Aquaculture Farm Manager Question:

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Many consumers' primary concerns have to do with pollutants such as mercury and PCBs. Unfortunately, these contaminants are in the environment and they find their way into our food supply-in wild and farmed fish and in poultry, beef, pork, and all the rest. In fish, high levels of these contaminants are associated with fish that eat high on the food chain and long lifespans. Aquaculture fish are the opposite: they don't living very long because they are raised to be harvested, and many (including some carnivorous fish) can be on a plant-based diets which reduces the accumulation of contaminants. In any event, the health and medical communities have concluded that the risk of contaminant exposure via seafood-wild or farmed-is near negligible, but the risk of NOT consuming seafood and reaping the benefits of lean protein and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids is substantial and deadly. Another misconception is that the aquaculture industry relies heavily on antibiotic drugs to boost performance. The truth is that there is no use of antibiotics or hormones for growth production in U.S. aquaculture, and the few drugs that are used to treat fish diseases are strictly regulated and only allowed when fish are sick and some sort of intervention is needed. As far as environmental impacts, it's not in the best interest of the farmers to raise fish in poor conditions because it will affect their bottom line. Fish will not grow well in polluted conditions, and escapement represents a catastrophic economic loss. In other words, fish farmers do everything they can to make sure they raise their fish under the best conditions possible-happy fish are healthy fish, and healthy fish grow quickly and efficiently and make fish farms profitable.