world. Well over half the seafood in the world is farm raised, but critics and animal rights campaigners have criticised indoor fish farming as being akin to industrialised battery farming.

Sustainable Blue is a land-based fish farm in Nova Scotia, Canada and owned by investigative journalists who have spent years studying the industrialization of salmon farming. Fish are raised in indoor tanks using Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) which allows for a controlled environment, reducing disease without the use of antibiotics or pesticides. On the contrary, open-net pen salmon farming, which takes place in the ocean, poses threats such as temperature swings, storm damage, and disease risk. Less than five per cent of farmed fish worldwide is raised indoors.

Concerns around open-pen fish farms have been growing, leading Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pledge a transition away from open-net fish farming by 2025. Countries like Norway, Denmark, Southern Argentina, or states such as Alaska, California, and Washington have banned marine fish farming due to environmental risks.

Catherine Collins, co-author of “Salmon Wars,” explains that Atlantic salmon in open-sea farms can be crammed 100,000 or more in a single cage, live in their own faeces and are attacked by sea lice. Their mortality rate is around 20 to 25%, against 5 to 3% for cows or chickens.

Land-based farming is seen as a more sustainable alternative, although challenges remain, such as finding alternative feeds for the fish. With this goal in mind, Sustainable Blue has been testing the use of black soldier fly larvae as a potential food source for their salmon.

As the demand for healthier and more sustainable sources of protein grows, the scrutiny surrounding the seafood industry intensifies. Methods such as the one developped by Sustainable Blue, aim to provide a solution by producing Atlantic salmon in an environmentally controlled and sustainable manner.