About

We are facing an ocean emergency. The Ocean, the main source of life on Earth, is increasingly threatened by our human activities. Overfishing is the main cause of loss of marine biodiversity. The salmon industry, emblematic of intensive aquaculture, generates multiple impacts on a global scale. It is therefore urgent to change the food system for better protection of humans, animals and ecosystems.

PinkBombs is here to:

• Alert about one of the biggest threats to the Ocean today: salmon farming.
• Deconstruct the distorted popular perception around salmon consumption.
• Guide companies, States and consumers towards positive solutions.

PinkBombs was created by a consortium of non-profit organizations that analyze and transform public data into accessible tools to raise awareness of the key levers for halting the ocean emergency.

Our approach is based on three pillars:

1. Open source: all the data is available on the platform.
2. Collaborative: Reach out to contribute or suggest improvements.
3. Dynamic: Our database is regularly updated to incorporate new insights and to enhance its accuracy.

Our approach followed three steps:

1. Prioritized topics: The aim of the website being to offer a compilation of the most striking information on the subject, the organization set out to prioritize the subjects to be tackled. Then each volunteer chose the subjects they wanted to tackle alone or in groups.
2. In-depth research: Research is carried out on the internet and by contacting experts, taking care to use only scientific sources and not to use information from unreliable sources or without sourced or scientific support.
3. Peer reviewed data: In the interest of data quality, all information is double-checked by another volunteer or member of the Seastemik organization (source and formulation).

Data presented on the Dashboard is focused on Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) unless otherwise stated.

This counter is a per-second breakdown of the following major annual indicators for the salmon industry:

• Number of salmon produced: 2.9 million tons of farmed salmon produced in 2021 (Source: FAO) with an average weight of 5 kg per farmed salmon (Sources: Knockaert, C. 2006 (fr), Mood et al. 2023, Scottish fish farm production survey 2020, Fishcount), resulting in approximately 580 million salmons produced.
• Number of forage fishes caught: Up to 440 forage fishes are needed to produce one farmed salmon (Sources: Rapport Seastemik 2024 (fr), Rethinking EU Aquaculture: for people, animals and the planet)
• Tons of CO₂ emitted: Greenhouse gas emissions from the sector are estimated for the whole industry from producer reports. See the Climate section for details.
• Industry revenue: Data are sourced from the 2022 annual activity reports of the 10 largest producers (see the Producers section).

Atlantic salmon is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Data on wild salmon catch in Atlantic waters is available on the website of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (NASCO).

Data on farmed salmon production is available on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations website (Source: FAO). The graphs 'Farmed salmon production' (Story page), 'Farmed salmon production by country,' 'Top 10 salmon producing countries by tonnes (2021),' and 'Evolution of salmon farming by country' (Dashboard page) are a direct visual representation of this data source once filtered for Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon).

To calculate the number of salmons produced or convert the number of tonnes into the number of salmons, we used the average weight of a salmon at the end of its growth in industrial farming: 5 kg (Sources: Knockaert, C. 2006 (fr), Mood et al. 2023, Scottish fish farm production survey 2020, Fishcount).

In order to provide a comparison between volumes of Atlantic salmon fishing and aquaculture, we used the maximum volume of Atlantic salmon caught in one year which is 25,293 tonnes in 1967 (Source: NASCO, see Section Wild atlantic salmon collapse). The production of farmed salmon was 2.9 million tonnes in 2021 (Source: FAO), which is 115 times greater than the largest amount of salmon ever caught in a single year.

The consumption of salmon by countries is estimated based on data on capture, farming, and trade records from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The following files are used for the assessments:

• Global capture data (Source: FAO)
• Global aquaculture production data (Source: FAO)
• Global trade data of aquatic products (Source: FAO)

All salmon species are considered in this analysis, as it is sometimes difficult to identify the specific salmon species in traded products (salmon fillet, salmonoids, etc.), making it challenging to differentiate products from Atlantic salmon, sockeye, chinook, etc. The year 2019, the last pre-COVID year, is used as a reference. As soon as the FAO publishes the trading data for 2022, this chart can be updated.

The indicator used to estimate the salmon consumption of each country is apparent consumption, estimated as the difference between incoming flows (capture + farming + imports) and outgoing flows (exports + re-exports).

The conversion factor (CF) describes the ratio between the product weight and the fresh salmon weight needed to produce it. Capture and aquaculture data are provided in live weight (tonnes live weight - TLW), while trade data are provided in product weight (tonnes product weight - TPW). The transformation of products can indeed involve changes in product weight, which must be considered for balance estimates. Thus, a product with a CF of 2 means that 2 kilograms of fresh salmon are needed to produce 1 kilogram of product.

To compare produced, imported, and exported quantities, the following conversion table was considered, inspired by conversion tables proposed by the FAO:

• Salmon processed form:
  • Salmons fresh or chilled: CF=1.13
  • Salmon steaks or meat: CF=1.6
  • Salmon filets: CF=2
  • Live salmons: CF=1
• Preparation:
  • Prepared or preserved: CF=1.2
  • Salted: CF=1.5
  • Dried: CF=1.62
  • Smoked: CF=1.92

  In the case where the product combines a processed form and a preparation, the conversion factors are multiplied (for example, smoked salmon fillets have a CF=2x1.92=3.84).

  To obtain a simpler comparison reference between countries, per capita apparent consumption is calculated using population data published by the United Nations.

  The data presented in this chart corresponds to the Top 15 for the year 2021. You can also download data for all countries from 2015 to 2021.

Mowi Annual Salmon Farming Industry Handbook

Reports from the Producers

A large number of indicators are derived from the integrated and sustainability reports published by salmon producers. The vast majority of them release information about their sustainability performance and environmental impact within standardized annual reports. These reports are expected to evolve in the coming years due to more stringent standards. The sustainability reports found and used by the PinkBombs project can be found in this folder (en, es, dk). It should be noted that no report could be found for Cooke, even though it is the 8th largest producer in the world.

The theoretical production capacity of land-based salmon farming producers corresponds to the industry's production ambitions quantified in the iLaks and Salmon Business industry report (2021), citing a figure of 2.2 million tonnes. An update of this report seemed to be underway in 2023 with an estimated production capacity of 2.79 million tonnes (Source: iLaks (no)).

Based on the data collected on land-based salmon farm projects (see Section Land-based salmon farms - the map), we present a summary of the annual production in tonnes for the main producers, including the declared ambitions of the producers, even without precise location for the moment. The number of projects and the countries of the projects are also included. Where this information was available online, we have included the producer's headquarters, website, and financing.

A land-based farm producing 10,000 tonnes per year consumes at least 100 GWh/year (about 10 kWh/kg of salmon, Source: Ayuso-Virgili et al. 2023). This corresponds to the consumption of a city of approximately 63,000 Europeans, the average European consumption being estimated at 1584 kWh/year (Source: Eurostat), or 43,000 French people, consumption estimated at 2296 kWh/year (Source: Eurostat). The carbon footprint of this amount of energy depends on several factors (see Section Land-based salmon farms - the map) but would be between 2 and 14 kg CO₂ per kg produced, according to a meta-analysis (Source: Philis et al. 2019).

The density of salmon in land-based farms ranges from 50 to 150 kg of salmon per cubic meter of water (Sources: ISFA 2015, IGEDD Report 2022 (fr)), whilst the density in marine cages is 15-25 kg/m³ (Source: ISFA 2015).

Data

The list of land-based salmon farms was initially put together using two existing lists publicly available:

• Land-based salmon farming - Norne Securities (2023)
• Cracking the hype of land-based salmon farming stocks - Tuva Einang Prestegard & Irem Havva Tekinöz - master thesis, Norwegian School of Economics (2020)

The dataset was then enriched by researching individual projects online, using a range of sources ( iLaks (no), Undercurrent News, Akva Group, Salmonbusiness.com, Seafood.no (no), regjeringen.no (no), IntraFish, NorskFisk (no), SeafoodSource, FishFarmingExpert, FishFarmerMagazine, ScienceNorway, Global Seafood alliance, RASTech, websites of various land-based companies, Andfjord Salmon, Atlantic Sapphire, Nordic Aqua Partners, Proximar Seafood, Salmon Evolution Group, Gigante Salmon, ...) to identify the project’s technology, species, level of production, status (see below), location or proposed location. New projects were added if necessary and the dataset was restricted to projets producing salmon species (excluding projects producing trouts for instance) and to the following land-based technologies: RAS (Recycled Aquaculture Systems), Hybrid RAS/FTS (Flow-Through systems) and SIFT (Super-Intensive Farming Technology).

As the goal of the dataset is to capture the future of salmon farming on land, we identified the long-term production capacity of individual projects. The list and overall ambitions of top companies were validated with other sources, iLaks and Salmon business industry report (2021) et A Particle List of Recent Land Based Salmonid Farms Globally de Newfoundland and Labrador Coalition for Aquaculture Reform (NLCAR), (2021).

The dataset includes land-based farms with the following statuses:

1. Operating: The farm has been built and is operating at the identified location. The current production level may be lower than the company’s long term ambitions.
2. In construction: The farm is under construction at the identified location, based on the latest information available online. The initial production level may be lower than the company’s long term ambitions.
3. Project:Investment to build a new farm has been announced at the identified location, based on information available online.
   1. Conceptual: No further information available online.
   2. Permit: The company has received the local permit.
   3. Local opposition: The project has received local opposition, potentially delaying construction.
   4. Financial block: Based on the latest information available online, the project requires further funding, potentially delaying construction.
4. No project yet: he company has announced ambitions of production but no specific location for the projects could be identified based on the latest information available online. These are included in the dataset but not on the map.

The dataset excludes land-based farms that have been stopped (eg. destroyed after a fire) or projects abandoned.

Locations are approximate, as the information available on the location of land-based projects/farms online is generally at the level of towns/villages. This information was matched to the dataset of Geonames - All Cities with a population > 1000 to obtain Latitude / Longitude coordinates. For projects in villages smaller than 1000 inhabitants or with ambiguous names, we used Google maps to determine the coordinates. For a small number of projects, only the region could be identified.

Estimation of electricity consumption and carbon footprint

RAS technology (Recycled Aquaculture Systems) in fully enclosed tanks requires large amounts of freshwater and is very energy-intensive, as it aims to recreate very precisely the natural conditions found in the sea. In order to estimate the long-term electricity consumption of individual land-based projects, the production capacity of the farm in tonnes of salmon per year was multiplied by the electricity usage per weight of salmon produced. Given the level of uncertainty related to the precise implementation of RAS technology, we opted for a range of values based on scientific publications:

• Lower estimate: 9.59 kWh/kg salmon Ayuso-Virgili et al. 2023
• Upper estimate: 22.6 kWh/kg salmon Ayer et al. 2009

This range encompasses the electricity consumption per weight produced for farms currently in operation, such as Atlantic Sapphire (Annual report, 2022).

The annual carbon footprint of individual farms was estimated based on four components:

• Emissions from salmon feeds: 2.64 kg CO2/kg salmon, calculated from the carbon emissions of feed - Sustainability report Biomar (2022) - and a Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) of 1.27 - eFCR data (IFFO)
• Emissions from the construction phase: 0.39 kg CO2/kg salmon - Liu et al. 2016
• Emissions from oxygenation: 0.44 kg CO/kg salmon - Liu et al. 2016
• Emissions from the salmon life cycle in land-based farms: we used the emissions from electricity consumption in the country where the farm is located, based on the“Carbon intensity of electricity generation” dataset (2023)

Potential limitations to our methodology

1. Land-based projects in the dataset may be missing or out-of-date. If investment was announced but fell through, the project might have been abandoned. The location may be inaccurate, if a different construction site has been identified but not announced. We report the year of the latest information identified for full transparency.
2. The production capacity captured may not be consistent from farm to farm. Depending on the information available, it may reflect what the company has received permission to produce or what the company’s long-term plans are.
3. The electricity consumption per tonnes of salmon produced is based on RAS technology and should represent an average. A small number of projects use SIFT technology with a likely higher electricity consumption, and Hybrid RAS/FTS technology with a likely lower electricity consumption.
4. The carbon footprint for land-based farms may be overestimated or underestimated on a case by case basis depending on the specific arrangements that the company has locally to increase sustainability and/or the use of local renewable energy (eg. geothermal).

The indicators related to the RAS project map are based on the following assumptions:

• General hypothesis:
  • The production of salmons in land-based salmon farms is estimated to 2.28 million tonnes (see section Land-based salmon farms - the map)
• Number of forage fish caught:
  • The average weight of a salmon at harvest is estimated at 5 kg (Source: Knockaert, C. 2006 (fr), Mood et al. 2023, Scottish fish farm production survey 2020, Fishcount)
  • It is considered that up to 440 forage fishes are needed to produce one farmed salmon (Source: Seastemik report 2024 (fr), Rethinking EU Aquaculture: for people, animals and the planet)
• Quantity of soy required:
  • 1.34 kg of feed is needed to produce 1 kg of salmon (Source: Synnøve Aas et al., 2022)
  • 20.9% of this feed is composed of soy protein concentrate, which contains 62.2% soy protein (Source: Synnøve Aas et al., 2022)
  • The land footprint for soy production is set at 2.2 m² for 100 g of protein (Source: Yummyproof)
  • The area considered for a football field is 7000 m².
• Electricity consumption:
  • The energy consumption considered for RAS systems ranges between 9.59 and 22.6 kWh per kg of salmon produced (Sources: Ayuso-Virgili et al. 2023 and Ayer et al. 2009)
  • The average energy consumption of a European is estimated at 1584 kWh per year, while the average consumption of a French person is estimated at 2296 kWh per year (Source: Eurostat)
  • The production of a nuclear reactor is estimated to be 500 GWh (Source: EDF)
• Carbon footprint:
  • The CO₂ emissions of land-based salmon farms have been evaluated for the global mapping of projects, considering the electricity consumption of the tanks and the local carbon content of the electricity (see Section Land-based salmon farms - the map).

Tracing the production chain of salmon back to its impact on deforestation is not an easy task. Here, we will focus solely on the land required for salmon production in Norway, particularly for a key plant-based component of their diet: Brazilian Soy Protein Concentrate (SPC). We will not provide exact figures on legal deforestation linked to the Norwegian salmon industry. Indeed, since 2006, the Soy Moratorium is supposed to protect the Amazon from legal deforestation for soybean cultivation. Nevertheless, legal deforestation has shifted to other less protected regions of Brazil, such as the Cerrado, and intensive soybean production continues in areas of the Amazon that were deforested before 2008.

We relied on the 2017 report From Brazilian farms to Norwegian tables by Framtiden i våre hender (FIVH) and Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) to trace the production chain between Brazilian soy and Norwegian salmon. This report indicates that in 2015, 3 tonnes of soybeans were cultivated per hectare on average, and it takes 0.57 kg of soybeans to produce 1 kg of SPC. It also notes that Norwegian authorities wish the aquaculture industry to reach five times its current size by 2050.

To obtain the volumes for 2020, we used a second report, Utilization of feed resources in the production of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in Norway: An update for 2020 which states that 413,611 tonnes of SPC were imported to Norway in 2020 for farmed salmon feed, with 368,497 tonnes coming from Brazil.

Using these figures and accounting for the amount of salmon produced by Norway in 2020 (according to the FAO), we deduce that the area required for soybean cultivation in Brazil to feed Norwegian salmon in 2020 is 2,154 km² (more than 20 times the area of Paris). This area could reach approximately 11,000 km² by 2050, comparable to the legal deforestation of the Amazon in 2022, which was 11,570 km².

The data on salmon escapes come from the annual reports of the producers (Source: integrated reports and/or sustainability reports (en, es, dk), see the Producers section). No data was found for Cooke. The data collected for each producer are compiled over all the reported years and then compared.

The escape rate corresponds to the ratio between the number of escaped fish and the number of fish produced over the considered period. An average weight of salmon at harvest is estimated at 5 kg (Sources: Knockaert, C. 2006 (fr), Mood et al. 2023, Scottish fish farm production survey 2020, Fishcount).

Data on the use of antibiotics in the salmon farming industry is difficult to obtain. In Chile, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) published a report in 2021 on the Use of antimicrobials in national salmoniculture (es). We use the data on the amount of antimicrobials for 2021 (463 tonnes), reported against the harvested biomass (0.99 millions of tonnes), with a ratio of 0.047%. The large majority of antimicrobials are applied to aquaculture in sea water (98.7%) and to Salmon species (97.9%). Antimicrobials include antibiotics, as well as antifungal and antiseptic medicine, however the report shows that the substance the most commonly used in sea water aquaculture is Florenicol (97.1%), an antibiotic commonly used in veterinary medicine.

To produce the visualisation, we converted the amount of antibiotics administered to salmon fish produced in 2021 to a human, using the average weight of a French person (women and men combined - 74.1kg (Source: Ligue contre l'obésité (fr)). The dose of antibiotics this would represent for a human (35 g) is equivalent to 140 tablets of antibiotics (1 tablet of 250mg of typical antibiotics for human consumption).

For the definition of Microplastics (MP), the most commonly advocated threshold is <5 mm (EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Commission Decision, 2017). To estimate how many MPs are eaten per French person per year, we started by leveraging the existing research to calculate how many MPs can be found in one salmon:

• 12.5 microplastics per 100g of wild salmon (between 10 and 15; Source: Norce report, 2020)
• 10.5 microplastics per 100g of farmed salmon (Source: Norce report, 2020)

We assumed that the wild/farmed ratio was 93% for the salmon eaten by French people (WWF study (fr)) - taking a different value has a limited impact on the outcome, as the number of MPs which can be found in salmon doesn’t change significantly between the two categories.

Considering that one salmon weighs 5kg on average (Sources: Knockaert, C. 2006 (fr), Mood et al. 2023, Scottish fish farm production survey 2020, Fishcount), we find that one salmon contains 532 MPs.

A French person eats 4.2kgs of salmon per year (France Agrimer (fr)). This represents 468 MPs per year.

As a French person eats 97,500 MPs per year (Cox et al. 2019), we find that 0.5% comes from eating fishes.

To represent the density of salmon in the farming industry, we use the following values:

• Density in marine farms: 20 kgs of fish per cubic meter at their peak size - average taken instead of the range 15-25 kg/m³ (Source: ISFA, 2015)
• Density in land-based farms: 65 kgs of fish per cubic meter at their peak size - average taken instead of the range 50-150 kg/m³ (Sources: ISFA 2015, IGEDD Report 2022 (fr))

The data on salmon mortality rates come from the annual reports of the producers (Source: integrated reports and/or sustainability reports (en, es, dk), see the Producers section). Mortality rates collected for each producer are detailed year by year, and if possible, country by country if the data are available. Data is not available for all producers for all years (2011 - 2022). Note: these figures only account for mortality at sea during the salmon maturation phase. Mortality observed in freshwater during the pre-smolt growth phase is close to 30% (Source: Annual reports Multi X (en, es)).

For comparison, intensive farming shows mortality rates around 3% for cattle (Source: VetAgro Sup (fr)), 20% for pigs (Source: IFIP (fr)), and 4% for chickens (Source: ATAVI (fr)).

The quantity of greenhouse gas emissions from salmon farming, as well as their distribution between scopes 1, 2, and 3, are derived from the 2021 annual reports of 9 of the largest producers, which represent about 50% of the world's production (Source: integrated reports and/or sustainability reports (en, es, dk), see the Producers section). The scope 2 emissions considered are those estimated according to the "location-based" calculation methodology.

These emissions are then extrapolated to the entire global salmon production, considering a production of 2.9 million tonnes of salmon (Source: FAO), assuming homogeneity in practices and feed sources among the remaining producers.

To download thz detailed emissions of the 9 largest salmon producers, click here.

For comparison, we use the total CO₂ emissions of Croatia, estimated at 17.2 million tons in 2022 (Source: EDGAR), as well as the 2050 target of 2 tonnes per person per year to avoid exceeding +2°C of global warming (Source: The Nature Conservancy).

To estimate the proportion of fish from mill fishing used to feed farmed salmon, we used the following sources:

• The amount of forage fish needed to produce one kilogram of salmon is estimated to be 1.32 kilograms of fish, considering the following assumptions:
  • The limiting ingredient derived from forage fish for salmon feed is fish oil, which accounted for approximately 8.3% of feed composition in 2020 (Source: Synnøve Aas et al. 2022)
  • The extraction yield of this oil is estimated at 7.5% (Source: Synnøve Aas et al. 2022)
  • 1.27 kilograms of feed are needed to produce 1 kilogram of salmon (Source: IFFO)
• The production of Atlantic salmon in aquaculture in 2020 is 2.72 million tonnes (Source: FAO, code SAL for Atlantic salmon).
• World fisheries (marine and inland) amounted to approximately 90 million tonnes in 2020 (Source: FAO), of which 70 million tonnes are for human consumption and 15 million tonnes are used for the production of fishmeal and fish oil. The remainder is primarily used for ornamental purposes, for fry, as bait, in pharmaceutical uses, and as raw material for direct aquaculture feed (Source: EUMOFA, 2018).
• World production of fishmeal supplies the aquaculture sector (57%), the pig sector (22%), and the poultry sector (14%) (Source: Bloom, figures from 2008).

Using the conversion factors presented above, we estimate the quantity of fish caught to feed farmed salmon at 3.66 million tonnes, which represents 4% of global fisheries (2020). As more recent figures were not available, we calculated the volume of global fish production destined for different sectors. Among the 20 million tonnes (~23%) not intended for human consumption, aquaculture (8.55 million tons) represents 9.5% of global fishing production.

The figures on fishing in West Africa dedicated to Norwegian salmon farming are taken from the report from Feedback (Source: Blue Empire: How the Norwegian salmon industry extracts nutrition and undermines livelihoods in West Africa, 2024).

Insect flour has been identified as a potential substitute for soybean meal or fish meal. However, a number of reasons outlined in this downloadable document suggest caution, or even skepticism, regarding this solution, as it does not appear to represent a significant environmental advancement.

The food choices table provides a comparison of 8 food choices (including salmon) based on 6 criteria. Some of these criteria rely on quantitative data, while others rely on qualitative data. The color range represents graduated degrees of impact, from dark green (very low impact) to dark red (excessively high impact).

For a detailed description of the methodology and sources used to generate this table, download the PDF document. To better visualize the table, download the simplified version (PDF) or download the detailed version (PDF).

The methodology includes an analysis on omega-3s (benefits, national nutritional balance, financial cost on household consumption basket).