Farmed salmon, Waitrose, sophable and her dh

[Heathcliffscathy]

I don't know how many of you were following the live webchat yesterday. Mrsophable has been following with increasing distress the catastrophe that is unfolding (ever faster) in our oceans since I've known him (12 years now).

The issue of farmed salmon is one of a number of areas that he has been concerned about for years. I've been listening to this for a long time.

So when he couldn't make the webchat yesterday due to work, I rolled my sleeves up and tried my best to ask the questions and make the points that I felt he would have specifically with regard to farmed salmon (as that is the one that I have most concern about because of ds and therefore know the most about).

I felt a bit dissatisfied with the response from Quentin the Waitrose chief fish buyer, whilst acknowledging that credit is due to Waitrose for at least engaging with this crucial debate.

I'd really appreciate you all reading the post the MrSophable took the trouble to write late last night:

to precis mrsophables v. good and thorough analysis of all that is wrong with fish farming....

farmed fish gives me the boak

farmed mussels are absolutely fine iirc. very good example of sustainable, non environmentally impacting aquaculture. and high in omega oils.

I really don't want to ask this....

I eat a big chunk of salmon every day, bought fresh from either Morrisons or Costco...

Should I not be doing?

Thanks, Mrsophable.

sophable - thanks.

Hi Sophable . This was really interesting. Glad to hear that farmed mussels are ok.

Great thread Sophables (plural).
At Tweedy mansions we only eat salmon if MrTweedy catches it himself (ie about once a year!)
Absolutely agree with what you've said

what an interesting thread. We hardly eat fish these days because so much is farmed/overfished etc etc.

Off to dorset on Sat - and dp was digging out his fishing stuff last night ..... for our annual fish eating week

He puts his fishing gear in the car with higher priority than our clothes or the buckets and spades. Can see why after reading this thread.

I [heart] MrSophable

Thank you, MrSophable (though don't you have your own posting name?)

Why do greenpeace put wild atlantic salmon on a 'no' list?

What about farmed sea bass, is that as bad? I always avoid it as I assme so. And the newly hailed farmed cod?

Guadaloupe: I give DS tinned mackerel fillets in sandwiches - not as sardiney as sardines. Though he likes tinned sardines.

I wish I could get FRESH fresh mackerel more often.

Blu

Abel & Cole will deliver fresh mackerel which we have every week - line caught by day boats. Currently £2.89 for 425g (on special offer). (there is a 99p delivery charge). Delivery vans use biodiesel.

(I'm not on commission by the way)

Oh, thanks for that, MM!

I would really like to approach my local French supermarkets, but I would not know where to start, tbh.

Fab thread. I am very impressed with Waitrose actually pursuing this. Thanks to Sophable and MrSophable for pursuing this issue.

MrSophable, I may have missed your response to this so I apologise if you have already answered but is this fishy business your day job? From your posts I am assuming that you are an environmental scientist?

Re fisheyes - if you don't want to eat them you can dig out the eyeballs and collect them. Trout are good for this.

Well, that was badly worded

DP and I are trying to take all this in - but would really find it useful to know what fish is good, and where is best to get it from - thanks to Sophable and MrS for this thread, it is enlightening. Naively I have never really considered how fish are farmed. I suppose it is never viewed in the same category as 'meat'. I will never ever EVER eat prawns again.

Yeah, Waitrose is THE best supermarket.

Have been following this and, interestingly, Hugh FW is on 4+1 now and he is comparing farmed trout with line caught - will watch with interest for his comments!

Oh and MrS, if you do go to meet Quentin, could you please ask him when the feck Waitrose plan to open stores in Scotland (outside Morningside/Stockbridge). There are ponces west of Embru too.

Thanks.

Have just read through the majority of the thread. I must admit that I buy salmon quite frequently - normally Sainsbury's organic and the Youngs frozen wild salmon (also Abel & Cole Salmon fishcakes which is a very lazy/expensive thing to do!). I have recently noticed some salmon in Sainsbury's with an MSC sticker on it which said it was sustainably farmed - so I thought this was OK - obviously not!

Recently whilst trying to reduce costs I have been using tinned tuna instead of the fresh salmon in some of my recipes which from reading this is probably worse. If I buy the tins labelled yellowfin tuna is that OK?

Regarding sardines - I often use tinned sardines on pizzas and in pasta sauces and these go down well with both DH and DS.

I have some fresh mackeral in the freezer I bought from A&C ages ago I confess I don't know what to do with. Shall start another thread on that.

applepudding- as far as I know the MSC have not certified any salmon farms. are you sure its not 'freedom food' (RSPCA monitored) farmed salmon? Personally i don't think this is good enough- the environmental, health and sutainability issues remain the same , even if the welfare of the fish is improved .

there is some sustainably sourced yellowfin , but a lot more that isn't (see previous comments about purse seiners and FADs). Pole caught yellowfin would be best, but be aware that mercury levels will be an issue.

Two good places to find out whats OK to eat and where to get it- and more also what to avoid- is the aforemnetioned greenpeace redlist, and the msc site

here

MrSophable - I may be wrong then - it came from Norway I think - I'll have another look next time I go shopping. I have noticed quite a lot of fish recently with MSC on including cod and haddock which I thought we had been advised not to eat - and eat pollock instead.

Blu- wild atlantic salmon is on greenpeace's list because there are only 500,000 or so left in the wild....when you consider that a large salmon farm might have a million fish - and a recent cage failure in Norway saw 650,000 farmed fish escape into the sea, then you can appreciate the scale of the threat. eating a wild salmon caught on rod and line as a once in a very rare while treat is one thing, but wild atlantic salmon on sale in supermarkets would be a very bad thing...you're highly unlikely to ever find it in any shop.

wild alskan salmon is a different matter (and species)altogether

applepudding- i checked sainsburys website which talks about RSPCA freedom food salmon...the label is also blue but its not MSC certified...I'd be interested if you find it is.

there is MSC certified cod, and also farmed cod which avoids some of the issues raised by farmed salmon because it can be fed the offcuts from fish processed for human consumption (tails and guts and stuff...) however do not know about the environmenta impact of cod farms. i imagine they will like all industrial farming techniques require the use of antibiotics or chemicals to control parasites and diseases.

there is MSC certified haddock available.

MrSophable. Would you kindly come to bed now?