People are wild about salmon, but wild salmon is wildly expensive and in short supply.
Farmed salmon, on the other hand, is readily available but not necessarily something you want to eat, as it often contains PCBs, antibiotics and other dangerous contaminants. Waste, feed and fish feces build up under the farm pens, smothering life on the ocean bottom, and can become a danger to other marine life.
There is, however, a company called Skuna Bay that has established a new paradigm for fish farming off the coast of Vancouver Island. It might be called “artisanal.” The fish are raised in their natural ocean environment in fast-flowing, glacier-fed currents of clear water with perfect salinity. In contrast to traditional farms, the company’s pens, 20 miles or more off the coast, have a ratio of 98.5% water to1% salmon.
It takes 3 years for a fish to grow to maturity and weigh at least 10 pounds. Skuna Bay thinks that salmon should eat fish (as they do naturally). However, it takes 5.5 pounds of fish to produce 2.2 pounds of farmed salmon.
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