Tell Wagamama to Drop Farmed Salmon on World Fisheries Day

On World Fisheries Day, call for Wagamama to take farmed salmon off its menu to help relieve the pressure on wild fish populations around the world.

Join our call by commenting ‘Hey @wagamama_uk, #DropFarmedSalmon’ on @wagamama_uk Instagram to make some social media noise they can’t ignore!

Around the world, fisheries are in a deep crisis.

A recent FAO report reveals a startling reality: only 62% of fish are being caught at ‘biologically sustainable levels’ —a sharp decline from 90% in 1974. This means a number of fish populations are being depleted, threatening the fragile web of ocean ecosystems. This increasing plunder of our oceans should sound alarm bells across the world. Overfishing degrades delicate ocean ecosystems, endangers wildlife, threatens global food security and the health of our planet.

Many communities rely on fish as their primary source of protein and vital micronutrients – but industrialised fish extraction means that this is under threat.

How does overfishing link to industrial fish farming?

You may have heard that industrial aquaculture is supposed to relieve the pressure on our overfished oceans. However, many of the most economically valuable farmed species such as salmon, sea bass and prawns are carnivores with a rapacious appetite for wild fish. So, what we are seeing is wild fish – including anchovies, herring and sardines – which could be eaten by people, are instead being ground down into feed for corporate-owned carnivorous fish production around the world.

Highlighting the absurdity of this practice, shocking new research has shown that it takes up to 6 kilograms of wild fish to produce just 1 kilogram of farmed salmon. Far from easing the burden on ocean ecosystems, the aquaculture industry’s inefficient and wasteful business model is intensifying it. This is placing even more pressure on global fish populations and damaging the very oceans they say they want to protect.

That’s why on World Fisheries Day, we are ramping up our calls for Wagamama to take farmed salmon off its menu, to help relieve the pressure on wild fish populations around the world, and to finally live up to their claim to ‘tread softly’ on the earth.

We are making waves at Wagamama!

Thanks to the incredible support so far, our petition calling on Wagamama to remove farmed salmon has received over a staggering 100,000 signatures. We’ve received public support from Chris Packham and even made national headlines.

The pressure is paying off: Wagamama has now publicly stated that they will stop serving Norwegian salmon and only serve Scottish salmon in 2025, ensuring that they do not serve salmon that is fed wild fish from West Africa.

Whilst this is a step in the right direction, there is still more to do.

Scottish farmed salmon remains highly problematic and unsustainable. Whilst succeeding in marketing itself as a heathy, responsible protein source, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Beneath the surface, the reality of this industry is a much more troubling tale.

Scottish salmon production remains dependent on wild fish caught all over the world to feed it – every year, the industry uses around 460,000 tonnes of wild fish to produce 179,000 tonnes of farmed salmon. Worse, in the process, millions of farmed salmon die every year before harvest, often because of disease. This means not only the pointless and callous waste of farmed salmon, but also of the wild fish which were caught to feed them.

Recent news coverage exposed a mass mortality event at a Mowi Scotland salmon farm where more than 1 million salmon died. This distressing level of mortality demonstrates appalling negligence from the industry. However, unfortunately, the true scale of this mortality extends beyond the pens as the lives of wild-caught fish, in the form of feed, are wasted too.

Putting the reality of Scottish farmed salmon on Wagamama’s menu

To mark World Fisheries day, we interviewed Don Staniford, an activist who’s seen the realities of fish farming first hand. You can watch our video here.

Once again, Wagamama’s reluctance to take meaningful action has proven that we need to keep raising our voices. Until they commit to removing farmed salmon, industrial aquaculture will continue putting intense pressure on world fisheries by consuming vast amounts of wild fish, further depleting already struggling fish populations.

What can you do?

Join us and take action! Comment ‘Hey @wagamama_uk, #DropFarmedSalmon’ on Wagamama’s Instagram posts to get involved in some social media activism.