Blue Empire: How the Norwegian salmon industry extracts nutrition and undermines livelihoods in West Africa

The report shows how the Norwegian salmon industry’s voracious appetite for wild fish is driving loss of livelihoods and malnutrition in Africa. Farming carnivorous fish in Europe harms fishing communities in West Africa by depriving them of a resource fundamental to their nutrition and their livelihoods. Salmon are carnivorous, and farmed salmon depend on the nutrients provided through fish oil in particular, gained through grinding up smaller, wild fish. We have evidence that in feeding these smaller fish (sardines, sardinella, ethmalosa, etc.) to Scottish farmed salmon, major micro-nutrient losses occur.