Looking for wild salmon? That may be a tall order at many restaurants, grocers.
A recently released report by Oceana suggests salmon mislabelling increases during the winter.
A chinook salmon at the McKenzie Hatchery, Sept. 23. Some 43 percent of farm raised salmon are mislabelled as wild, according to a survey released this month by the marine conservation organization Oceana.
Brian Davies/The Register-Guard/AP/File
Americans trying to avoid purchasing farm-raised salmon might need to look beyond restaurant menus and food packaging labels, especially during the winter months.
A recent report conducted by the ocean advocacy group Oceana found that 43 percent of 83 samples聽taken from restaurants and grocery stores in New York, Chicago, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., in 2014 were mislabelled, either marked 鈥渨ild鈥� when actually farm raised, or marked as an incorrect species.
These results contradict , that reported a low 7 percent salmon labelling error, amid 33 percent of seafood overall.
The difference? Seasonal availability of wild salmon, the researchers say. Packagers more frequently mark farm-raised salmon as wild when wild salmon are out of season, typically during the winter and early spring months, .
"Eat your salmon in season," Dr. Kimberly Warner, senior scientist at Oceana told USA Today. " makes such a big difference on whether salmon mislabeling is high or low."
鈥淚f it鈥檚 winter, and the menu offers 鈥榳ild,鈥� 鈥楶acific,鈥� or 鈥楢laskan鈥� salmon, ask for more information, like the specific species,鈥� , Oceana Communications Manager in a blog post on Scientific American. 鈥淚f the restaurant can鈥檛 provide that information, order something else, unless you鈥檙e okay with possibly eating mislabeled farmed salmon.鈥�
Last year, Oceana also revealed that one out of every three shrimp sold in the US in mislabelled.
Besides potential environmental and health concerns, seafood mislabelling affects the economy and the livelihood of American fishing communities.
In June of last year, the Obama administration 鈥渟et up a presidential task force aimed at corralling mislabeling in order to help consumers make more informed and ethical choices when it comes to seafood,鈥� 海角大神 reported.
But these efforts have not yet yielded real results.
鈥淭he Obama administration should require documentation for all seafood to verify that it was legally caught, and also mandate traceability throughout the entire seafood supply chain, to protect seafood buyers, honest fishermen, seafood business and our oceans,鈥� Beth Lowell, senior campaign director at Oceana told Scientific American.
Additionally, since well over half of US seafood is imported, ethical issues in the farming and catching of seafood in other countries is also worth noting.
For example, 鈥榳hiteleg鈥� shrimp are often marketed as 鈥榳ild Pacific,鈥� but often these shrimp are really coming from Southeast Asia, 鈥渨here environmental and human rights experts have long identified labor rights abuses, hazardous working conditions, damage to ecosystems and the use of hormones and antibiotics,鈥� reported the Monitor.