On Food and Cooking

perfection for these affairs...
— Capt. John Smith, The Generall Historie
of Virginia, New England, and the Summer
Isles, London, 1624
However, aquaculture is not a perfect
solution to the problems of ocean fishing, and
has itself created a number of serious
problems. Farming in offshore pens
contaminates surrounding waters with wastes,
antibiotics, and unconsumed food, and allows
genetically uniform fish to escape and dilute
the diversity of already endangered wild
populations. The feed for carnivorous and
scavenger species (salmon, shrimp) is mainly
protein-rich fish meal, so some aquaculture
operations actually consume wild fish rather
than sparing them. And very recent studies
have found that some environmental toxins
(PCBs, p. 184) become concentrated in fish
meal and are deposited in the flesh of farmed
salmon.
A less serious problem, but one that makes