A Legacy Under Water

Hi and thank you so much for having us! We are Andrea, Arndís, Alexandra and Áslaug and we are salmon fishing guides from Iceland! We are the 7th generation of guides in our family and our river is the only river in Iceland that is still run by a single family. Salmon fishing has been a huge part of our entire lives and we only wish to be able to continue guiding for a very, very long time until we can finally pass it down to our future children just like our fathers have done for us. However, there is a huge threat towards our wild salmon and our future salmon guides. That threat is the reason we are here to inform you guys of how harmful salmon fishing, salmon farming and open sea pens is. Salmon, the open sea pens have been rapidly growing in Iceland and around the world for the past years and with it come devastating effects. First we want to talk about why this topic is so important to us and that is because of the effect it has on the wild salmon stock and therefore our futures as salmon guides. However, why this currently there are around 16 million sea-farmed salmon in sea pens all around Iceland and in contrast, the wild salmon stock is only about 50,000 to 80,000. That means for every one wild salmon there are 245 farmed fish. The farmed fish is very unlike the farmed salmon. They do not have the natural instincts that the wild salmon have been adapting for the last 10,000 years. While the sea-farmed salmon, while the sea-farmed salmon, they have been slowly adapting and selectively bred for just the past about 50 years. So when the sea-farmed salmon escapes from the pens, which has happened often and will continue to happen, they go up our rivers and breed with the wild salmon stock, creating hybrids. These hybrids do not have the natural instinct of the wild salmon that always return to their home river and this weakens the gene pool of the wild salmon stock until it will finally disappear. We have already watched this happen in Norway, where the effects have been tragic and severe and over 30 salmon rivers have had to close down business completely due to the effects of the sea-farmed salmon. But we know that this is not a matter that would or should concern you specifically, perhaps. This is not a fishing event. This is about food. Which is why we want to inform you about some of the very tragic effects that eating farmed salmon sea-farmed salmon, has on the consumer? Yeah, so I want to tell you about how toxic farmed salmon that is farmed in open sea pens is. Because they are kept in very tight spaces. There are very many in tight spaces. And as many of you probably know, that makes for the perfect environment for parasites and also diseases to spread very rapidly. And that's exactly what happens. And parasites like salmon lice attach themselves to the salmon and eat them alive. It's like animal torture in the pens. And they also jump to the wild salmon that swim nearby the pens and eat them alive as well. But we all know, okay, if there's an insect problem, what do we do? We use pesticides to kill the insects. And that's exactly what these farmers have to do. They have to pour in pesticides into the pens and loads and loads and loads of it to kill off the sea lice. And what do you think happens when the salmon is exposed to this extremely large amount of this chemical? Substances of the chemical like get stored in the salmon's fat and the farmed salmon is way fattier than the wild one. And this is something that doesn't just disappear from the salmon. This is something that's still in the salmon when you or anyone puts salmon on their plates. And this is something that we then consume if we consume the sea farmed salmon. Doesn't sound great to me. And diseases, they spread very rapidly as well. And what do we do when diseases spread? Antibiotics are used. And that's exactly what is used in the pens. So the farmers throw in the fish. So the farmers throw in loads and loads of antibiotics into the pens. Not only do substances of the antibiotics get stored in the fat of the fish, but the fish start to build up a resistance to antibiotics. And the farmers always need to use more and more so that it works. And the fish builds up a better and better resistance. This is something that can then go to the humans that eat the salmon. And I'll tell you that the World Health Organization said that antibiotic resistance is a huge health threat, one of the biggest health threats. So yeah, that is something that happens. And I'm no health expert, but it doesn't sound great to me. Not only are these toxic chemicals poured into the pens, but also things like dioxins, PCBs, and artificial coloring. And you might be wondering, okay, but why is there artificial coloring being thrown into fish pens? I'll tell you why. It's disgusting. Okay, so the flesh of the farmed salmon is actually gray. And not the beautiful pink color we see on the wild salmon. Okay, but when the farmed salmon is put on your plate, it's pink. Why is that? Okay, the farmers, they get like a color palette. Just like you get when you paint your walls. You know, you get a color palette. That's what happens there. And they can choose, oh, what color do I want the flesh of my salmon to be? They choose a color. And the artificial coloring is then put into the feed of the fish. And that is something that we then eat. It's disgusting. I'm sorry. Also, pregnant women are really recommended against eating sea-farmed salmon. Does that sound normal to you guys? Not to me, at least. But not only do these toxins really affect the salmon and its consumers. But it also has devastating effects on the nature around the pens. You know, the pesticides, they also kill off all the shrimp around the pens. And all of these toxins kill just the marine life. It ruins our fjords. It kills the seafloor. And yeah, just really, really harmful. But we do, though, realize that the demand for salmon is really, really high. And we also realize that the wild stock is not nearly enough to meet the demand. So that's why we want to tell you about farming salmon on land. Because that is a way more sustainable industry than the sea farming of salmon. It doesn't use nearly all the toxins that are used in the sea-farmed salmon industry. It's not harmful to the nature or the wild salmon. And it's just way better. So I have all of these chefs here with me today. And so I want to ask you for the sake of our future so that we can continue to be fishing guides, continue this family tradition. I ask you for the sake of nature, for the sake of wild salmon, but most importantly, for the sake of your customers and your consumers do not serve sea-farmed salmon in your restaurants. Thank you.