Campaign against Basa Fish from Vietnam: Protectionist?

Today I watched a 2010 video depicting in the most awful light, basa fish aquaculture in Vietnam. This video has had over 50,000 views on Youtube, and most of the comments slam farmed fish from Asian countries.

What piqued my curiosity however, was who would post such a video?



The poster was 'Safecatfish' who has so far posted eight videos. Safecatfish.com is "committed to supporting laws that protect the health and safety of the American consumer". While most of Safecatfish's videos draw attention to the hazards of eating fish imported from Asian countries such as China, Vietnam and Thailand, there was one entitled 'Catfish Imports Worry U.S. Fish Farmers' that said foreign catfish is 'suspect' and 'unhealthy' and want the USDA to inspect foreign fish. Interestingly not edited out of that video was a remark by John Connelly of the National Fisheries Institute that these claims were put out by 'special interest groups' to cause a 'safety scare'.

Question of the day
Is farm-raised fish from Asia being wrongfully slandered? Is there any truth in the 'Dirty Waters, Dangerous Fish' documentary (which was likely sponsored and produced by Safecatfish).

Gracie's take
I did study some aquaculture back in university as part of my first agriculture degree, and have visited numerous fish and shrimp / prawn farms around Malaysia. Overcrowding is definitely a problem, and with overcrowding comes stress-related diseases, and administration of antibiotics to keep fish alive. Farmers of these 'chicken of the sea' face similar problems as farmers of land chickens, in my opinion. Overcrowding and all the resultant issues are found everywhere in the world where animals are raised on a large scale (commercially). The situation tends to be better in developed countries - regulation and enforcement tend to be lax (or non-existent) in developing countries.

I personally try to avoid buying seafood raised on farms, unless these farms have been certified as sustainable. Which I think is an oxymoron since farmed salmon eat three pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of salmon (read the New Republic's 'Aquacalypse Now'). Buying farm-raised fish and shrimp could be contributing to environmental damage. Mangroves, which are important ecological areas and natural nurseries for fish and myriad other wildlife, are cleared to make way for fish farms. The intensive production of fish also produces a lot of waste (fish poop too) that pollute the water. Farm-raised fish not be free of mercury and other pollutants (read Scientific American's article HERE).

Is wild-caught best? Sorry, but no. Wild caught salmon and wild caught shrimp is better than farmed (for most part), but there's no guarantee that they are free from pollutants and heavy metal either. They swim in the same big sea that their farmed kin, raised in huge numbers, are pooping into. Also, wild populations are severely overfished due to our massive appetite for seafood, so it would be nice to give them a break and give them a chance to make some fish babies, no?

On the occasion that I eat fish, I would pick wild-caught fish, preferably 'sustainably caught' (fish troll or pole caught, as opposed to dredging and trawling, read more HERE). And if I were to take fish oil, it would be from wild caught fish too, preferably distilled, to remove heavy metals like mercury.

That's my two cents. Would love to hear yours!