Smoked salmon has always been a favorite item on the menu at most fishing lodges. We have always served smoked salmon and our guests just can’t get enough. So where do we get our salmon for our table? Over the past number of years we have, like everyone else, learned that open pen raised salmon pose a huge risk to wild stocks and we certainly don’t want to support an industry that’s putting our wild salmon in danger. Wild salmon of course is out of the question so where do we get our smoked salmon.
Camp Bonaventure with a lot of help from the Atlantic Salmon Federation was able to acquire salmon from the closed land based containment aquaculture facility in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. This is part of a pilot research project between ASF and the Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute.This Salmon was grown without the use of vaccines, harsh chemicals or antibiotics in tanks with continuously cleaned and recirculated water. As well fish waste solids are controlled and captured. Best of all, closed containment aquaculture separates farmed salmon from wild salmon and their environment, ending risks from sea-lice, disease, and ecological and genetic interactions.
Special thanks to Rob Beatty at the ASF and to Dan Turner at St. Mary’s smoke houses for smoking our sustainable-grown salmon and to Sable fish farms for their assistance.