Regular readers of this e-zine are aware of its attention to the hazards to health posed by eating farmed salmon.

An article in the August 2003 issue "Would you feed these fish to your children?" detailed the shipment of virus infected salmon from the United States (Maine) for processing in Canada (New Brunswick), and the deaths of more than 350,000 farmed salmon over two seasons in Inver Bay (Ireland).

In September 2003 an article "Why are the salmon dying?" pointed to a series of disasters involving farmed salmon "in bays along the Pacific Coast of Canada, in North Atlantic fjords along the Norwegian coast, and in other waters." It also stressed the danger of eating such salmon:

"Because the flesh of the farm bred salmon is an unhealthy looking colour, they are fed a carcinogenic to make it pinker and more appealing to shoppers.

Are the pink pills for pale salmon dangerous to humans?

According to some findings, consumers would have to eat a lot before experiencing any toxic effect.

"With a little bit, with a little bit, with a little bit of luck you won't get sick."

That isn't good enough, for adults, for children, and for the salmon."

In February 2003 in "Something Fishy Going On" it was stated:

"The colouring agent is called Canthraxanthin, consumption of which over time can affect human eyesight.

The European Commission first established in 1997 that Canthraxanthin in artificially fed salmon was linked to eyesight problems….Canthraxanthin is also mixed in with chicken feed to produce yellower egg yolks.

Consumers have a choice: good eyesight, or artificially coloured food."

In December 2002 in "The Massacre of the Salmon" it was revealed that:

"In November, "the cruelest month", comes news from Canada's west coast that sea lice are killing salmon in huge numbers, lice linked to infestations on fish farms.

According to one report there has been a decline of catastrophic proportions in the numbers of British Columbia wild pink salmon.

The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, an independent federal panel chaired by former Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, the Hon. John Fraser, reports that the number of pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago between the northern tip of Vancouver Island and B.C.'s southern coast has dropped from 3.6 million to 147,000 in just the past two years.

The fish, which migrate to the Pacific Ocean from streams and fiords in the archipelago, pass about 20 salmon fish farms in the area."

Other articles included "Salmon Deaths in Ireland-Experts Baffled While Fish Die" and "The Erne Salmon-A Lesson from America".

Now, in February 2004, it comes as no shock to our readers to note that the world media in the first month of this year trumpeted the alarm that farm bred salmon are tainted with cancer-causing chemicals. US scientists published their findings, based on an analysis of two metric tonnes of salmon bought in shops in Europe, and in North and South America.

In the journal Science, they advise no more than two ounces of Scottish farmed salmon should be eaten every month.

Other farm bred salmon, they said, should be limited to an intake of four ounces every month.

Professor Ronald Hites, from the University of Indiana School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said: "We think it is important for people who eat salmon to know that farmed salmon have higher levels of toxins than wild salmon from the open ocean."

Quite naturally, spokespersons for the artificially bred salmon industry reject the findings, and say the study is "misleading the public".

To paraphrase a famous answer given by a witness in a famous British court case in the 1960s, "Well they would, wouldn't they?"

Again the question must be asked: "Would you feed these fish to your children?"

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