Green campaigners fund salmon study

QUITE why senior executives at the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts decided to turn their attention to the salmon-farming industry, no-one is entirely sure.

What is certain is that when they decided to initiate and fund a study into organic contamination of the fish, the industry stood to be devastated by the potential reaction of a concerned public.

Although supermarkets and their suppliers have reported no downturn in sales since the damaging article appeared in the journal Science, industry experts have braced themselves for further fallout.

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Job losses could, in the future, be a reality for hundreds of the 6,500 Scots who depend on a thriving aquaculture industry for their livelihood, they have warned.

In recent years, Pew has become more bullish in its attitude to those businesses it views as causing damage to the environment.

It has succeeded in closing down the long-line fishing industry in the Pacific Ocean to protect under-pressure sea turtles, and has restricted the fishing of Alaskan pollock, which was alleged to have endangered sea lions.

Rebecca Rimel, president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based organisation since 1993, is credited with transforming Pew from low-key, local philanthropy to a liberal, left-wing juggernaut for political change.

Under her stewardship, Pew has become one of the world’s largest philanthropies, with more than $4.7 billion in assets. Ms Rimel, a former nurse, first served as executive director at the trust before becoming its president.

Describing herself as a "raging incrementalist", she has made the Pew Trusts one of the most influential and innovative charitable organisations in the United States, doubling its grant-making total since 1994 and giving out more than $210 million in 2003 to 298 non-profit organisations.

The trusts consist of seven individual charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of the founder of Sun Oil, Joseph N Pew. Although the trusts are separate legal entities, their grant-making activities are managed collectively.

Ms Rimel was installed as president at 32, during a shift to the left by the charity’s board which had been brewing throughout the 1980s.

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The way was paved for Ms Rimel to take over as president after

John G "Jack" Pew resigned from the board in 1990 because he felt that the foundation was moving in directions that were contrary to JHoward Pew’s original views.

The irony was not lost on Jack Pew that charitable funds created by oil wealth were now being ploughed into environmental projects clearly at odds with industry.

JHoward Pew, who died in 1971, was a staunch conservative. He told colleagues that Princeton Theological Seminary had "too many communists" on the faculty - and gave millions to create Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a more conservative institution.

When asked about criticism that Pew was veering away from the legacy of JHoward Pew, Ms Rimel said: "He was a man of strong convictions and his successors on our board are following in his tradition by having strong convictions."

According to the New York Times: "With its deep pockets and aggressive political advocacy, Pew is not only the most important new player, but the most controversial on the environmental scene."

Nick Joy, the managing director of Loch Duart Salmon, based at Scourie in Sutherland, said: "We need to be concerned about who is watching the watchers, and this is precisely the sort of thing that worries me.

"In a country which is responsible for some of the worst global pollution in the world, Pew is concentrating on issues abroad, and I do think that this is a very good case of ‘you should remove the plank in your own eye before looking at the splinter in someone else’s’."

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Claims of unsafe fish run contrary to the facts, say scientists

THE research study claiming links between consuming farmed salmon and risks to health through dioxins and related chemicals are, in our opinion, grossly unfair and misrepresentative of a product which is both nutritious and healthy.

Industrial activity in the last century has led to increased levels of dioxins, and the related dioxin-like PCBs, being present in the environment.

The EU, recognising the potential risks from accumulation of these substances, drastically reduced the permitted levels of dioxins in both animal feed and food for humans in 2000.

The aquafeed industry and salmon producers have rigorously applied these new required levels to their products. In 2002, we at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling undertook a wholly independent study to measure dioxins and PCBs in Scottish farmed salmon. In addition to measuring the levels in salmon farmed using current commercial feeds, based on fish-meal and oil, we also investigated the effects of replacing the fish oil in the feeds with vegetable oils very low in organic pollutants.

In our study, the dioxin concentrations in the fish reared on aquafeeds containing fish oil were 20 per cent of those reported in Science , and the levels were reduced by a further 75 per cent when fish oil was replaced by vegetable oils.

The accuracy of these levels, in fish whose dietary history was recorded from hatching to harvest, is more reliable than in samples collected from supermarket shelves around the globe, because the reliability of dioxin and PCB measurement can be seriously compromised by the way the fish is treated post-harvest.

For example, artificially elevated dioxin values can result if the fish is in contact with plastics which contain chemicals that can interfere with the dioxin analysis.

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While Scottish salmon does contain measurable levels of organic pollutants, the levels from our studies are extremely low and well within the values recommended by authoritative bodies such as the EU, WHO and FDA.

The Scottish aquaculture industry has been pro-active in seeking to reduce these values further by careful selection of diet raw materials and by investigating vegetable-derived alternatives to marine fish oils and meals.

The benefits of eating fish rich in omega-3 oils for the alleviation of ailments, including heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and mental disorders, are widely reported in the scientific literature.

Consumption of farmed salmon remains an excellent way of increasing our intake of omega-3 fatty acids and benefiting from their health-promoting properties.

• Dr GORDON BELL and Dr DOUGLAS TOCHER, Nutrition Group, Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling.

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