The next day, February 11, we met the man who was to be our guide for the rest of our trip, a Canterburian by the name of Kevin Parish.
Canterbury is the region of New Zealand most similar to England, by all accounts that I’ve heard. Its largest city, Christchurch, also is the largest city on the South Island.
Kevin flew up to Nelson on Monday morning to meet us at New Zealand King Salmon, the largest producer and supplier of farm-raised king salmon in the world.
Now I thought that was interesting, because I had no idea that king salmon was farm-raised. To my knowledge, all of the farm-raised salmon in North America is Atlantic salmon, and king is one of the five species of the Pacific Northwest (the others are sockeye, coho, chum and pink). [I have since learned that king salmon also is being farm-raised in British Columbia].
Bill King, the McCormick & Schmick’s guy who was my co-traveler on this trip — and who to my knowledge is not related either to king salmons nor to Bill McCormick, the restaurant chain’s co-founder and, perhaps not uncoincidentally, the current US ambassador to New Zealand — had told me earlier that this year’s season for wild Pacific salmon was looking bleak. Fishing for salmon on the continental U.S. West Coast and perhaps well into Canada might be severely restricted due to low numbers of fish. The imminently sustainable salmon fisheries of Alaska seem to be doing fine, however. Still, the possible dearth of wild salmon in North America might make the farm-raised kings of New Zealand particularly appealing this year.
The folks at King Salmon told us that their species of choice was harder to raise in farms than Atlantic Salmon because it was more delicate, and thus more difficult to harvest, and because its feed-to-bodyweight conversion ratio (1.6-1.7) was higher. It’s also harder to process because it can’t be pin-boned by machine.
Their particular breed originated as wild New Zealand kings, which were brought from the American West Coast, probably for sport fishing. Now they spend about a year in a hatchery and then, when they reach a weight of about 150 grams (a third of a pound, more or less), they are transferred to pens spread out in waters around New Zealand, far enough away from each other that their keepers don’t need to treat them with antibiotics or vaccines because they’re not near enough to other fish farms to risk infection. The salmon spend between 12 and 18 months there.
When it’s time to harvest the fish, they are sedated by having oil of clove poured into the water. Then they are caused to flow into another area in which carbon dioxide is pumped into the water, stopping their brain function, although their hearts continue to beat. Then the fish are harvested one at a time, their gills cut so they bleed out. They are gilled and gutted through the night and then processed.
The feed, like much farm-raised fish feed, comes from South America and is mostly fish protein, although New Zealand King Salmon is experimenting with using vegetable oils and vegetable proteins. But they don’t expect more than half of the oil to be vegetable oil, because any more than that and the salmon run the risk of having a lower content of those heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids that everybody loves.
They harvest about 6000 metric tons of salmon annually at individual gilled-and-gutted body weights between 3.5 and 4 kilos (so, 7.7 to 8.8 pounds). (For gross body weight, add 12 percent).
Just under half of that is exported, mostly to Japan, but about 10 percent of the harvest goes to the United States, mostly fresh-chilled.
The company breeds some fish to grow quickly and others to grow slowly, so they have continual harvest.
Some of the fish are sent whole to Christchurch for export, but those that are to be further processed rest for a day to go through rigor mortis.
Then they are steamed for a few seconds to kill bacteria and loosen the skin. Next they are brined or dry-cured with salt and sugar, depending on what their customers want, for as long as their customers want, and then they’re smoked, filleted and further processed.
Excess fingerlings are sold as food for penguins, orcas and other attractions at zoos, aquariums etc.
The existence of local, farm-raised salmon apparently has had a fairly dramatic effect on dining habits of New Zealanders, just as it has on Americans. In both countries salmon used to be a luxury, and now it’s an everyday food.
In fact, the NZ King Salmon folks told me that they are enjoying domestic growth of 20 percent annually. Their output is growing by just 10 percent, so they are starting to focus more on value-added stuff.
This is the obligatory hairnet photo that people very much enjoy taking when visitors tour their processing plants. Pictured here are me, Nicola Mitchell and Tanya from New Zealand King Salmon.
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4 comments:
Farmed salmon endanger wild stock.
Pacific Northwest Salmon
TU has built a Pacific salmon program that spans the entire range of Pacific salmon and steelhead -- from Southern California steelhead to sockeye in Alaska's Bristol Bay and inland to the headwater spring chinook streams of central Idaho. We are protecting native-run kokanee in western Washington's Lake Sammamish; we are helping to reconnect steelhead, chinook and sockeye to central Oregon streams they haven't seen in decades; we are restoring passage on private timber lands for California coho; and, we are sustaining a conservation ethic by educating consumers about the conservation needs of healthy salmon fisheries. Employing aggressive and innovative strategies across all four Hs (Habitat, Hydropower, Hatcheries and Harvest) and throughout the salmon and steelhead's entire historic range, TU staff and its thousands of volunteers are working tirelessly toward a singular vision: Ensuring that by the next generation that robust populations of native and wild salmon and steelhead once again thrive within their Pacific range so that our children can enjoy healthy fisheries in their home waters.
The foundation upon which TU's WhyWild campaign is built is the idea that the people across the country who enjoy eating wild-caught Pacific salmon - as well as the businesses and industries that rely on wild-caught salmon - represent a massive community of advocates for the conditions required to allow wild Pacific salmon and steelhead to thrive. That means conservation. Our job is to educate, energize and mobilize those advocates and marshal the power of the marketplace to work for wild salmon and steelhead conservation. This summer we got a chance to put the WhyWild model to the test. Through a unique partnership TU helped broker, salmon consumers in the Portland, Oregon market got a rare chance to invest their salmon dollars in Bristol Bay, Alaska sockeye salmon, while at the same time to learn about the conservation challenges facing the area, and to lend their names in support of TU's effort to protect it.
Our Work in Bristol Bay, Alaska
Most consumers in the lower 48 never never get a chance to try Bristol Bay sockeye or invest in the fishery, as infrastructure limitations within the fishing fleet and on shore render most of the catch suitable only for canning. Most of the all-wild sockeye catch ends up being shipped to Europe and Asia for pennies a pound. This under-valuing of the fishery, lack of out-of-area investment and limitation on the markets makes areas like Bristol Bay ripe for exploitation, like the proposed Pebble Mine, which TU has been leading the effort to stop in order to protect this irreplaceable fishery. But through a unique partnership between New Seasons Markets in Portland, Naknek Family Fisheries of Bristol Bay and TU, we were able to bring a shipment of high-grade, all-wild, fresh Bristol Bay sockeye in for customers of all eight New Seasons locations to try and enjoy. In turn, we gained a forum to educate consumers about the Pebble Mine, and to collect signatures to help us stop it. Naknek and Bristol Bay gained out-of-area investment and a much higher price for their catch, and consumers got a rare opportunity to enjoy this amazing quality fish at a fair price. It's these linkages between fish and fishermen, the market and consumers, quality product and conservation awareness, and salmon dollars and resource value protection that embody the WhyWild campaign. In just a few hours on a Friday afternoon in Portland, Bristol Bay gained thousands of new advocates for its protection, its fishermen and fishing-dependent businesses gained immeasurable potential future investment, and Portland markets and consumers gained a new source of high-quality, wholesome, all-wild sockeye for their families to enjoy.
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Individual consumers who care about wild Pacific salmon and steelhead recovery haven’t really had their own voice over the clamor of governments, special interests and NGOs dominating the salmon conservation landscape. Until now. TU is building the community of individual consumers committed to wild salmon and steelhead, and teaming them with the businesses and industries who share the same commitment. The goal is to harness the collective power of the marketplace and use it to leverage the kinds of conservation actions necessary to make real and lasting wild Pacific salmon and steelhead recovery a reality. By signing onto the Bill of Rights you are joining that community. Through this community, your voice demanding healthy wild salmon and steelhead populations can and will be heard.
Visit www.whywild.org to learn more about Trout Unlimited's Pacific Salmon Project and sign our Salmon Consumer's Bill of Rights.
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Oh my verbose anonymous friend, broad statements like “farmed salmon endanger wild stock” are simply too simplistic to be accurate. Salmon farming practices have changed radically over the past decade, and much of it is being carried out in a relatively sustainable manner. Wild fisheries could never meet the global demand for salmon and in my opinion should work on distinguishing themselves from the farm-raised varieties through education and smart marketing.
But to do that effectively, you should remember that brevity is the soul of wit.
This was an amazing post and I was especially interested in the way they harvested the salmon. Is this typical for farm raised salmon or is it specific to this particular location? Thank you for the information, it was a great read.
Thanks for reading, Mahsa. I’m not sure how most salmon is harvested. I don't see why that technique (I take it you mean the clove oil-carbon dioxide combination) should be specific to New Zealand king salmon, but I don’t really know.
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