Is Farmed Salmon a Good Alternative to Wild-Caught Salmon?

Americans love salmon. It’s readily available fresh, frozen and canned. Whole sides of salmon lacquered in a sticky glaze make for a showstopping entree. Smaller portions cook up fast, making salmon a go-to protein for weeknight meals. And canned salmon is a healthy convenience item for adding to salads and turning into salmon cakes. Plus, salmon is one of the best food sources of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. So it’s no wonder that Americans consumed 420,000 metric tons of the fish in 2021 (the most recent year the data is available for).

But if you pictured your salmon swimming free in the ocean before it was caught, chances are that fish actually led a far different life. 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. (A quick biology refresher: Pacific and Atlantic salmon are part of the same family—Salmonidae—but are in different genuses—Atlantic is Salmo and Pacific is Oncorhynchus. While there is only one species of Atlantic salmon, there are several species of Pacific, including sockeye, pink, coho and king. Pacific and Atlantic salmon cannot breed with each other.) Both types of salmon can be farmed, but Pacific salmon is more commonly wild-caught.

Not All Salmon Farming Is the Same

If you are buying Atlantic salmon in the U.S., it’s going to be farmed. In fact, 70% of the salmon produced around the world is farmed. Why does that matter? That depends on the kind of salmon farm you’re buying from. According to Andy Danylchuk, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who focuses on fish conservation, salmon farming often relies on giant net pens in the ocean. He explained, “That’s bad because it doesn’t control for the potential outbreaks of disease and the transference to wild fish.” Those outbreaks include sea lice, or Lepeophtheirus salmonis, which can injure or kill salmon en masse. Escaped fish can also be a problem—biologists worry about farmed Atlantic salmon escapees breeding with wild Atlantic salmon and sullying the genetic pool of the endangered species. 

But what if salmon farming was done in a closed system, where fish couldn’t escape and the water could be filtered, even reused? Indoors and nowhere near the ocean, for instance, like in Wisconsin. 

Moving Salmon Farming Inside

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.

“We take all the water from the fish house and send it over to our commercial-scale greenhouse, and then we send the water back to the fish,” explained Nathan Hefti, Superior Fresh’s chief operating officer, in a video interview. “So it’s a total closed loop system. From a water usage standpoint, it’s probably one of the most sustainable agriculture businesses in the world, I would argue.”

Though Superior Fresh began farming greens a year before the salmon arrived, Hefti said aquaculture was the original business plan. Farmed Atlantic salmon is one of the most consumed fish in the United States (it accounts for two-thirds of American salmon consumption), but more than 90% of it is imported, he said, often from as far afield as Chile or Norway. And by growing greens on the farm as well, they had a sustainable way to use the waste produced by the fish.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Farmed Salmon

When asked why he recommends farmed salmon over wild-caught, Hefti said that he doesn’t necessarily. “I think they probably both have to exist,” he said. Instead, he looks at farming salmon as a way to solve the problem of overfishing. “The best way to help protect the wild species is to find healthy, sustainable ways to raise that protein alternatively,” he explained. “We consider ourselves the solution to people that have concerns about eating [net-pen] farmed fish.” 

An additional benefit to farmed salmon is that there’s evidence that it is higher in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than wild-caught salmon. Farmed salmon tends to be fattier, so it also has marginally more omega-3s.

But not all farmed fish are created equal. For example, most commercially available fish food comes from wild fish, Danylchuk explained, which are often caught as far away as South America, increasing its carbon footprint. 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. 

Bottom Line

Salmon is one of the most consumed fish in the U.S. and around the world, and that’s unlikely to change. And since the wild salmon population can’t support our demand, farming is likely the wave of the future. 

As is the case whenever your goal is a good-for-you meal, reading labels is crucial. Looking for certifications is your best bet, but not every farm has an Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) or Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label. In that case, doing a little research can’t hurt. For example, 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.

And if you prefer to buy wild-caught salmon, almost all wild-caught Pacific salmon is good. As to why he prefers wild-caught, Danylchuk said that wild fish are better connected to their ecosystem, and many coastal communities are supported by their fishing traditions. He admitted that he very rarely eats salmon, but when he does, it’s wild-caught from Alaska.

If you’re planning on salmon for dinner tonight, your best bet is transparency, whether you’re buying fish that’s farmed indoors or caught in the wild. The more you know, the better that recipe will taste and the better you’ll feel about the choice you made.