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The New Fish: The Truth about Farmed Salmon and the Consequences We Can No Longer Ignore
Eat more fish, the doctors say. But is the salmon you are consuming really healthy? In the early 1970s, a group of scientists researched how to make more food for the growing population of the world. They looked to the sea. They sampled genes from salmon in 41 Norwegian and Swedish rivers and designed a new salmon that was fatter and faster growing. This was considered an amazing innovation and was the beginning of a new salmon farming. The industry spread from coastal Norway to Scotland, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Chile, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the United States. Business boomed, jobs were created, and a new type of food, the farmed salmon, spread around the globe. People everywhere bought and enjoyed the abundant grilled, poached, roasted, and as sushi and sashimi. They were grateful for this delicious, affordable protein.
But at what cost?
We now know that there were unintended some of these new fish escaped, competing for sustenance with other fish in the sea. The new fish spread diseases, salmon louse swarmed, and wild salmon stocks dwindles.
In a prizewinning five-year investigation, authors Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli took an in-depth look at Norway’s role in the global salmon industry and, for the first time, produced a comprehensive evaluation of the detrimental effects of salmon farming. From lice to escapees, from concentrating the waste of sea pens in the fjords through which wild salmon swim to their natal streams to the fact that salmon farming causes a net reduction of protein reaped from the ocean, the results don’t look good. Recent victories, such as the banning of net-pen fish farms in the waters of Washington State, are an indication that we are awakening to the environmental price of engineered fish. It is said that we will continue to make the same mistakes unless we understand them. The New Fish combines nature writing from Norwegian fjords, the coast of Canada, Icelandic landscapes and the far south of Chile with character-driven literary non-fiction and classic muckraking. The authors started with this What happens when you create a new animal and place it in the sea? This book will tell you the answer.
But at what cost?
We now know that there were unintended some of these new fish escaped, competing for sustenance with other fish in the sea. The new fish spread diseases, salmon louse swarmed, and wild salmon stocks dwindles.
In a prizewinning five-year investigation, authors Simen Sætre and Kjetil Østli took an in-depth look at Norway’s role in the global salmon industry and, for the first time, produced a comprehensive evaluation of the detrimental effects of salmon farming. From lice to escapees, from concentrating the waste of sea pens in the fjords through which wild salmon swim to their natal streams to the fact that salmon farming causes a net reduction of protein reaped from the ocean, the results don’t look good. Recent victories, such as the banning of net-pen fish farms in the waters of Washington State, are an indication that we are awakening to the environmental price of engineered fish. It is said that we will continue to make the same mistakes unless we understand them. The New Fish combines nature writing from Norwegian fjords, the coast of Canada, Icelandic landscapes and the far south of Chile with character-driven literary non-fiction and classic muckraking. The authors started with this What happens when you create a new animal and place it in the sea? This book will tell you the answer.
365 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2021
70 people are currently reading
831 people want to read
About the author
Simen Sætre
9 books10 followersSimen Sætre (b. 1974) is a journalist in Morgenbladet. He has lived in New York, China, and West Africa, where he has written about development and international politics. Sætre's earlier publications include The Little Ugly Chocholate Book (Den lille stygge sjokoladeboka), 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
July 3, 2023
The salmon you eat is all but certainly farmed, shot with dye so it comes out pink, and chock full of meds and poisons. There are almost no wild salmon to catch commercially any more, and a big part of it is precisely because of salmon farming. The industry is the pride of Norway, and has spread around the world, eliminating local salmon as it goes. We are rapidly approaching the days when farmed Atlantic salmon is the only salmon available. This grinding story is laid out in all its aspects by Semin Setri and Kjetli Ostli in The New Fish.
The authors are Norwegian journalists. They put six years into this book, visiting farmed salmon facilities in Norway, Scotland, Canada, USA, Chile – and seeing for themselves how Norway has inspired the whole planet to farm salmon. They’ve verified what they’ve been told, sought proof for claims, and expanded in every direction the story took them, following every lead to a conclusion. The result is a totally fair and evenhanded picture of where we are today and how we got here. It is far less than pretty. It is, at bottom, ugly hubris and playing God. The whole world is actually poorer for it – except for the fishfarming billionaires, of course.
In the 1960s, some Norwegians decided they could do salmon better. They tried cross-breeding them with trout and other fish, fed them this and that, and in general sought to increase their size while reducing the time it took for them to grow. Really quickly, they thought they did that successfully and were excited to start raising them in huge quantities in pens at the mouths of fjords, where their natural precursors passed on the way to and from spawning. There was no one to monitor it, much less regulate what they were attempting. The prospect of frankenfish never held anyone or anything back.
As with the domestication of any animal (including homo Sapiens), there were unforeseen changes they only found out about later. The new fish grew really fast, and far bigger than their wild cousins. This meant less time and money raising them. On the other hand, their flesh was gray not pink, and very unattractive in things like sushi. So vendors produced dyes, in a palette of pinks, whatever shade the farmer wants. Farmed salmon is faked right on the package. And then it gets worse.
It transpired the new fish were slow swimmers. This was not surprising since they were penned up their whole lives and never had to navigate a waterfall, rapids or an ocean. But when they started escaping the pens in huge numbers, scientists found out the hard way they had tiny, deformed hearts. No great concern in a pen perhaps, but these fish turned up dead at the seemingly the slightest exertion or even stress. Stress could be a change in water temperature or moving them around for processing. They all have elevated levels of cortisol. And the fatal Piscine Myocarditis Virus. Their Cardiomyopathy Syndrome causes massive blood surges all over the body, and the heart bursts.
And farmed salmon don’t communicate like other fish. Many say they appear to be deaf. One way or another, tens of thousands of dead farmed salmon turn up around seemingly all such farms. Norway alone reports 52 million salmon die before they reach harvest weight. Annually. And that doesn’t include young fry that don’t even make it to adolescence.
What becomes of all those dead fish? They become fishmeal to feed – the salmon. The stats are that 68% of all fishmeal in the world go to feed farmed fish, along with 88% of fish oil. Because salmon are predators. They eat smaller fish. Whole species of smaller fish are being wiped out in order to feed farmed salmon.
But the really big problem was (and remains) lice. Salmon lice had always been there, but fast moving salmon spread out over rivers and oceans avoided contact with them. In pens however, it was like – well – shooting fish in a barrel. Unbelievable numbers of lice cling to farmed salmon. They burrow into the flesh, leaving living salmon with great chunks missing and exposed flesh bleeding. The salmon sicken and die. Worse, the lice are now in such numbers they infect passing wild salmon too. The pens are a death sentence for all salmon, wild and farmed. Lice are the salmon farms’ largest product.
Not having projected anything like this (what could possibly go wrong?) farmers tried (and continue to try) everything. They scraped the salmon, put them in heated water or cold water – anything to loosen the grip of the lice. They tried all kinds of chemicals and poisons. For example, the entrance to fjords all over Norway now suffer the presence of 120,000 metric tonnes of hydrogen peroxide, which kills all kinds of crustaceans, but leaves the lice alone.
They tried cleaner fish – small fish that pick the lice off bigger fish. But the cleaner fish cannot live in the waters where the salmon are raised, and die out every time they are shipped in. They are now scarce as a result.
Farmed salmon are also physically deformed, with an entire menu of deformities in varying penetrations within the crop, from wavy spines to crooked mouths to misshapen hearts.
All the chemicals and poisons the farmers dumped on them made the salmon suspect for human consumption. Studies were undertaken. Yet in one remarkable study, Norwegian scientists found it to be perfectly safe for pregnant women. No ill effects at all. It turned out that was because they refused to feed the women farmed salmon. They ate wild only. The researchers said it was out of the question to give farmed salmon to pregnant women subjects. Far too dangerous. A most ridiculous study that proved the point better than anything.
As with cattle, getting protein from salmon is highly inefficient. More than half the cleared acreage in the Amazon goes for animal feed production, mostly soy. A salmon eats five meals of human food for every meal it gives us, the authors say. Salmon comes third after beef and pork in its outsized climate footprint. Even chicken turns in a better performance than salmon.
And yet, that is how Norway portrays it to the world – a miracle of sustainable farmed protein. Aquaculture is Norway’s gift to the future of mankind.
One of the biggest problems is the government of Norway itself. It is salmon farming’s biggest fan. It extols the virtues everywhere it goes. Its various government-sponsored organizations keep a tight rein on scientists, forbidding them to say anything negative about it. The government seems totally focused on aligning everyone’s enthusiastic support for farmed salmon. Millions of tons of it now ship to the world annually.
Even the authors felt it. Before the book came out, they published an article from it that wasn’t totally onside, or at least that was the way the government saw it. The criticism of them came from all corners of the country. The pressure was intense. Their credibility was shot. They couldn’t get interviews with anyone. Zero co-operation was the government’s game, and it had the power to implement and enforce it. The authors were messing with the saintly image of Norway, when no one was allowed to challenge it.
Meanwhile, wild salmon have a huge role to play on Earth, and eliminating them will bite back hard. Because wild salmon have all but disappeared. Salmon fishing seasons are being cancelled all over the planet. (One Norwegian salmon fisher complained that he finally got a tug on the line, but no fight. It turned out to be an escaped farmed salmon. It had no strength and no fight in it. He said it was like reeling in a plastic bag.)
The authors interviewed Alexandra Morton, who has been fighting the farming of salmon in the Pacific northwest and Canada for 40 years. She says “They head out to sea, drawing energy from the sunlight on the water, which causes plankton to bloom, which are in turn eaten by animal plankton, which are in turn eaten by the small salmon, who during their migration to the sea accumulate energy and then bring it back to the coast, where they also feed other species. Why care about salmon? If you breathe, you have to care about salmon.”
The book is absolutely wonderfully laid out. There are lots of photos demonstrating what the authors are talking about. The images of salmon festooned with lice as they swim around are unforgettable. So too are images of thousands of deformed and dead salmon. But they are counterbalanced by the stunning vistas of the coast of Norway, even if every fjord entrance is clogged with salmon pens. Each chapter is concise, dealing with some issue that would never have even occurred to most readers. This makes the whole thing a revelation. It is written like a newspaper feature, meaning it is a clear, swift read, easy to understand and powerful in its message. But it also profiles its human subjects so readers know their backgrounds and passions. It does it all and it does it well.
Towards the end, they quote some wisdom from people who had far more insight into how the world works than the government of Norway does. Here’s Walt Whitman: “It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.” And John Muir: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
I can only hope The New Fish wins a rack of awards to put the silencers in government and the industry back in their place. And maybe save the salmon.
David Wineberg
(The New Fish, Simen Setri, Kjetil Ostli, July 2023)
If you liked this review, I invite you to read more in my book The Straight Dope. It’s an essay collection based on my first thousand reviews and what I learned. Right now it’s FREE for Prime members, otherwise — cheap! Reputed to be fascinating and a superfast read. And you already know it is well-written. https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-...
The authors are Norwegian journalists. They put six years into this book, visiting farmed salmon facilities in Norway, Scotland, Canada, USA, Chile – and seeing for themselves how Norway has inspired the whole planet to farm salmon. They’ve verified what they’ve been told, sought proof for claims, and expanded in every direction the story took them, following every lead to a conclusion. The result is a totally fair and evenhanded picture of where we are today and how we got here. It is far less than pretty. It is, at bottom, ugly hubris and playing God. The whole world is actually poorer for it – except for the fishfarming billionaires, of course.
In the 1960s, some Norwegians decided they could do salmon better. They tried cross-breeding them with trout and other fish, fed them this and that, and in general sought to increase their size while reducing the time it took for them to grow. Really quickly, they thought they did that successfully and were excited to start raising them in huge quantities in pens at the mouths of fjords, where their natural precursors passed on the way to and from spawning. There was no one to monitor it, much less regulate what they were attempting. The prospect of frankenfish never held anyone or anything back.
As with the domestication of any animal (including homo Sapiens), there were unforeseen changes they only found out about later. The new fish grew really fast, and far bigger than their wild cousins. This meant less time and money raising them. On the other hand, their flesh was gray not pink, and very unattractive in things like sushi. So vendors produced dyes, in a palette of pinks, whatever shade the farmer wants. Farmed salmon is faked right on the package. And then it gets worse.
It transpired the new fish were slow swimmers. This was not surprising since they were penned up their whole lives and never had to navigate a waterfall, rapids or an ocean. But when they started escaping the pens in huge numbers, scientists found out the hard way they had tiny, deformed hearts. No great concern in a pen perhaps, but these fish turned up dead at the seemingly the slightest exertion or even stress. Stress could be a change in water temperature or moving them around for processing. They all have elevated levels of cortisol. And the fatal Piscine Myocarditis Virus. Their Cardiomyopathy Syndrome causes massive blood surges all over the body, and the heart bursts.
And farmed salmon don’t communicate like other fish. Many say they appear to be deaf. One way or another, tens of thousands of dead farmed salmon turn up around seemingly all such farms. Norway alone reports 52 million salmon die before they reach harvest weight. Annually. And that doesn’t include young fry that don’t even make it to adolescence.
What becomes of all those dead fish? They become fishmeal to feed – the salmon. The stats are that 68% of all fishmeal in the world go to feed farmed fish, along with 88% of fish oil. Because salmon are predators. They eat smaller fish. Whole species of smaller fish are being wiped out in order to feed farmed salmon.
But the really big problem was (and remains) lice. Salmon lice had always been there, but fast moving salmon spread out over rivers and oceans avoided contact with them. In pens however, it was like – well – shooting fish in a barrel. Unbelievable numbers of lice cling to farmed salmon. They burrow into the flesh, leaving living salmon with great chunks missing and exposed flesh bleeding. The salmon sicken and die. Worse, the lice are now in such numbers they infect passing wild salmon too. The pens are a death sentence for all salmon, wild and farmed. Lice are the salmon farms’ largest product.
Not having projected anything like this (what could possibly go wrong?) farmers tried (and continue to try) everything. They scraped the salmon, put them in heated water or cold water – anything to loosen the grip of the lice. They tried all kinds of chemicals and poisons. For example, the entrance to fjords all over Norway now suffer the presence of 120,000 metric tonnes of hydrogen peroxide, which kills all kinds of crustaceans, but leaves the lice alone.
They tried cleaner fish – small fish that pick the lice off bigger fish. But the cleaner fish cannot live in the waters where the salmon are raised, and die out every time they are shipped in. They are now scarce as a result.
Farmed salmon are also physically deformed, with an entire menu of deformities in varying penetrations within the crop, from wavy spines to crooked mouths to misshapen hearts.
All the chemicals and poisons the farmers dumped on them made the salmon suspect for human consumption. Studies were undertaken. Yet in one remarkable study, Norwegian scientists found it to be perfectly safe for pregnant women. No ill effects at all. It turned out that was because they refused to feed the women farmed salmon. They ate wild only. The researchers said it was out of the question to give farmed salmon to pregnant women subjects. Far too dangerous. A most ridiculous study that proved the point better than anything.
As with cattle, getting protein from salmon is highly inefficient. More than half the cleared acreage in the Amazon goes for animal feed production, mostly soy. A salmon eats five meals of human food for every meal it gives us, the authors say. Salmon comes third after beef and pork in its outsized climate footprint. Even chicken turns in a better performance than salmon.
And yet, that is how Norway portrays it to the world – a miracle of sustainable farmed protein. Aquaculture is Norway’s gift to the future of mankind.
One of the biggest problems is the government of Norway itself. It is salmon farming’s biggest fan. It extols the virtues everywhere it goes. Its various government-sponsored organizations keep a tight rein on scientists, forbidding them to say anything negative about it. The government seems totally focused on aligning everyone’s enthusiastic support for farmed salmon. Millions of tons of it now ship to the world annually.
Even the authors felt it. Before the book came out, they published an article from it that wasn’t totally onside, or at least that was the way the government saw it. The criticism of them came from all corners of the country. The pressure was intense. Their credibility was shot. They couldn’t get interviews with anyone. Zero co-operation was the government’s game, and it had the power to implement and enforce it. The authors were messing with the saintly image of Norway, when no one was allowed to challenge it.
Meanwhile, wild salmon have a huge role to play on Earth, and eliminating them will bite back hard. Because wild salmon have all but disappeared. Salmon fishing seasons are being cancelled all over the planet. (One Norwegian salmon fisher complained that he finally got a tug on the line, but no fight. It turned out to be an escaped farmed salmon. It had no strength and no fight in it. He said it was like reeling in a plastic bag.)
The authors interviewed Alexandra Morton, who has been fighting the farming of salmon in the Pacific northwest and Canada for 40 years. She says “They head out to sea, drawing energy from the sunlight on the water, which causes plankton to bloom, which are in turn eaten by animal plankton, which are in turn eaten by the small salmon, who during their migration to the sea accumulate energy and then bring it back to the coast, where they also feed other species. Why care about salmon? If you breathe, you have to care about salmon.”
The book is absolutely wonderfully laid out. There are lots of photos demonstrating what the authors are talking about. The images of salmon festooned with lice as they swim around are unforgettable. So too are images of thousands of deformed and dead salmon. But they are counterbalanced by the stunning vistas of the coast of Norway, even if every fjord entrance is clogged with salmon pens. Each chapter is concise, dealing with some issue that would never have even occurred to most readers. This makes the whole thing a revelation. It is written like a newspaper feature, meaning it is a clear, swift read, easy to understand and powerful in its message. But it also profiles its human subjects so readers know their backgrounds and passions. It does it all and it does it well.
Towards the end, they quote some wisdom from people who had far more insight into how the world works than the government of Norway does. Here’s Walt Whitman: “It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.” And John Muir: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
I can only hope The New Fish wins a rack of awards to put the silencers in government and the industry back in their place. And maybe save the salmon.
David Wineberg
(The New Fish, Simen Setri, Kjetil Ostli, July 2023)
If you liked this review, I invite you to read more in my book The Straight Dope. It’s an essay collection based on my first thousand reviews and what I learned. Right now it’s FREE for Prime members, otherwise — cheap! Reputed to be fascinating and a superfast read. And you already know it is well-written. https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-...
January 1, 2022
Veldig velskrevet bok om - ikke for eller mot - oppdrett. Dessverre er det mest negativt med oppdrett. Forfatterne tar for seg den femti år lange historien om oppdrett av laks i Norge, og hvordan norske selskaper driver oppdrett i andre land. Kildelisten er på 75 sider.
Oppdrettslaksen i dag er en krysning av veldig mange varianter, noen ganger er den som en nyskapt art (triploid, steril). Miljøet og dyr lider, mens eierne blir milliardærer. Næringen er blitt så stor og mektig at staten ikke kan stå imot. Norske myndigheter bidrar til å undergrave uavhengige forskere som avdekker kritikkverdige forhold. Laksen fôres med fisk som ville gitt mer næring til verden hvis det i stedet ble brukt som menneskemat direkte. Fiskens vern må styrkes, sammen med uavhengige kontrollorganer og åpenhet. Og næringen må betale mer tilbake til samfunnet (grunnrente, skatt, osv). Vil det bli en debatt med utgangspunkt i denne boken? Neppe.
Oppdrettslaksen i dag er en krysning av veldig mange varianter, noen ganger er den som en nyskapt art (triploid, steril). Miljøet og dyr lider, mens eierne blir milliardærer. Næringen er blitt så stor og mektig at staten ikke kan stå imot. Norske myndigheter bidrar til å undergrave uavhengige forskere som avdekker kritikkverdige forhold. Laksen fôres med fisk som ville gitt mer næring til verden hvis det i stedet ble brukt som menneskemat direkte. Fiskens vern må styrkes, sammen med uavhengige kontrollorganer og åpenhet. Og næringen må betale mer tilbake til samfunnet (grunnrente, skatt, osv). Vil det bli en debatt med utgangspunkt i denne boken? Neppe.
November 5, 2021
Et aldri så lite journalistisk mesterverk.
January 22, 2022
Denne boken ga meg en skikkelig oppvekker. Etter å ha lest denne har jeg fått et helt annet syn på lakseindustrien og jeg føler meg lurt av myndighetene. Dersom du er opptatt av helse, miljø og dyrevelferd er det bare å styre unna laksen!
August 24, 2024
Took me a while to read because it is a heavy read. I am amazed by the authors’ commitment in writing this book about an industry which has successfully silenced so many researchers, journalists, veterinarians, and anyone opposed to salmon farming. Reminds readers how mass food production can dull our understanding of living things. I was deeply troubled to read how carelessly salmon was dealt with and how permanently politics, money, science, and food are tied together. The book is sad but incredibly insightful.
July 26, 2022
En slags utrolig engasjerende essaysamling. Les den i et jafs, og les deretter de ulike delene der det måtte behøves. Spis noe annet enn oppdrettslaks.
July 18, 2022
En grundig gjennomgang av historien til en industri som prioriterer profitt over alt annet.
Profitt er viktigere enn helsen til menneskene som spiser laksen: Å rense fôret til laksen for miljøgifter blir nedprioritert. Det kjøres lobbyvirksomhet for å øke grenseverdiene for inntak av giftige stoffer. Og forskning som viser at det er skadelig å spise for mye laks pga disse miljøgiftene blir feid under teppet.
Profitt er viktigere enn ærlighet: Forskere blir utsatt for enorme propagandakampanjer hvis de sier noe næringen ikke liker. Og hvis det faglige ikke kan undergraves, så kan de alltid legge press på sjefen til forskeren, eller sjefen enda et hakk over der igjen, sånn at forskeren får munnkurv og ikke kan uttale seg lenger.
Profitt er viktigere enn dyrevelferd: Lakseoppdrett lider av mange av de samme problemene som annet industrielt dyrehold. Mye sykdom pga tett kontakt som gir smitte av parasitter og virus. Sykdommer, sår og skader pga dårlig plass og for hurtig vekst. Forskjellen er at kravene til dyrevelferd for laksen er så godt som ikke-eksisterende. Og næringen vil at det skal fortsette slik, sånn at de slipper å bruke ressurser på å faktisk gjøre utbedringer.
Profitt er viktigere enn miljøet: Midler for å drepe lus dumpes rett i sjøen og skader mange arter i områdene rundt merdene. Mat som ellers kunne mettet oss mennesker flys over halve kloden bare for å brukes til å fôre laks. Rømt oppdrettslaks er en viktig årsak til at villaksen sliter: rømlingene vanner ut genetikken til villaksen og sprer lus og sykdommer til dem.
Profitt er viktigere enn helsen til menneskene som spiser laksen: Å rense fôret til laksen for miljøgifter blir nedprioritert. Det kjøres lobbyvirksomhet for å øke grenseverdiene for inntak av giftige stoffer. Og forskning som viser at det er skadelig å spise for mye laks pga disse miljøgiftene blir feid under teppet.
Profitt er viktigere enn ærlighet: Forskere blir utsatt for enorme propagandakampanjer hvis de sier noe næringen ikke liker. Og hvis det faglige ikke kan undergraves, så kan de alltid legge press på sjefen til forskeren, eller sjefen enda et hakk over der igjen, sånn at forskeren får munnkurv og ikke kan uttale seg lenger.
Profitt er viktigere enn dyrevelferd: Lakseoppdrett lider av mange av de samme problemene som annet industrielt dyrehold. Mye sykdom pga tett kontakt som gir smitte av parasitter og virus. Sykdommer, sår og skader pga dårlig plass og for hurtig vekst. Forskjellen er at kravene til dyrevelferd for laksen er så godt som ikke-eksisterende. Og næringen vil at det skal fortsette slik, sånn at de slipper å bruke ressurser på å faktisk gjøre utbedringer.
Profitt er viktigere enn miljøet: Midler for å drepe lus dumpes rett i sjøen og skader mange arter i områdene rundt merdene. Mat som ellers kunne mettet oss mennesker flys over halve kloden bare for å brukes til å fôre laks. Rømt oppdrettslaks er en viktig årsak til at villaksen sliter: rømlingene vanner ut genetikken til villaksen og sprer lus og sykdommer til dem.
January 26, 2025
I wouldn’t even eat an bradán feasa after reading this
June 17, 2025
Provoserende lesing. Spiser nok ikke laks igjen med det første.
April 27, 2023
Yksi parhaista lukemistani, ellei jopa paras, faktakirjoista. Suosittelen aivan jokaiselle. Kirjassa paneudutaan lohibisnekseen, mutta samoja elementtejä esiintyy muuallakin teollisuuden/talouden sektoreilla: ympäristön tietoista tai tiedostamatonta tuhoa talouskasvun nimissä, missä viis veisataan asiantuntijoiden varoituksista tai varovaisuusperiaatteista. Kuinka lainsäädäntöä väännetään sellaiseksi, että ravinto saisi sisältää yhä enemmän ja enemmän ympäristömyrkkyjä ym. ihmisenkin tuottamia haitallisia aineita. Kuinka kohtuutta ja viisautta vaativat hiljennetään. Miten järjetöntä ihmisen toiminta voi olla, vaikka olisi vaihtoehtoja toteuttaa asiat kestävästi. Opin paljon uutta, joskin mistään en yllättynyt (paitsi ehkä parista asiasta, joissa toimia toteutettiin ilman riittävää pohjatutkimusta, ja perseelleenhän se meni).
January 13, 2022
Det blir ikke laks til middag i dag
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2023
Hvis du spiser oppdrettslaks etter å ha lest denne boken burde du lese den på nytt.
July 11, 2024
soleklar 5/5, veldig godt skrevet og vise frem skyggesidene ved norsk oppdrett, ikkje bare solskinnshistoriene, anbefalast!
March 24, 2024
Wow. Just WOW. Our food system is in crisis and we should all be paying far more attention to where our food comes from and how it’s been harvested. If you’ve ever balked at seafood prices or been curious what labels like “wild caught” really mean, this is an engrossing read.
We need these fish farmers. We need our fishermen (and women!) We need better transparency. We need better regulation and fairer pricing. We all need to know more. This is a start.
We need these fish farmers. We need our fishermen (and women!) We need better transparency. We need better regulation and fairer pricing. We all need to know more. This is a start.
June 21, 2025
An eye opening account of the salmon aquaculture industry! The authors meticulously trace the history, science, economics and social complexities of the farmed 'salmon world'. I had known about some of the basic problems with the industry from an ecological side but reading this book really alarmed me about the strange political, social and economic aspects of salmon aquaculture. Really meticulously written. Must read!
December 29, 2025
Sylskarp, metodisk, trist og morsom. Fremstiller laksenæringen som et sykelig eksempel på hva som skjer når en ved hvert eneste problem dundrer på med første og beste løsning heller enn å, tja, tenke seg litt om, kanskje vurdere å skalere ned? Regulere litt? Nei føkk det, dunk på med hydrogenperoksid og gjør fisken triploid, dyrevelferd be damned, økosystem schmøkosystem.
Men verdiskapning da i alle fall :)
Men verdiskapning da i alle fall :)
September 26, 2023
If you eat salmon of any kind you have to read this book. Backed with photos the authors tell how farmed salmon have not only ruined the ecosystem but that you have no idea what you are really eating. The authors are journalists who spent six years researching.
November 23, 2025
Meget interessant bok!
August 27, 2025
Litt vel mørk og negativt ladet, synes den gjerne kunne snakket mer om det positive ved lakseoppdrett også.
April 16, 2024
Chapeau. Tutkivat toimittajat on tehneet todellisen uroteon tätä mätäpaisetta puhkoessaan, ja riskeeranneet samalla uransa. Kirja on pakattu täyteen asiaa, eikä muuta tarvita, koska faktat on täysin vastaansanomattomia.
Lohiteollisuus on miljardibisnestä ja noudattaa siten samaa logiikkaa kuin muutkin alat, joilla liikkuu paljon rahaa: luonnonvarat on käytettävä ripeästi ja sumeilematta, ennen kuin joku muu ehtii ensin. Viis laeista, moraalista, luonnosta, eläimille aiheutetusta kärsimyksestä tai ihmisten terveydestä.
Lohiteollisuus on miljardibisnestä ja noudattaa siten samaa logiikkaa kuin muutkin alat, joilla liikkuu paljon rahaa: luonnonvarat on käytettävä ripeästi ja sumeilematta, ennen kuin joku muu ehtii ensin. Viis laeista, moraalista, luonnosta, eläimille aiheutetusta kärsimyksestä tai ihmisten terveydestä.
July 9, 2023
Suosittelen jokaisen lukemaan tämän kirjan. Aivan järkyttävää toimintaa Norjassa lohenkasvatuksen suhteen. Tämänkään jälkeen ei todellakaan tee mieli ostaa norjalaista lohta. On käsittämätöntä, että vaikka tiedetään ongelmat, yritetään sulkea täysin silmät niiltä.
March 12, 2023
Heittämällä yks parhaista tietokirjoista jonka oon lukenut.
May 27, 2023
They can't keep getting away with it !!!!!!!!!!!
October 16, 2023
Kirja täyttä asiaa, mutta olisi kaivannut pientä kustannustoimittamista ja tiivistämistä. Nyt se oli kiinnostavasta aiheesta huolimatta vähän raskasta luettavaa.
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October 26, 2023Did NOT read the whole thing but had to read a bunch of chapters for class so you bet I'm gonna add it here 😚
September 24, 2024
Superviktig for alle som er opptatt av oppdrett og mangfoldet i havet - og ikke minst oppdrettslaks spesielt.
November 27, 2023
We have all heard about the horrors of fish farming - the die offs, the toxins in the meat, the environmental damage. This book, focused mainly on big corporate salmon farming in Norway, gives all of the gory details. The message is overwhelmingly negative, except that the authors are not against fish farming per se; they are only against the way that it is currently practiced. It seems that salmon farming is never going to be carbon friendly because of the food that the salmon eat and the inevitable impact of harvesting, processing and shipping the fish. And the meat isn't going to be healthy to eat regularly until we clean up the rest of the food chain that ends up in the salmon. But if the fish are raised in pens that are not connected to the sea so that they cannot escape, and if the scale of the business is contained, most of the worst horrors can be mitigated, but that doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon, and I confess that I do enjoy salmon so people like me will continue to contribute to the problem. Eating only wild caught salmon can't be the answer since doing that just pushes the already greatly diminished wild populations closer to extinction. It's unfortunate. It used to seem that eating fish instead of beef and choosing farmed fish over wild caught was such an easy environmentally friendly choice. Sigh. I guess I need to retreat to the country and subsist on vegetables I raise on my own land.
January 5, 2024
“The New Fish” is likely my favorite book on salmon aquaculture. I’ve read about 5 books that either focus a large portion of the book on the topic, or are completely about salmon farming.
If you want to read about the salmon farming industry, with a primary focus on Norway, media surrounding the industry, and the systemic issues of the industry, this would be the book for you!
The writing is concise, engaging, and at times philosophical, which I really appreciate given the topic at hand. I love how they interview and share perspectives from lots of different people. I also particularly like how the labeling of “activist” by the industry has affected researchers and Indigenous people. It’s also important to outline and include the colonial aspect of salmon farming and the negative climate impacts of industry practices.
They don’t end with the message, “get rid of aquaculture altogether”, as that is not realistic nor helpful. The book outlines the issues of the industry, from systemically silencing and scaring critics to the biological issues of farms like lice and viruses. One thing I do wish they had included was a bit about land-based salmon aquaculture or information about improvements in the industry/suggested for the industry. I think this could’ve been a good chapter near the end of the book.
If you want to read about the salmon farming industry, with a primary focus on Norway, media surrounding the industry, and the systemic issues of the industry, this would be the book for you!
The writing is concise, engaging, and at times philosophical, which I really appreciate given the topic at hand. I love how they interview and share perspectives from lots of different people. I also particularly like how the labeling of “activist” by the industry has affected researchers and Indigenous people. It’s also important to outline and include the colonial aspect of salmon farming and the negative climate impacts of industry practices.
They don’t end with the message, “get rid of aquaculture altogether”, as that is not realistic nor helpful. The book outlines the issues of the industry, from systemically silencing and scaring critics to the biological issues of farms like lice and viruses. One thing I do wish they had included was a bit about land-based salmon aquaculture or information about improvements in the industry/suggested for the industry. I think this could’ve been a good chapter near the end of the book.
December 29, 2025
Erittäin kiinnostavaa luettavaa! Opin tosi paljon lohesta ja ylipäätään kalankasvatuksesta. Kirja keskittyy paljolti lohenkasvatuksen ongelmakohtiin. Ja pääpaino on lohenkasvatusbisneksen lobbauksessa ja poliittiisessa vaikuttamisessa. Kirja kertoo että esimerkiksi tutkimustieto lohesta on pääosin lohiteollisuuden rahoittamaa ja että bisneksen kannalta haitallinen tieto vaiennetaan tehokkaasti. Kirjassa tosi kiinnostavasti kuvataan, miten tutkijoita vaiennetaan ja eriävät mielipiteet hiljennetään. Myös ylipäätään rahoituksesta ja sen lähteistä puhutaan paljon.
Tässä kirjassa kuitenkin ongelmakohdista puhutaan paljon. ja oikeastaan pääasiassa vaan niistä. Oikeastaan kovin paljoa positiivista lohenkasvatuksesta tässä ei kerrota. Paitsi ehkä sen, että ihan muutama pieni rajoitustoimi on asetettu esim kanadassa.
Mutta niistä ongelmakohdista. Kalat kärsii taudeista, loisista, kidutuksesta, kamalista oloista jne. Ympäristö ja ekosysteemi kärsii.
Vähän tässä kirjassa luvut on hajanaiset, kirja vois olla yhtenäisempi. Kuvataan monta eri henkilöä ja keissiä, mutta kappaleet on lyhyitä ja lopulta jäi asioita (esim ympäristömyrkyt) joihin olisin kaivannut syventymistä.
Ja lopulta iso osa ongelmista on samoja, kuin kaikessa muussakin nykyajan voittoa tavoittelevissa rahan keskittymistä. Voiton lisääminen menee kaiken muun edelle, ja siihen jää jalkoihin etiikka.
Tässä kirjassa kuitenkin ongelmakohdista puhutaan paljon. ja oikeastaan pääasiassa vaan niistä. Oikeastaan kovin paljoa positiivista lohenkasvatuksesta tässä ei kerrota. Paitsi ehkä sen, että ihan muutama pieni rajoitustoimi on asetettu esim kanadassa.
Mutta niistä ongelmakohdista. Kalat kärsii taudeista, loisista, kidutuksesta, kamalista oloista jne. Ympäristö ja ekosysteemi kärsii.
Vähän tässä kirjassa luvut on hajanaiset, kirja vois olla yhtenäisempi. Kuvataan monta eri henkilöä ja keissiä, mutta kappaleet on lyhyitä ja lopulta jäi asioita (esim ympäristömyrkyt) joihin olisin kaivannut syventymistä.
Ja lopulta iso osa ongelmista on samoja, kuin kaikessa muussakin nykyajan voittoa tavoittelevissa rahan keskittymistä. Voiton lisääminen menee kaiken muun edelle, ja siihen jää jalkoihin etiikka.
October 14, 2023
This book viscerally challenges my personal preference for buying and consuming farmed salmon, and made me think widely about other fish farming practices that are unseen and unreported. Let's just say I haven't touched farmed salmon since I picked up this book, and I aim to buy my fish whole and not processed or cut fish anymore. My reactions aside, you can tell that these authors transplanted their investigative journalism skills into writing this, talking to everybody and anybody involved in this business who would agree to speak with them or agree to be quoted by name. The sad fact that the research outcomes that they have uncovered is not new news reinforces their underlying point in the book that salmon producers have become too powerful and influential to government agencies in Norway. The culture of bullying and shutting down researchers have been so rife for so many years it is sanctioned by government. Now that gave me the chills.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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