http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/3551821.html

'Farmed and Dangerous' campaign urges boycott of farmed salmon
Linda Ashton
Associated Press

Published Dec. 26, 2002 SALM26

YAKIMA, WASH. -- Out-of-towners often stop at Greg Higgins' cozy
bistro in Portland, Ore., to order the nightly salmon special. If it's
out of season, though, chances are they're out of luck.

"We serve only hook-and-line caught fish -- and most of the fishermen
I know personally," Higgins said.

And if the salmon aren't wild, he won't be serving them for dinner.

Higgins is one of several dozen West Coast restaurateurs and retailers
supporting a British Columbia-based boycott of farmed salmon in
protest of aquaculture techniques.

"I believe there's a need and a place for aquaculture, but the open
net-pen system is not a way to conduct it," he said.

From the Northwest to New England, salmon farming's critics contend
that the operations are a waterborne version of the terrestrial
feedlot, contributing to ocean pollution, competing unfairly with wild
fish and spreading disease.

Now a group called the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform is
aiming a "Farmed and Dangerous" campaign directly at consumers, who
can now get salmon year-round, often for as little as $3.99 a pound.

"There is a concentrated campaign going on to slander the product,"
said Kevin Bright, operations manager for Cypress Island, which owns
all of Washington's eight sal****er salmon sites. "What they're using
basically is scare tactics."

Aquaculture, primarily Atlantic salmon and oysters, was a $37 million
business in Washington state in 2001. Cypress Island raises 15 million
to 18 million pounds of Atlantic salmon each year.

In British Columbia, with at least 85 salmon farms, the business is
$300 million, Canadian, a year, and more than 85 percent of the fish
are exported to the United States.

Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist for Environmental Defense in New
York, said untreated salmon waste from net pens is fouling the oceans.

But in Washington, state Sen. Dan Swecker, a former salmon farmer and
former director of the 32-member Washington Association of Fish
Farmers, said regulatory standards prohibit buildup of fish waste
around net pens, which are inspected and monitored routinely.


"In the final analysis, the fish pens themselves are the very best
barometers of what's happening in the environment. If there is any
kind of environmental degradation, the farmer and the fish would
suffer," Swecker said.

On the East Coast, the owners of Maine's two largest salmon farms --
Atlantic Salmon of Maine and Stolt Sea Farm -- were found this summer
to have violated the federal Clean Water Act by not obtaining permits
to discharge feed and other potential contaminants into coastal
waters.

A judge is expected to decide this winter what, if any, fines the
companies should pay and what rules they must follow in the future.

Environmental groups on both sides of the continent want dramatic
changes in the industry, said Jennifer Lash, coordinator for the
"Farmed and Dangerous" campaign and director of the Living Oceans
Society in Sointula, British Columbia.

The coalition wants zero discharge of fish farm waste, zero risk of
escapes and elimination of the use of antibiotics in farmed salmon,
among other things, she said.

Industry representatives contend antibiotics already are more tightly
regulated in fish farming than any other kind of farming and that
steps already have been taken to prevent escapes.

In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon escaped from net
pens, but Swecker said new cage designs and improved anchors have
helped reduce those losses in recent years.

"We don't want our fish to escape. Each one of those fish represents
time, materials and money that we've put into it," Cypress Island's
Bright said.

Environmentalists contend that escaped fish unfairly compete with
native Pacific salmon and spread disease. Swecker said farmed Atlantic
salmon don't breed with native stocks on the West Coast, nor are they
as aggressive as their wild counterparts.

"We like them stupid and fat. That's our motto," Swecker said. "They
spend less time swimming around and more time lying around."

The Washington state Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a rule this
month that requires Puget Sound fish farmers to submit a plan on
minimizing and preventing escapes.

In the end though, flavor might determine consumers' choice more than
anything.

"Wild salmon tastes better, in our opinion," said Lane Hoss, a
spokeswoman for Anthony's Restaurants, which has 18 restaurants in
Washington state.

While Hoss had not heard anything about the boycott, she said: "We've
just always been committed to wild salmon."

To each his own, Swecker said; some people prefer the taste of farmed
salmon.

"They are blander in taste because of what they're fed. Typically
Americans prefer white fish that are deep-fat fried. It's a matter of
preference