News Coverage
Study finds farmed salmon harms industry
Commercial fishing operations can't compete
Published September 25, 2003
The Pacific Northwest's commercial fishing industry is in crisis thanks to the growing popularity of farm-raised salmon, a Stanford University study has found.
Researchers from Stanford's Center for Environmental Science and Policy and the Stanford School of Law determined that worldwide production of farmed salmon has increased fivefold since the late 1980s. Over that time, commercial fishing operations have seen their market share plummet to less than 40 percent.
Not only has that created financial hardships for fishermen in many coastal areas -- including many American Indian communities -- but it also is having unforeseen environmental consequences, said Josh Eagle, director of the Stanford Fisheries Policy Project.
Eagle said researchers launched the study with the assumption that fish farming reduces pressure on wild fish stocks.
"What we found was, in fact, it has increased the amounts of fishing because fisheries need the money," he said.
What's more, he said government subsidies are artificially propping up the commercial salmon fishing industry, delaying a needed shake-up.
"It's kind of similar to the Japanese auto invasion of the '70s," Eagle said.
Those subsidies are allowing salmon fishermen, who for decades had an effective monopoly, to hide operational inefficiencies, Eagle said. He estimated that the cost of producing wild-caught salmon is three times higher than necessary.
Farmed salmon is cheaper to produce and, unlike wild-caught fish, is available year-round. The animals are hatched from eggs and raised in net pens.
But the Stanford study found there is a risk that non-native, farmed fish can escape into the ocean and compete with wild salmon for food. Salmon farms also can release chemicals and antibiotics into the marine ecosystem, the study states.
A study released in July by the Environmental Working Group of Washington, D.C. found that some farmed salmon in San Francisco grocery stores contained high concentrations of PCBs, banned chemicals that have been linked to cancer.
"Farming's not going away. The question is: How can we make it better environmentally?" Eagle said.
Commercial fishing, too, presents environmental issues, he said, with a growing number of fishermen overfishing to try to make ends meet.
"Clearly, the salmon fishing industry needs to be restructured," Eagle said. "The problem is, you've got 10,000 small fishing businesses, so it's really difficult for them to get together and do anything."
Tom Canale, a salmon fisherman in Santa Cruz, agreed that the rise of farm-bred fish has "made tremendous inroads into our markets and depressed prices."
But he disputed the conclusion that commercial fishermen, at least in California, were overfishing in response. "You only have a limited amount of time to interact with these fish, because they're constantly moving around," he said.
Canale, who has been a commercial fisherman for 25 years, said none of his friends has decided to abandon ship in the face of falling prices. But he wonders if the next generation will follow suit.
"We're becoming more of a niche industry," he said.
Stanford researchers spent more than two years interviewing fishermen in Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state.
Their study will be published in the October issue of Environment magazine.