What are the issues with regards to farmed fish? I know that many recommend against farmed fish, and say you should only eat wild caught.

I think one of the issues is what they feed them at the farm, vice what they eat in the wild. And anti-biotics?

Please post references, studies, if available.

Recently my wife had me buy some Sarangani Bay smoked baby Bangus (milkfish), and I happened to go to the S Bay web site and they were farmed fish. Man it was good! Quite a change from sardines lol.

The only farmed fish I buy is a specific brand of tilapia (Regal Springs) whose practices I like after reading about them on their website.

I say if you do the same, go back to the website and read up on how they raise and produce the milkfish and you're not grossed out, well there you go. - enjoy your fish once in a while.

Here's what Mark Sisson has to say about farmed fish. He's written more on the subject on his blog, marksdailyapple.com. He's an excellent source for info.

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/far...afe-nutritious/

I get farmed salmon from Norway at Trader Joe's (for now) and it is antibiotic free. It just depends on how it is raised. If they're raised on the food they're meant to eat, given the environment they need to thrive, you don't have to feed them antibiotics and stuff. Same for any animal really. If their conditions and diet are crappy, they get sick and need antibiotics to survive long enough to make it to the butcher.

Farmed fish also tends to have far less Omega-3s than wild caught. To me that's the biggest drawback. Omega-3 Oils in Farmed Salmon

Farmed fish have a variety of issues the fish farmers must deal with to keep them fed and healthy. The omega 3 ratio is reduced when pelletized foods containing a large amount of omega 6s are used. Lice infestation (yes, fish get lice in oceans, rivers, and lakes as well, but not like farming infestations) are a problem as well, which reduces nutritional value. In addition to lice, farm fish must be kept healthy with antibiotics, as Nancy states. I try to eat wild caught when available and is not priced high to the extreme.

Feeding farm raised fish, the antibiotics comes in the chow automatically. They call this therapeutic.
The pellets are also dyed pink to turn the flesh of the Salmon pink, so you'll buy it.
They are in overcrowded situations and in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, the conditions of the water can be very polluted.
Imported fish and other seafood is completely unregulated and not inspected as it enters the US. What little is inspected is only done on a volunteer basis.

If you're going to eat farm raised, your best bet is to buy it from US sources because they have very strict guidelines and the farms are inspected. Sanitation is better but they're still fed chow with antibiotics and pink dye in the chow.

Farm raised Salmon also has higher levels of Omega 6.
https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrie...imple&spices=No

I think there's a lot of generalization going on here that isn't always the case (with farmed fish). As I was saying, the salmon I buy is farmed and it is antibiotic free. It may have less omega-3 but it still has a lot of omega-3. I think they raise them offshore in very cold ocean water and omega-3 is to keep the fish from freezing to death.

Wild fish have lice too.

https://news.fromnorway.com/is-farm...n-a-toxic-food/

Good article, Nancy. I may have generalized. Yes, I've caught wild fish (striped bass, bluefish, cod, haddock, flounder) with sea lice. I eat the fish without concern. It's really common and normal. It's not a big issue in fish farming unless the fish are confined and lice infestation gets out of control.

There are good fish and shellfish farming practices. I don't hesitate to eat farmed oysters or mussels, as they live in the ocean, harbors or inlets where the water is clean and recycled by the tides. As mentioned, I try to buy wild fish when it's available, it's usually very pricey, so I'll go to a fresh farm source for plan B.

I dont eat farmed fish period. I looked into this but didnt keep a list of my readings. As most of the US livestock is fed crap, I expect the fish farms to also feed poor quality cheap fats, carbs and protein sources.

If u r ok with eating store bought beef, pork and chicken, farmed fish is no different.

I eat as healthy as I can on a budget: grass-fed butter, canned wild-caught Alaskan salmon, free-range/pastured eggs, sardines, herring, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, flax - all rich in omega 3's or with good 6:3 ratios. I love my store-bought mayo, pork roast, hamburger patties, chicken, shrimp, pecans and tilapia but eat most of those things in smaller measure or less often and hope it all balances out pretty okay.

I tend to buy small quantities of the good stuff and stretch it with omelettes, seafood salad, and the like.

Great comments, references. They are all appreciated!

Importing bad news

Some 85 percent of the seafood Americans consume is imported. And much of that is farm-raised (a practice called aquaculture) in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world. The problem is that other countries may have different standards for aquaculture, sometimes employing drugs banned here. In addition, most overseas fish farms are not inspected by U.S. officials. Moreover, though the government can detain suspect food imports without examining them (based on a history of prior recalls, for instance), only a fraction of imported seafood is actually tested for drug residues when it enters the country.

In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) checks just two percent of imports for contaminants (including drug residues, microbes and heavy metals), the study reported, compared to 20 to 50 percent in Europe, 18 percent in Japan and up to 15 percent in Canada. And when the FDA does inspect seafood imports, it looks for residues from only 13 drugs. In contrast, Europe tests for 34 drugs. That means overseas fish farms can be using a range of drugs for which the U.S. doesn’t even screen.

Last spring, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that only 0.1 percent of imported seafood was inspected specifically for drug residues in 2009 and concluded that the FDA’s oversight of the safety of imported seafood is limited—an understatement, indeed.


Shrimp top the list

Though seafood violations varied depending on the different inspection systems used across countries, the Hopkins researchers found that shrimp and prawns, overall, exceeded drug residue limits most frequently. Other problematic imported seafood included crab, basa (a type of catfish), eel and tilapia, most or all likely farmed. Of all countries, Vietnam had the most drug violations, followed by China and then other countries in Asia, including Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, India and Malaysia.

Antibiotics, antifungals and antiparasitics, as well as pesticides and disinfectants, are often used in fish farming to control diseases that can spread rampantly in crowded conditions. While routine exposure to such substances can pose a risk to aquaculture workers, the health effects of chronic low-level exposure in fish eaters are not fully known. At the very least, widespread use of antibiotics in aquaculture can contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and cause important antibiotic drugs to become ineffective in people.

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/hea...mported-seafood

A. R. L.

Always read labels.

When I was in CA, there was this organization that came to a lot of festivals & such that had "sustainable seafood" cheat-sheets... Some things they recommended farmed, some wild, and there were solid reasons for each choice. It was NOT a blanket "one is always bad, the other always good" thing.

It was a new list, every year.

This is the closest I can find to that on a quick, pre-coffee search:


https://www.thespruceeats.com/susta...choices-1665724