Salmon imported from Chile is cheaper than Japan’s. But Chileans don’t eat them. Japanese blogger explains why.

By on June 29, 2016

SalmonI have a marine biologist friend who works as an inspector at the fisheries department of the Chilean government. He says he does not eat farmed salon because of  farming malpractices.

Many years ago in Chile, salmon farming was banned due to the spread of virus. The government (Chilean) assigned a new monitoring body NOT to inspect the water quality at the farms but instead, to monitor the activities of a team of scientists to prevent any industry malpractice.

I have been told that several farms were locked up by the supervisory body for not complying with the anti water pollution standards. These farms have salmons swimming in contaminated seawater.  Here are the 3 reasons why I too will not eat salmon farmed in Chile.

Salmon feeds
The pellets used for fish baits come from pulverized fish that comes in 4.5 or 5 kg packs. To fatten the salmon up, 18 – 20 kgs. of powder fish are needed to produce  healthy pellets. Fish being expensive, unscrupulous manufacturers instead mix fish with frozen debris-fed chicken and beef to produce the feed.

Salmons are put in cages so the feces flow back out to the sea triggering an algal bloom or what many call toxic ‘red tide.’

This year, salmons including other species, shells, seabirds, whales and carcasses in large numbers were found lying dead in the 130 km coastline as a result of red tide and high seawater temperature triggered by El Nino. 25 million dead sea animals!

According to the latest information, as many as 27 million of  dead creatures weighing 25,000 tons were found lying at the coastline in December 2015. (source Guardian May 17, 2016)

Insecticide
The salmon we see in the market comes from Norway, Alaska, and Hokkaido with the addition of Chile import recently. A person at JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) told me that Japan’s salmon farming technique was introduced to Chile in the 70s.

That means that before the technology transfer, Chile did not have the necessary techniques to control the parasites at sea. They used insecticides that flow back to the sea killing crabs and shrimps.

These parasites though are not found in Norway and Alaska so there is no need for such insecticides.

Antibiotics
Chilean salmons are drugged to boost immunity and bring them to a marketable size.

Compared to 2013, the amount of antibiotics used in the farms of Chile in 2015 is up by 25%. According to the 2014 data, 972 kgs of antibiotics were used for 1.3 million tons of fish. In comparison, Chile used 563,200 kgs for 895,000 tons of salmon. (Source Reuters news July 23, 2015).

original blog source

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