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Are you a chef? Join us by adding your name to the open letter.
Not long ago, salmon was seasonal. Today, industrial ocean farming has made it abundant everywhere, all year. But that abundance comes at a cost to wild salmon and the ocean ecosystems around them.
Should this much salmon be on every table — at such a tremendous cost?
Join leading chefs calling on restaurants around the world to take ocean-farmed salmon off the table.
See an exclusive clip from SUPERFISH: SALMON, the new film from celebrated Blue Planet filmmaker and marine biologist Rick Rosenthal.
At any given time, an estimated 650 million ocean-farmed salmon are being raised around the world.
Wild salmon could never — and should never — satisfy demand on that scale.
Ocean farming has made salmon ubiquitous and cheap by using our coastal waters as a free sewer for large-scale sea cages.
Farmed fish escape and can interbreed with wild salmon, weakening already fragile populations.3
Waste, excess feed, pesticides, microplastics, antibiotics, and other treatments flow freely into surrounding waters.4,5,6
Feeding one ocean-farmed salmon takes more than 400 smaller wild fish — fish that could otherwise feed vulnerable people in low-income countries.7,8
Farming salmon in the ocean is a leading cause of the decline and collapse in wild Atlantic salmon populations.9
Some farms are better managed than others. Better practices matter. But every ocean farm shares one basic characteristic: the cage is open to the sea.
Parasites, disease, escaped fish, waste, and pollution cannot be fully contained at the farm boundary. And labels such as “responsibly raised,” “organic," and “ocean-raised” — or references to pristine places like the Faroe Islands, Loch Duart, or New Zealand — do not change the underlying production system.
So perhaps the better question isn't which ocean-farmed salmon is best, but does salmon need to be an everyday ingredient at all?
Synthetic astaxanthin derived from petrochemicals dominates with about 95% of the market share for aquaculture.12,13
Norway’s own scientists rank salmon farming as the #1 human-caused threat to wild salmon.11
"Responsibly-raised" can mean very different things. "Ocean-raised" doesn't mean healthy, sustainable, or good for the environment. "Organic" — the USDA doesn't set standards for organic salmon farming.
In New Zealand, King Salmon’s Blue Endeavour project is placing open ocean pens in Cook Strait, a pristine deepwater environment.
Wild Pacific salmon is great when in season, and land-farmed salmon is another alternative, but there are many options besides salmon.
See how chefs are finding alternatives that keep plates flavorful,vibrant and equally coveted by diners.
This is not about simply replacing ocean-farmed salmon with expensive wild salmon. It is about eating in harmony with nature. That will not always be salmon, but it can be delicious and available to all.
Chef, author, and founder of Chez Panisse
I stopped using farmed salmon in my restaurants in 2013, and since then we have been working to prevent the creation of new farming areas around the world.
Chef, author, and restaurateur
The problems with ocean-farmed salmon are well-documented. It’s a wretched operation… We can and should do better for our taste buds and the environment.
Chef and founder of Blue Hill at Stone Barns
To Our Fellow Chefs:
Nobody ordered this.
Salmon was once cooked seasonally. Wild salmon returned from the sea to rivers in such numbers that the water seemed alive with them. Yet since the 1970s, many wild salmon populations have collapsed by 80% or more. Wild Atlantic salmon in particular could disappear in our lifetime.
The loss is easy to miss. Salmon has never seemed more abundant.
But this abundance is manufactured, and it comes at a great cost. Today, 99% of Atlantic salmon served in restaurants and grocery stores is raised in industrial sea cages, often in the same waters wild salmon must pass through to survive.
Ocean-farmed salmon has become one of the greatest threats to wild salmon’s future.
Because these crowded cages are open, they pollute surrounding waters; waste does not stay contained. Nor do sea lice parasites, disease, or chemical treatments. Sea lice spread from farms to vulnerable young wild salmon. When nets break, farmed fish escape and breed with wild salmon, weakening the genetic inheritance they depend on to survive.
The impact extends beyond the cages. Feeding one ocean-farmed salmon requires hundreds of ground-up wild fish that marine life and vulnerable subsistence communities depend on.
Then there is the product itself. Its color is synthetic, engineered to match the pink we expect, and it has been marketed with unjustified claims of sustainability.
Ocean-farmed salmon should never have existed at this scale. Not when the cost is wild salmon and all that depends on them.
Empty rivers mean less food for bears, eagles, and otters — and traditions lost before they can be passed down.
Communities seeing these effects firsthand are already taking a stand.
Chefs can too. We commit to not serve ocean-farmed salmon until the industry can operate without causing this harm. And we are asking chefs and restaurants around the world to join us.
Our decisions shape what diners value, what suppliers prioritize, and ultimately which foods — and species — survive.
Every menu is a choice about what belongs on our tables. Ocean-farmed salmon does not — not as long as it continues to cause this kind of harm.
Let’s take it off the table.
With hope.
A keystone species is one that holds entire ecosystems together. When salmon decline, predators starve, rivers lose nutrients, and forests stop thriving.
Right now, wild Atlantic salmon populations are being pushed toward collapse, and ocean farms are a contributing factor.9 These farms spread disease, pollution, and genetic harm.14 If we lose salmon, we lose the backbone of some of the planet’s most critical ecosystems.
Together, we can create a better system so salmon, oceans, and communities can all thrive.
Wild salmon rebound quickly when we give them the chance. In places where industrial sea cages have been removed, salmon runs have surged within just a few years. Restoring this keystone species isn't a dream. It's possible, and it’s a choice.
Chefs help shift consumer demand by taking salmon off the table and introducing alternatives that are not depleting our oceans or harming ecosystems.
Join us in creating a sustainable seafood future that restores ocean health, protects the environment, and nourishes communities around the world.
