It’s the end of the line for open-net pen farmed salmon.

Salmon has become one of the most popular dishes in restaurants and at home, but its popularity has come at a cost: It’s bad for people, the planet and both wild and farmed salmon.

Join the movement of chefs, restaurants, writers, caterers and food lovers to help us take open-net pen farmed salmon off the table.

Get the facts.

Open-net pen salmon farms have huge environmental, sustainability and welfare issues.

Learn more about some of the top reasons chefs are dropping open-net pen farmed salmon from their menus.

Copyright Corin Smith

Bad for the planet

Open-net pen salmon farms are breeding grounds for parasites and disease. They also discharge toxic chemicals and waste into the surrounding environment, affecting and killing other marine wildlife.

Find out more about the environmental issues.

Bad for people

Farmed salmon are fed dry pellets, made from vegetables, such as soy, animal waste and fish meal. That meal comes from wild fish, which are taken from subsistence fisheries in places like the West Coast of Africa, by huge commercial trawlers from Asia and Europe. Every year, more than half a million tons of these wild fish, which could feed 33 million people in that region, are converted to feed for farmed fish and livestock. Instead of solving the world’s protein crisis, finfish farming is making it worse.

Find out more about the sustainability issues.

Copyright Corin Smith

Bad for salmon

Worldwide, up to 25% of ocean-raised farmed salmon die every year from disease, sea lice infestations, and rising water temperatures attributed to climate change. Sometimes, the numbers are worse. For example, in 2019, and in the years since, Newfoundland’s salmon farms have lost more salmon than they have harvested. Worldwide, according to a recent peer-reviewed study in Nature, 865 million farmed salmon have died in mass die-offs in the last decade.

Find out more about the welfare issues..

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News

Find some of the latest articles on salmon farming and its impacts below.
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“At our restaurant, we prioritize serving locally sourced ingredients to support our community and promote sustainability. By doing so, we ensure that our dishes burst with the freshest flavors and maintain our dedication to environmental stewardship. We recognize the detrimental effects that ocean-raised salmon can have on our local ecosystems, including water pollution and the transmission of diseases to wild fish populations. Opting for wild-caught or land-raised salmon resonates with our ethos of honouring the natural abundance of our region while minimizing our ecological impact.”

Heather Townsend

EDNA Restaurant, Halifax NS

Time is up for Canada’s open-net pen salmon farms.

The salmon farming industry is fundamentally unsustainable and wreaks havoc on ecosystems around the world.
It’s time to end it.