Aquaculture Accountability Project

01/30/2026

We talked with Our Hen House this month about the dangers of fish farming. Have a listen below!

🚨 NEW EPISODE OUT NOW 🚨

"The aquaculture industry has sold fish farming as a lifeline for oceans, but instead it's delivered factory farms that devour wild fish, bring diseases, and pollute our coasts." - Laura Lee Cascada

In today's episode, the founder of Aquaculture Accountability Project reveals how the fish farming industry's marketing tactics have transformed global consumption patterns while creating environmental havoc.

Listen on your fav podcatcher, watch on our YouTube, or check out the link in the comments!

01/27/2026

Breaking: A report by AAP with Farm Forward dives into the myths of "sustainable" aquaculture and reveals the truth: despite decades of marketing itself as a silver-bullet solution to overfishing, fish farming intensifies pressure on wild fish, while also driving up overconsumption of seafood, spreading disease, misusing antibiotics, and exacerbating climate change. And the industry uses greenwashing certifications to sanitize factory farming practices and gain the trust of consumers and sustainability professionals.

Read the full report and find out what a truly ocean-friendly food system looks like.

This report breaks down aquaculture's top sustainability myths, exposing the science-backed reality: fish farming harms the ocean.

01/20/2026

Mowi, the world's largest salmon farming company, called 2025 a "dreadful" year for business in Canada because of massive mortality levels, amounting to hundreds of thousands of animals. Despite the managing director naming it his "worst experience ever," he downplayed the high death toll as only "slightly higher than normal."

Salmon farming, by design, is a wasteful industry. Salmon can require up to 5x their weight in wild-caught fish as feed, and some farms routinely experience 15 or 20 percent mortality.

Taking farmed salmon off menus and our plates can make a huge difference.

Environmental conditions made 2025 a "dreadful" year for salmon farming, says Mowi managing director Gideon Pringle. Still, he says a recent report of nearly 25,000 salmon deaths at the company's Friar Cove site is not a cause for concern.

01/15/2026

High mortality is rampant on fish factory farms, but DYK that farmed fish aren't the only losses? Millions of "cleaner" fish, used to eat sea lice, also die on farms because of dismal conditions.

A campaigner has made the first estimate of the total number of cleaner fish that have died while grazing lice on farmed salmon. It’s condemned as a “colossal waste of life” that should cease.

01/12/2026

We don't often realize the human toll of fish farming. In Scotland, a union group has called for a formal safety review of the salmon industry, as there have been 139 serious accidents and one fatality in the last 5 years. And in Chile, the largest salmon supplier to the U.S., there have been a whopping 84 deaths since 2013.

The industry promised a "Blue Revolution" but instead delivered danger and environmental devastation.

Original article: Industria salmonera letal: Muerte de buzo en Melinka eleva a 84 los trabajadores acuícolas fallecidos Kickoff of the 2026 Aquaculture

12/30/2025

The Scottish salmon industry is under fire for animal and environmental harms this holiday season.

From Abigail Penny at Animal Equality UK: "When you see the haunting footage we’ve captured, it’s hard not to believe that this is an industry blighted by contempt for animal, as well as human, welfare. Salmon trapped in underwater cages while they’re eaten alive by lice, blind, diseased, or deformed.

"And when you consider that every farmed salmon is typically fed hundreds of other wild-caught fish before it, too, is then eaten by humans, it’s painfully clear that Scottish salmon farming is far from luxurious and nowhere near sustainable."

Read more:

EXCLUSIVE: Following damning reports of cruelty and disease in the Scottish salmon farming industry, health experts say the ‘superfood' isn't even as good for you as you might think

12/18/2025

Seafood didn’t become the “climate-friendly" default because the evidence demanded it. Rather, the aquaculture industry spent decades positioning farmed fish as the responsible answer to overfishing and food-system emissions. Through coordinated marketing, policy pressure, and the promise of a “better” animal protein, seafood was framed as a way to address climate impacts without questioning how much animal protein we consume in the first place.

In a new post, we trace how this story took hold—from the industry-branded “Blue Revolution” to the rapid global expansion of fish farming—and why the environmental benefits were rarely scrutinized as production scaled.

That scrutiny is now catching up. As evidence mounts around feed inefficiency, pollution, emissions, and water use, it’s becoming clear that swapping one animal protein for another doesn’t deliver the climate or ocean gains promised. As a result, a growing number of food and climate strategies are beginning to move in a different direction: reducing seafood and other animal proteins altogether, and relying more on plant-based foods that deliver far larger environmental benefits.

Defaults shape outcomes—but they can change. The idea that seafood should anchor climate-aligned diets is loosening, and a more effective, ecosystem-aligned approach is already taking its place.

The aquaculture industry spun seafood as the green alternative to beef. But behind the marketing lies the same factory farming practices.

12/15/2025

A new investigation by The Ferret found that an Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)–certified salmon farm operated by Bakkafrost was featured on a buyer “discovery tour”—a guided visit designed to reassure retailers and foodservice buyers—despite the farm repeatedly exceeding sea-lice limits earlier in the year. Certification was maintained through exemptions, and the farm was temporarily emptied and restocked ahead of the tour.

This is not just about one farm, though. It highlights a broader structural issue: when certification schemes are used as marketing tools for procurement and sales, transparency and accountability can be compromised—especially when decision-makers are shown carefully managed snapshots rather than ongoing conditions.

For institutions, retailers, and NGOs, this reporting is a reminder that certification does not guarantee sustainability.

At the Aquaculture Accountability Project, we work with institutions to look beyond labels, understand where risk is being obscured, and identify food strategies that genuinely reduce harm to oceans and animals. Reach out to learn more!

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council monitors standards at Scottish fish farms to help consumers choose “environmentally and socially responsible” farmed seafood. But it showcased a farm that had breached its rules on sea lice 11 times.

12/12/2025

We were honored to join leading researchers and sustainability experts at the National Sustainability Society’s annual conference at the University of Notre Dame in October. The event’s fully vegetarian menu reflected a growing shift toward climate-aligned dining—an ideal backdrop for a conversation about seafood’s often-overlooked environmental impacts. There was even a smoked carrot lox!

AAP’s founder, Laura Lee Cascada, presented on why farmed fish is frequently mischaracterized as “sustainable.” Her session highlighted key issues including reliance on wild-caught feed, chemical and disease challenges, and significant climate and ecosystem harms. Many attendees noted that this perspective on aquaculture was new to them, sparking thoughtful dialogue with researchers throughout the conference.

The takeaway was clear: campuses have powerful opportunities to advance ocean-friendly dining through plant-forward menus, reduced seafood procurement, and the removal of high-impact items like farmed salmon and shrimp.

AAP is grateful for the opportunity to bring our research into this national conversation—and excited to support more campuses in rethinking seafood for a climate-aligned future.

Dive into AAP’s NSS presentation on seafood myths and the growing role of plant-forward dining in campus climate action.

12/09/2025

When industrial fish farming took off in the 1980s, it was sold as a fix for overfishing—a way to meet demand without depleting the ocean. But that’s not what happened. Today, the most commonly farmed species in wealthy countries rely heavily on wild-caught fish for feed. Huge volumes of anchovies, sardines, and other small coastal fish are pulled from ecosystems in West Africa and South America to keep these farms running.

These forage fish are essential for seabirds, larger fish, coastal communities, and even the ocean’s carbon cycle. Removing them at industrial scale hasn’t eased pressure on wild fisheries; it’s increased it. As a result, wild populations haven’t recovered, and farming species like salmon uses more wild fish for feed than it returns as edible seafood.

At the Aquaculture Accountability Project, we’re working to dismantle this myth and to build food systems that actually protect the ocean, not just claim to.

More research and resources coming soon. Follow along for updates!

12/09/2025

Introducing the Aquaculture Accountability Project—a science-based research initiative unmasking the hidden harms of industrial aquaculture.

Behind the marketing, fish farming depends on wild-caught fish for feed, spreads disease to wild species, destroys carbon-rich habitats, and relies on weak certifications to claim “sustainability.”

Our goal is simple: replace greenwashing with evidence, and help foodservice and environmental leaders shift toward solutions that actually protect oceans.

We’re glad you’re here. Stay tuned for more. 🌊