Creative Salmon Company Ltd. - Tofino, BC, Canada - Naturally Raised, Antibiotic Free, Chinook Salmon

ABOUT US
   LOCATION
   OPERATIONS
   SUPPLY
   ORGANIC

SOCIAL/ENVIRONMENTAL
   COMMUNITY
   FIRST NATIONS
   EMPLOYEES
   ENVIRONMENT

NEWS/INFORMATION
   *FAQ
   LINKS
   NEWSLETTER

CONTACT

CREATIVE SALMON CO. LTD.
PO Box 265
612 Campbell Street
Tofino, BC
V0R 2Z0
Phone: 250.725.2884
Fax: 250.725.2885
info@creativesalmon.com

ã 2004 - 2008 All Rights Reserved Creative Salmon Co. Ltd.
This site was last updated
Sunday, 06 April 2008
www.creativesalmon.com

Product Information and Frequently Asked Questions

This information is provided to our customers to provide the assurance of the wholesome and nutritional values found in our Premium Quality Chinook salmon. We utilize only the best quality feed ingredients, growing conditions and husbandry techniques together with a philosophy that our environment, our employees and our local community are equally as important as is the economic bottom line.

1. Why should I eat farmed salmon?
2. What is in the feed?
3. Do you use hormones, chemicals, pesticides, GMO’s?
4. I hear that the fish are kept in crowded conditions?
5. What about the area under and around the farm?
6. Why is the flesh color not as dark as wild fish?
7. Why is the flesh of wild fish leaner than farmed fish?
8. Why don’t farmed fish taste as strong as wild fish?
9. Are there antibiotics in the fish?
10. Does Creative Salmon use the chemical known as Malachite Green?
11. Do your salmon have sea lice?

1. Why should I eat farmed salmon?
Our Salmon is a natural healthy choice containing many nutritional benefits. An average portion of salmon provides over half the daily allowance of protein. Additionally, the protein found in salmon is well balanced and highly digestible. Farmed salmon are a recommended source of polyunsaturated fatty acids, including Omega-6’s and Omega-3’s especially for pregnant and lactating women. These are the "good" kind of fat, which have been associated with reducing heart disease and inhibiting the onset of inflammatory diseases, and also help to prevent heart and cardiovascular disease. As little as one serving of salmon or other fatty fish per week can reduce the risk of cardiac arrest (The Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 274, No.17). The highly unsaturated fatty acids found in salmon and other oily fish have also been associated with a wide variety of other health benefits.

The consumption of fish oils has been associated with; relief of the symptoms of manic depression, protection from relapse of Crohn's disease, decreasing the severity of strokes, and helping to prevent cancer. The relatively high concentrations of HDL (or good) cholesterol in salmon serves to lower the level of LDL (or bad) cholesterol, triglycerides and overall cholesterol. Farmed salmon is available on a year-round basis, ensuring freshness and quality to the consumer. Farmed salmon is extremely versatile in the ways it can be prepared and cooks in a short period of time, making it very convenient for busy consumers.
Top

2. What is in the feed?
All of our fish are fed only the highest quality feed with ingredients from natural or nature identical sources. Fish meal (protein) and oils (fat including omega-3’s) make up the bulk of the feed ingredients. Organic wheat is used as a binding agent. The fish get their red color from a nature equivalent form of the naturally occurring carotenoid called astaxanthin (please see # 6 below). In addition vitamins are added to maintain a healthy animal. The fishes which are used for the fish meal and fish oil are from sustainable fisheries resources. (FAO - Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries). More than 50% of the fish meal used is obtained from by-products of local sustainable herring fisheries.
Taplow Letter of Authenticity May05.pdf
Top

3. Do you use hormones, chemicals, pesticides, GMO’s?
We do not use hormones or any other type of growth promoters, or chemicals, pesticides, or GMO products in the feed or the fish.
Top

4. I hear that the fish are kept in crowded conditions?
Our fish occupy pens that have the equivalent space of 3,750,000 US gallons of water. The fish occupy less than 1% of this volume at maximum density, which occurs only during the 2 - 3 months prior to harvest. The overall health of the stock is indicative of well-managed densities. Our survival rates are typically more than 90%.
Top

5. What about the area under and around the farm?
Creative Salmon implemented a “Corporate Environmental Program” in 1996. This program provides regular monitoring of the marine environment all around the farms. Fallowing is routinely used to maintain a healthy and productive environment around the farms sites. Underwater cameras are deployed in every pen in order to provide staff with the ability to constantly monitor feed use. This practice minimizes feed wastage from uneaten feed landing on the ocean bottom. The use of cameras also allows for the routine monitoring of fish behavior and health.
Top

6. Why is the flesh color not as dark as wild fish?
Wild fish spend more time in the ocean and routinely go without food. This longer period of time in the ocean increases the overall consumption of carotenoids contained in their natural feed, such as shrimp and krill. Our fish are fed every day so they grow faster than wild fish but their feed does not contain the same ratio of these carotenoids. This carotene is essential to the health and nutrition of salmonids.
(Please see Whole Foods Market web site for a description of the carotenoid astaxanthin)
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthinfo/astaxanthin.html
Top

7. Why is the flesh of wild fish leaner than farmed fish?
Wild fish are leaner than our cultured fish as a result of the need to expend energy (1) foraging for food, (2) to avoid capture by predators, and (3) due to the average lower daily consumption of food.
Top

8. Why don’t farmed fish taste as strong as wild fish?
Our fish are fasted prior to harvest to provide for more stable shelf life and a better flavor. Fasting is a commonly used method prior to harvesting to improve the flavor and increase the flesh quality. Similar to other animal rearing, the flavor of a farm-raised animal is not as strong as a wild animal. Farmed beef has a milder taste than the gamy flavor of wild game such as moose. Similarly, farmed fallow deer does not taste as strong as wild deer.
Top

9. Are there antibiotics in the fish?
All market fish from Creative Salmon have never been given antibiotics. This has been made possible through good husbandry practices such as low density rearing and a good fish health program.
Top

10. Does Creative Salmon use the chemical known as Malachite Green?
No. Creative Salmon does not use and has never used Malachite green. It is banned for use in food fish in Canada.
Top

11. Do your salmon have sea lice?
Yes, in low numbers. Sea lice are found naturally in the marine environment and can be found in varying levels on farmed and wild salmon as well as many other marine species. Different salmon species have different susceptibilities to sea lice infestation. Creative Salmon raises solely Chinook salmon, which wild and farmed typically have very low levels of sea lice. We have never had a problem with sea lice and therefore have never needed to treat for sea lice. Creative Salmon does not use and has never used the product called Slice (chemical name: emamectin benzonate).
Top