Scientist decries 'flabby' farmed salmon

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Eastern Canadian salmon farmers are producing beefed-up,"flabby" and "sloppy" fish, a Nova Scotia food scientist says.

Tom Gill of Dalhousie University told The Chronicle-Herald newspaper in Halifax said producers complaining to him about the texture of their farmed fish can blame themselves for adding fish oil to the salmon feed to increase their weight.

"So you can fatten the fish up and make them heavy in a hurry by feeding them a high-fat diet, but it gives you a really sloppy sort of soft texture," he said. "If you're feeding them a high-fat diet, it's like feeding an individual on a diet of peanuts and potato chips only -- of course they get flabby and soft, and that's what happens to the fish."

Also as with humans, Gill said exercise is important for the caged salmon. He said the province's Bay of Fundy, which has some of the highest tides on the planet, makes for healthier farmed salmon.

"Twice a day, there's a huge current of water going through these cages and the fish have to swim like the devil just to stand still," he said.