Target Stores Eliminating Farmed Salmon By End Of 2010 - Reuters

he No. 2 U.S. discount retailer said that all salmon sold under its own brands will now be wild-caught Alaskan salmon. Sushi that includes farm-raised salmon will be changed over to wild-caught salmon by the end of the year, it said.

Target said it made the switch "to ensure that its salmon offerings are sourced in a sustainable way that helps to preserve abundance, species health and doesn't harm local habitats."

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60P3OW20100126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

(And the ones from Seattle). Woo-hoo!!

Farmed salmon sucks.

I know I've heard that many things are interfering with the wild salmon and their abundance. I always thought that farmed fish were much more sustainable.

Yes, all 5 Pacific salmon species in the wild are decimated. They are in the area of threatened and endangered species due to habitat destruction and overfishing. If they were sustainable, and they're proving not to be,they would be the best to eat.

All farmed fish are full of cocktails of pesticides, herbicide, hormones, and toxic substances like metals, PAHs, and dioxins.

Good for Target, but they should carry it a step further and stop selling fish altogether to in a small way start limiting the fishing pressure to keep their supermarket cooler full.

For example, US raised talapia are fine.

One of the biggest factors to look for is whether the fish is a predator or not. The lower it is on the food chain, the safer it is to eat no matter whether it is wild or farmed. The second factor would be the local 'best business' practices - US has pretty high standards for tank raised fish, Mexico not so much.

Environmental Defense Fund provides a handy reference chart for download:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521&s_src=ggad&s_subsrc=ss&gclid=CKKTwYfawp8CFYdd5Qod9079zg

but we're still having quite strong red and silver runs.

People in the know suggest that a big part of the problem up there is that the pollack fleets have been taking too many king salmon as bycatch and thus fewer are getting into the river to spawn.

that all salmon species are endangered. This is not accurate.

There are many healthy well managed fisheries that have abundant runs. I have fished commercially in AK for salmon for years. Our runs are completely sustainable and very healthy.

Most salmon runs that are threatened are well managed with ALL user groups in mind, so, you should not see salmon on super market shelves that contribute to the decline of a salmon run.

Any suggestion that we should stop fishing to remove pressure from the bio mass is based on ignorance.

Farm Salmon have draw backs in flavor and texture, but, can be produced year round and seems acceptable to the uneducated (as far as salmon goes) pallet. all you need to do to become educated is cook a farmed salmon and a wild sockeye salmon and have side by side taste test. The differences will be obvious immediately.

There are five types of salmon. Each has two name they are referred to so it can be confusing. I will list them in order of my preference. Only position 1 and 2 are debatable. Do not eat 4 and 5 unless it is for survival :-). 4 and 5 are mostly caught for the eggs and the meat is sent to Asia.


1. Sockeye or Red Salmon
2. Kink or Chinook salmon
3. Silver or Coho Salmon
4. Dog or Chum Salmon
5. Humpy or Pink Salmon

If you purchase one of their salmon salads or entrees, I was told by a rather squirmingly uncomfortable employee that it was NOT wild... She then tried to pass the practice off as being "not wild salmon season" or some other BS. To the extent she is correct, that means WF sells a small piece of farmed salmon with a bit of rice for $12 to people who assume (because it is Whole FOods) that the salmon is not farmed. Not only is WF increasingly socially despicable in this respect, but they are increasingly just crooks.

in order to save it.

is the sale of Orange Roughy in supermarkets, etc. It is a long-lived fish, dated up to about 129 years old, does not grow large because it inhabits the very cold water usually at 1500 to 3000 ft in depth, and is SEVERELY overfished. Yet fish markets still stock it. Greed sux.

That is a good example of the devastation caused by the "expansion"
of industrial fishing practices after killing off the primary fisheries.

:grr:

greed sux. :(