The Latest

New Study: Fish Farms Drive Wild Salmon Populations Toward Extinction A study appearing in the December 14 issue of the journal Science shows, for the first time, that parasitic sea lice infestations caused by salmon farms are driving nearby populations of wild salmon toward extinction.

• Read the Lenfest Ocean Program's summary of the study [PDF]
• Read the press release from the University of Alberta and COMPASS [PDF]
• Read Pure Salmon's statement

New Data on Escapes from Salmon Farms Reveals Magnitude of Global Problem On November 27, at an organic aquaculture symposium hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the Pure Salmon Campaign presented a paper that provides, for the first time, an international inventory of reported escapes from open net cage salmon farms and calls for the U.S. to prohibit fish raised in open net cages from carrying the organic label. Read the paper [PDF] and press release.

Scottish Salmon Farm

The Problem

Our oceans are in trouble. Uncontrolled fishing has brought many species to the brink of extinction, while pollution from farms, cities, and factories is making other commercially important seafood unsafe to eat.

Our Goals

The Pure Salmon campaign rests on one simple premise: Salmon can be farmed safely and with minimal ecological damage, if the industry adopts standards that protect the environment, consumers and local communities. Essentially, this means (1) replacing open sea cages with enclosed tanks equipped with proper water filtration systems for wastes and (2) developing more ecologically sustainable forms of food to replace the current "fish chow" containing fish meal, fish oil, chemicals, drugs, and other toxic residues.

The campaign seeks nothing less than to transform the salmon farming industry, not merely for it to adopt marginally better "best practices." More...