At an organic aquaculture symposium hosted by the USDA's National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the organisation presented a paper that it claims provides, for the first time, an international inventory of reported escapes from open net cage salmon farms.

It claims that the escape of "millions" of salmon from net cages every year has altered marine environments, coastal rivers and associated food chains around the world. Furthermore, it says that farmed salmon often compete with native wild salmon for food, habitat and mates.

As the NOSB attempts to label farmed salmon as organic, it is collecting data and input from scientists, academics, environmentalists, industry and other stakeholders.

The Pure Salmon Campaign says its paper addresses specific NOSB questions relating to the ecological impact of net cage fish farming systems and the current rate of escapes in both conventional aquaculture and emerging organic aquaculture industries abroad.

"This international inventory of escapes shows us that despite progressive policies, there is simply no way to prevent escapes from open net cages," said Rachel Hopkins, Pure Salmon Campaign representative and paper author. "These fugitive fish pose a major threat to the local marine ecosystem."

According to The Pure Salmon Campaign, key findings from the data show that:

- Between 2000 and 2006, at least 10.2 million farmed salmon and trout escaped from open net cages.

- Many major farmed salmon producing countries - such as Norway and Scotland - continue to report annual escapes in the thousands to millions, despite regulations aimed at controlling and eliminating escapes.

- Farmed salmon escapes have occurred within and surrounding marine protected areas, where wild salmon and other species are theoretically protected by national and international laws.

Furthermore, The Pure Salmon Campaign Group claims that escapes present risks of increasing disease outbreaks, proliferating possible disease transmission routes in the environment and decreasing the immunity of wild fish to disease. Scientific research has linked open net cage salmon farms with sea lice infestations in native, wild salmon populations, it says.

"Until we have proof that open net cage fish farms do not harm the ocean environment or the life within it, farmed fish including salmon should not be allowed to carry the coveted USDA organic label," said Andrea Kavanagh, director, Pure Salmon Campaign.

The organisation says that the lack of publicly available, official data on escapes from open net cage fish farming has hindered a comprehensive understanding of the rate of escapes globally. But, through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests in Scotland, Norway, Chile, the US and Australia, the Pure Salmon Campaign was able to obtain and compile previously confidential data on escapes from fish farms in those regions.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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