Heavy metals and “forever chemicals” emitted by open-pen salmon farms
Heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants are released into the environment from the fish feed used on open-pen salmon farms, half of which remains uneaten
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● “Norway today has a significant discharge of arsenic and heavy metals. To feed over 500 million farmed fish in the cages along the coast, over 2 million tonnes of fish feed (dry weight) were used in 2022. Based on data from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority's monitoring programme, the fish feed used from 2003 to 2020 contained a total of 79 tonnes of arsenic, 1.7 tonnes of lead, 5.8 tonnes of cadmium and 0.7 tonnes of mercury. Arsenic and heavy metals are elements and do not break down. Many organic pollutants that are difficult to break down also accumulate in the environment and have serious negative health effects. In fish feed used in 2022, there was, among other things, 11 kg of DDT and 200 kg of glyphosate, which is the active substance in Roundup. Both of these have been shown to have epigenetic effects and will thereby be able to influence future generations as well. Some of this ends up in the fish, but half of the feed remains uneaten and ends up in the fjord together with the faeces from the fish.” 18 September 2024
Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association
● “There are a number of foreign substances that enter the environment from fish farms. Fish feed can contain various environmental toxins that come from the feed ingredients and these can be added to the environment both through feed waste and through the fish's excrement (faeces). […] The raw materials used for feed production contain, among other things, halogenated organic compounds such as PCBs, dioxins, furans, chlorinated pesticides, brominated flame retardants and heavy metal compounds such as copper, zinc, mercury, arsenic and cadmium.”
Risk report Norwegian fish farming 2024 published by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research
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● The above-mentioned chemicals (PCBs, dioxins, furans, chlorinated pesticides, brominated flame retardants) are persistent organic pollutants aka ”forever chemicals”.
“Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are hazardous chemicals that threaten human health and the planet’s ecosystems. POPs remain intact for a long time, widely distributed throughout the environment they accumulate and magnify in living organisms through the food chain and are toxic to both humans and wildlife.” Reference
● “Studies have linked POPs exposures to declines, diseases, or abnormalities in a number of wildlife species, including certain kinds of fish, birds, and mammals.”
“In people, reproductive, developmental, behavioral, neurologic, endocrine, and immunologic adverse health effects have been linked to POPs.”
“POPs work their way through the food chain by accumulating in the body fat of living organisms and becoming more concentrated as they move from one creature to another. This process is known as "biomagnification." When contaminants found in small amounts at the bottom of the food chain biomagnify, they can pose a significant hazard to predators that feed at the top of the food chain. This means that even small releases of POPs can have significant impacts.” Reference
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“In many places, environmental toxins and organic material are in the process of destroying life in the fjords. People who live near fish farms can observe for themselves the fouling of the beach zone, that local fishing is destroyed and that life in the fjord is suffocated.” 18 September 2024
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“Researchers at Norway’s Institute of Marine Research (IMR) have identified PFAS compounds, a group of persistent synthetic compounds, and their chemical precursors in a range of ingredients used in salmon feed, suggesting current monitoring methods may not capture the full picture of the substances entering aquaculture production.”
“Researchers said they detected more PFAS precursor compounds, substances that can be converted into PFAS, than PFAS themselves. According to HI, this indicates that existing analytical methods may underestimate the total PFAS burden associated with feed ingredients.”