“Farmed Salmon are Stacked like Battery Chickens”… The Submerged Side of the French’s Favorite Fish

In an investigation into the salmon farming industry, journalist and documentary filmmaker Maxime Carsel draws up a relentless observation against the intensive farming of salmon, the French’s favorite fish

ecognizable pink flesh, renowned for its nutritional virtues: this is the salmon, the fish the most consumed by the French and favorite of the tables during the end-of-year holidays. However, the salmon farming industry is far from brilliant and raises many questions about animal welfare. After several months of research, documentary filmmaker Maxime Carsel draws up an observation that risks ruining your appetite A poison called salmon, investigates a devastating industry (ed. du Rocher), released at the beginning of October.

The French import 99% of salmon, mainly from livestock farming in Norway and the United Kingdom. In what conditions are they raised?

In Norway, it’s a little more modern, because the country thought about the living conditions of salmon and pesticides around fifteen years ago. But what is still happening in Scotland today is a pretty ugly picture. In the lochs there are around 200 farms where salmon are huddled together in huge sea cages, which can hold up to 200,000 salmon in a net 20 to 50 meters deep. That’s about a bathtub in volume of water around them to move around.

You should know that a salmon is an animal of rare perfection which is born in freshwater rivers, descends into the oceans, grows there, and goes up against the current exactly where it is. born, only to die two weeks after reproduction. And there, we put him with his peers, stacked like battery chickens. They will stay there twelve to twenty-four months before being shot.

How do these breeding conditions promote the development of diseases?

Promiscuity leads to an increase in disease and a proliferation of parasites, such as sea lice. They eat mucus, that is to say this little sticky product that we have on fish. In their natural state, salmon will take advantage of going against the current to jump out of the water and remove them, but on farms, there is no escape. They remain on the animal and continue to eat flesh and blood, causing damage and high mortality.

To combat these sea lice, pesticides are used, containing emamectin benzoate, azamethiphos or deltamethrin. Studies have shown that contamination can spread over areas of up to 39 km2 around the farm, affecting biodiversity. Another method has been tested with cleaner fish, such as lumpfish or wrasses which feed on invertebrates such as sea lice. This is a good basic idea, but wrasses are caught in the wild and large quantities are torn from their natural environment. In Norway, lomp farms were created, but high mortality was noted.

Another technique is fashionable, the “Thermolicer”, it is a huge pipe which sucks up the salmon to pass them through a bath of pesticides or a bath of hot water in order to remove sea lice, the salmon are then released into the water. But it’s violent. This technique also causes significant mortality. We are in a system of Russian dolls where, each time, to eliminate the problem of sea lice, a second system is created in which there will be problems.

Have you seen a salmon farm? What impression did this leave on you?

Yes, I saw one on Lewis Island, which is in the far north of Scotland. From the outside there is nothing very shocking. We see big circles, it’s flat, the business is running smoothly. It’s a bit like the magic of the sea. Everything that happens underneath, you don’t see it, so we do what we want there. It was whistleblowers, like Don Staniford, who showed footage while filming farms.

There is plastic pollution which can still be seen with large black pipes found on the coasts, which come from salmon farms partly destroyed during storms. It is solid, hard plastic, which will take time to degrade and will release microparticles into the sea.

View of a salmon farm in the Austurland region, on the Icelandic side. (Illustration) - Denis Thaust /SOPA Images

For a 200 g salmon steak, you need 400 g of wild fish, especially in the form of animal meal. Why are the manufacturing conditions of these flours an environmental and societal problem?

It’s a problem ecological because in fact, these are huge trawls that will drag weighted nets across the ocean floor and disrupt all the different food chains. Deep trawling is the most destructive fishing these days. And societal because trawlers come to plunder the maritime coasts like in Senegal, where 20% of the population lives from fish.

Is it impossible to raise salmon that does not mistreat fish or harm the environment?

Yes, it can exist on small farms. In France, there is one in Cotentin which will directly serve large restaurants. This can also be aquaponics breeding. It’s brand new, they are farms with a small stream, which takes up the idea of the natural cycle of salmon with space, oxygen in the water, healthy salmon. But production is less.

Have you stopped eating salmon since then?

Yes, I stopped, and to my great regret, because I like it, but it doesn’t matter. It is an ecological effort that does not cost a cent, but it is a giant step forward for the benefit of humanity and the planet in general.