Does atlantic salmon have contaminations?

Question

Is pacific salmon better to eat?

Answer 1

Hi Will,

Atlantic Salmon show the most contaminations. European farmed salmon produced the highest level of contamination, while fish from Chile, raised in the Pacific Ocean, had the lowest levels.

Answer 2

Yes. And yes.

The details include several issues, several species and several locations. So here goes:

All farmed fish are Atlantic salmon. All farmed fished "dyed for your dinner" because otherwise they'd have grey flesh. Some farmed fish are fed fish meal that has heavy metals in it, some are not. All farmed fish are in shallow coastal waters, but some are in more polluted water (generally the European fish as another poster noted).

Farmed fish have more parasites because of the crowded conditions (not that you can catch sea lice from them).

There are five speices of Pacific Salmon (Red=Sockeye, Pink=Humpies, King=Chinook, Silver=Coho, and Dog=Chum). None of them are farmed raised.

All Pacific salmon put on most of their weight in the open ocean, especially the North Pacific. The krill (reds) and bait fish (kings and silvers) they eat are pretty dang low in pollutants, vastly lower than what farmed fish are fed. When you hear any warning about "no more than 2 four-ounce servings/week, etc", they are NOT referring to Pacific Salmon. But to inland fish or long-lived ocean fish (tuna, swordfish, etc).

Best tasting, in order, IMO: sockeye, king, silver, atlantic, chum, pink.

Least contaminants: Any wild-caught salmon. i.e. Pacific salmon.

Best value (very low pollutants, good in omega-3 oils, cheap): pink salmon (they just don't have a lot of flavor to them).

Answer 3

I can't eat salmon because of the mercury , I ended up in the hospital after eating dinner out one night and had a reaction 20 minutes after i was done ... Not a pretty sight .

Answer 4

mainegov-images.informe.org/.../etweb/pdfs/atlanticsalmon_84_85.pdf