Is Farmed or Wild Salmon Better?

Dude smiling after catching a big ass salmon

Thinking about dinner tonight and wondering if you should buy wild or farmed salmon? Does it even matter?

Salmon is one of the most consumed fish in the U.S. and around the world, and that’s unlikely to change. So it’s no wonder that Americans consumed 420,000 metric tons of the fish in 2021. Because of our appetite for salmon, we have overfished many wild salmon populations, and more people are switching to farmed salmon.

Myth #1: Eating Salmon is Always Good for Me

Salmon are a healthy source of protein and fatty acids. A four ounce serving of salmon contains 23 grams of protein! That is roughly 50% of your suggested daily intake of protein. Salmon is also loaded with Vitamins B-6, B-12, C, potassium, and more.

The amount of omega-3 fatty acids found in wild salmon depends on what kind of algae and plankton they eat. These reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. They help your body protect itself against heart disease, lower the levels of unhealthy blood fats (also known as triglycerides), and may reduce joint inflammation. Due to the regulated diet of farm-raised salmon, they have more nutrients. Their diets typically include plants, grains, and fishmeal. Omega-3 fatty acids in these salmon are good for your nervous system as well. 

Because salmon eat other organisms in the ocean and rivers, they are eating whatever toxins and pollutants those prey consume. Often this means they are eating, and accumulating toxins such as mercury, PCBs, and dioxins.

It’s important to compare wild and farm raised salmon because we want to limit the amount of these toxins we consumes - since they will also accumulate in our bodies.

Wild Caught Salmon

Research has shown that wild-caught Pacific salmon have the lowest levels of dioxins. Dioxins and mercury can have neurotoxic effects. Dioxins pollute the environment. When they’re found in fish like salmon, they can be harmful to your health. 

Some mercury has been found in wild-caught salmon. High levels of mercury can cause serious health problems. But studies are being done to see how much mercury is found and where. 

Another concern about wild-caught salmon is plastic. Plastics are being ingested by the shrimp and anchovies that salmon eat. This causes the salmon to be contaminated. Eating seafood with traces of plastic can harm your hormones and confuse your body. 

Farmed Salmon

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These pollutants found in farm-raised salmon have been linked to type-2 diabetes and obesity. They’ve also been linked to an increased risk of stroke in women. One type of POP, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), is five to 10 times higher in farm-raised salmon than in wild-caught ones. 

Added red dye. Wild-caught, natural salmon has pink or red flesh. This is due to their diet of krill and shrimp. Farm-raised salmon don’t have the same diet, so their flesh is greyer. ‌To achieve the natural pink look, farmers feed their salmon a synthetic chemical to “pigment” the flesh. This process may have unhealthy long-term effects on your body. ‌‌

Higher saturated fat. While farm-raised salmon have more omega-3 fatty acids, they also have high saturated fat levels because of their altered diet. ‌

‌Antibiotics. Farm-raised salmon are given antibiotics to prevent infections. When you eat these salmon, the antibiotics can enter your body. This can cause antibiotic-resistant bacteria to grow and infect your body. 

Myth #2: Wild is Always Better for the Planet

When I think of “wild caught salmon” I thought of salmon leaping and splashing upstream to spawn in a clean river nestled below forested and snow-capped mountains.

Today, wild salmon primarily come from the rivers off the northern Pacific Ocean surrounding Alaska, Russia, and Japan. Wild Atlantic salmon also border the northern shores of the United States, Canada, and Scandinavia. These fish are born in fresh water and migrate to the ocean but return to the fresh water when they reproduce.

While many salmon are coming back throughout the East Coast river system, they are still protected and are only fished as catch and release. The largest population of Atlantic Salmon can be found off the coast of Maine. While you can enjoy wild-caught Pacific salmon, fishing for Atlantic salmon has been banned in the United States since 1948 because it’s classified as an endangered species. As a result, salmon in the Pacific Northwest are under the watchful eye of government regulators in the United States.

Commercial salmon fishermen use electronic fish finders, hydraulic equipment, and large nets in order to capture the most salmon possible in a given expedition. In fact, they have been so effective that many of the wild salmon fisheries are fished out. 

As the concern over depleting our natural wild resources has increased, there has also been a substantial focus on producing farmed salmon over the last few years. Today, roughly 95% of the salmon is farmed in Norway, Chile, Scotland, and Canada. Additionally, 70% of this farmed fish are grown by only fifteen producers. Aside from carp and tilapia, salmon is the third largest aquaculture species.

Myth #3: Farmed Fish Don’t Harm the Environment

Salmon is one of the most popular fish eaten today. Farm-raised salmon accounts for 75% of all salmon you eat. Scotland is one of the biggest producers of farmed salmon in the world. Over the past 30 years, industrially farming salmon in the ocean has become a massive industry. These farms now dot coastlines around the world with their rows of net-covered salmon pens, including in Maine, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Norway, and Iceland.  

The production of farmed salmon takes one to three years, beginning with fish held in small land-based tanks as they pass through their juvenile phase in freshwater. After 6 to 12 months the fish are typically transported to underwater nets or cages in the ocean to live the rest of their lives. Farm-raised salmon are grown in tanks or freshwater enclosures. They are bred to be eaten. Sometimes, they have a different texture and varying nutrients. This is because of the different diets they’re given. 

Farm-raised Atlantic salmon is the most common type of salmon found in the U.S. Wild-caught Atlantic salmon is prohibited under the Endangered Species Act. If you find salmon with this label, it is not authentic.

Most farmed salmon are raised in open-water net pens, which can be problematic since fish can escape the pens, and waste from a high concentration of fish, along with excess feed, can pollute the waters around it. And some farmers, particularly those in Chile, give salmon antibiotics on a regular basis to prevent diseases and parasites from affecting their stocks.

Sea lice from farmed fish may infect native salmon populations. The sea lice issue is complicated, but regulations in the United States and British Columbia require monthly monitoring of farmed salmon for sea lice and notification of authorities and treatment if sea lice numbers exceed three lice per fish.

Pollution from salmon farms is emitted through chemical treatments given to the fish, excess feed and large quantities of feces. These pollutants move towards the ocean floor, where they break down, reducing the concentration of oxygen and reducing biodiversity in these habitats.

Fish also produce a lot of nitrogen waste. Nitrogen pollution mixed with warm water creates perfect conditions for toxic algae outbreaks. The algae can grow out of control to form massive red tides that poison any fish, turtles, and shellfish in their path.

But you can also farm salmon indoors! Superior Fresh opened its doors in Hixton, Wisconsin, in 2017. The aquaponic farm started off by growing greens like baby arugula and romaine lettuce and then became the first land-based Atlantic salmon farm in the U.S. when it added fish to the mix in 2018. Superior Fresh is now the world’s largest aquaponics facility, harvesting more than 5 million pounds of organic leafy greens and 1.5 million pounds of salmon each year.

Sustainable Solutions for Your Next Salmon Dinner

If you decide to get wild salmon, buy wild-caught salmon from Canada, except Chinook or coho salmons caught on British Columbia, Canada’s South Coast. Buy Chinook salmon caught in the U.S. or Canada, except from the U.S. Puget Sound or British Columbia, Canada’s South Coast. Salmon from overfished populations are caught in these locations. 

All chum salmon is wild-caught, and it’s unknown if the main chum populations are healthy, though overfishing is unlikely. Chum salmon is also marketed as dog salmon, keta salmon, or silverbrite salmon.All pink salmon is wild-caught, and the populations are healthy. Pink salmon is also marketed as humpback salmon. All sockeye salmon is wild-caught, and most populations are healthy. Sockeye salmon is also marketed as blueback or red salmon.

If you go with farmed salmon, take a look at the labels and how they are raised.

Avoid farmed Atlantic salmon from Canada, Chile, Norway, or Scotland, except when purchasing from businesses committed to sustainable seafood, it’s ASC-certified, or you confirm it’s from a Good Alternative source.

The Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) is a leadership initiative established by leading farmed salmon CEOs from around the world who share a vision of providing a healthy and sustainable source of protein to feed a growing population while minimizing their environmental footprint and continuing to improve their social contribution. (Global Salmon Initiative)

Looking for certifications is your best bet, but not every farm has an Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) or Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label.

Seafood Watch calls Atlantic salmon with indoor recirculating tanks the best choice in its salmon buying guide, but you may need to use a search engine to make sure of the conditions at the farm that your grocery store carries fish from.

Ask for advice from the fishmonger or look at prepackaged fish to find more information. 

If you do choose to buy net-pen farmed fish, Seafood Watch recommends Atlantic salmon farmed in Maine or the Faroe Islands. Most importantly, it recommends looking for labeling to confirm that the fish has been approved by the ASC or MSC.