FARMED salmon can be a great source of animal protein in our diet, but the growing fish need animal protein to thrive. Farmed salmon are fed fishmeal as part of their diet, so salmon farming helps to deplete the stocks of other fish.
One reason salmon cannot go completely vegetarian is their need for omega-3 fatty acids, which are found mainly in fish oil. Now researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, have found that chinook salmon grow normally, with normal activity and stress tolerance, even if three-quarters of the fish oil in their diet is replaced with rapeseed oil. Their work was presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Canterbury, UK, this week.
