***A WWF report, Bitter Harvest, suggests that current fish farming practices may be damaging the aquatic environment. The report set out a series of main concerns about Scottish aquaculture: nutrient pollution; chemical from remedies added to treat diseases; impact on the wild fish population; and the global impact of catching fish to feed farmed salmon.

***An article in the November 2001 Science charged that the business of raising fish, shellfish and plants in pens has become "a gateway for exotic species" into U.S. waters and needs closer regulation and stricter standards; more than 100 species are grown now in U.S. operations across all 50 states; aquaculture has led to introductions of unwanted seaweeds, fish, invertebrates, parasites, and pathogens, through accidental escapes and even purposeful releases with irreversible and unpredictable ecological impacts.

***British Columbia recently lifted its 1995 moratorium on new salmon farms. Alaskans, who banned salmon farming in 1990, are furious. Already smarting over cheap imported Chilean farmed salmon Alaskans have inserted a provision into the Senate Farm Bill to require labeling of farmed salmon and country of origin.

 *** A study published in the international journal Chemosphere showed that farmed salmon contained much higher levels of the pollutants, including 10 times more Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) than wild fish.

 ***The Food and Drug Administration has put a petition to ban marketing and importation of genetically engineered salmon (GE) on "high priority; a biotechnology firm in Maine, A/F Protein Inc., which is connected to Aqua Bounty Farms, has created a GE Atlantic salmon that grows four to six times faster by adding another bit of DNA to the fish

 ***A group opposed to massive expansion of finfish farming in one of Ireland’s top tourist destinations is demanding a full study of the socio-economic and environmental implications of the development proposals.