The following is a recap of news items about Salmon Farming we found of interest this past week:
Fish Farms - 60 Minutes - May 11, 2014
60 Minutes salmon story gets it right. Well, almost!
Posted by Alaska Salmon Ranching on Sunday, May 11, 2014 ·
There is a decade old saying in television: that when 60 Minutes shows up at your door, it can’t be good.
And you can be that that’s what anti-salmon farming activist Alexandra Morton was banking on when she pitched 60 Minutes the story about salmon farming. She’ll be thoroughly disappointed. They actually reported on the facts.
There are three segments posted by 60 Minutes.
The main episode (“Saving the wild salmon”) looks at the impacts of salmon farming. To sum up the 13 minute episode: the benefits of aquaculture far outweigh the impacts. While it is unfortunate that the show attempts to create some element of doubt by choosing to ignore thousands of sampled fish in Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia that clearly concluded no (that is “zero”) evidence of any foreign fish virus in the Pacific Northwest. The BC Salmon Farmers Association even provided this evidence to the show’s producer six months ago, but unfortunately he chose to ignore it.
Another segment (“Wild-caught or farmed? The diner’s dilemma”) concludes that all salmon (farmed, wild, wild-caught, ranched) are all very healthy for us. Great. End of story.
The final segment (“Salmon farms of the future?”) concludes that ocean and land farms can (and will) provide fish for the future. However, the images of the land-based farm profiled won’t have customers lined up at the seafood counter waiting to sample it’s product…
Overall, it was a fairly balanced show that provides consumers confidence in buying salmon: farm-raised, wild, or wild-caught.
http://www.alaskasalmonranching.com/60-minutes-salmon-story-gets-it-right-well-almost/
Fish Farms - 60 Minutes - prior to May 11 broadcast
“It was really interesting to host the crew for the day,” said Ian Roberts, Communications Manager for Marine Harvest Canada – who was interviewed for the segment. “We answered a lot of questions and shot a lot of footage – including some great shots of the area and the beautiful scenery. I’m very excited to see how it will all be put together in the final piece so people around the continent can see what a wonderful area we live in.”
The BCSFA has compiled a summary document of all the topics discussed on the day, both on and off camera. That document is available on the BCSFA website: CBS 60 Minutes Backgrounder
http://www.salmonfarmers.org/bcs-salmon-farmers-be-featured-60-minutes
News Of Interest
