Saumon d'élevage : ce que l'industrie nous cache | RTS

0:00 Can you turn the light off? Just until we get round the corner.

0:18 Can you smell the fish? You can put the light on if you want.

0:45 It's very heavy.

0:55 Ah, it's disgusting.

0:59 You can see the head gone on that one.

1:03 You can see lice infestation.

1:05 You can see infectious diseases.

1:07 See the skin eaten away.

1:11 This is dead diseased salmon.

1:15 Could be 5,000, maybe more.

1:24 I'm just going to do a video.

1:27 But this is the welfare nightmare of salmon farming in Scotland.

1:32 They're trying to fence off, to shut me down, to stop me filming inside the farms.

1:38 Unlike salmon farmers, the camera never lies.

1:41 Please boycott Scottish salmon. Don Stanaford. It's late January 2025.

1:59 Does it make you feel hungry?

2:01 It's probably the highest level of mortality I've ever seen.

2:11 This bale may contain 30 tonnes of salmon.

2:15 People have to see the truth.

2:17 Don Stanaford is the black sheep of the world salmon industry.

2:22 He's been denouncing intensive farming in Scotland for 25 years,

2:26 and record mortality in certain marine farms.

2:30 Despite the denunciations of activists like him,

2:33 despite these images stolen from the cages,

2:35 which document the suffering of these sick fish and victims of parasites,

2:40 here in Scotland or elsewhere, in Chile or Norway,

2:43 this industry continues to grow.

2:54 It is Norwegian producers who dominate it.

2:57 They show respect for nature and fish,

2:59 raised and monitored through high-tech methods.

3:03 They show us healthy and vigorous salmon,

3:06 whose emblematic pink flesh lands on our plates and in our shops every day.

3:11 Their production has tripled in 25 years, and profits have skyrocketed.

3:20 In Switzerland, we are crazy about this fish.

3:23 In the last 10 years, its consumption has increased by 40%.

3:27 In the media, we are shown the image of an industry as pure as these landscapes.

3:32 And yet, these farms pose serious problems

3:35 in terms of animal well-being and environmental damage.

3:39 We are going to tell you how we, the consumers, are made of smoke.

3:54 It is in these fjords of Norway that it all began, already in the 1960s.

3:59 This man knows them like the back of his hand.

4:05 And for good reason.

4:06 It's been 20 years since Ruben Odekalv has been investigating the intensive salmon farming.

4:11 At the head of the Norwegian Environment Protection Association,

4:14 he closely monitors the activities of this industry.

4:17 He is a member of the Norwegian Environment Protection Association,

4:20 and he is documenting its impacts on nature.

4:25 He takes us to sea cages,

4:27 some kind of enclosures 15 to 50 meters in diameter and up to 50 meters deep.

4:34 We can't get close to the nets.

4:36 The biggest producers have all refused our shooting requests at their aquaculture farms.

4:44 There can be up to 200,000 fish per cage.

4:46 They swim one direction.

4:48 If you look closely at these salmon,

4:50 you will see that their muscles develop more on one side

4:53 because they only go in one direction.

4:55 They don't shift.

4:58 The salmon raised here for two years

5:00 have only a distant relationship with their wild ancestor,

5:03 an athletic and brave fish that crosses the Atlantic.

5:06 These are genetically selected fish, generation after generation.

5:10 The main thing they've been focusing on is the size.

5:15 They wanted to grow as fast as possible

5:17 to have the biggest, most fleshful salmon possible.

5:22 This is like the McDonald's in the world of salmon.

5:26 This is the lazy fat, just sitting in the couch salmon.

5:32 This is the lazy fat, just sitting in the couch salmon.

5:37 To feed this carnivore,

5:39 a supply boat delivers bags of several hundred kilos of granules,

5:43 a kind of concentrate of flour and fish oil

5:46 to which cereals are added, mainly Brazilian soy.

5:50 There is also pink color to pimp the salmon's flesh.

5:55 The balls are distributed in the cages by these pipes.

5:58 In recent years, the proportion of fish in the granules has dropped significantly.

6:03 The main reason they did that is because this industry is so big

6:07 that they are using everything, all that is available.

6:10 So they have to find other sources of food.

6:14 But still, we can also eat soy, like protein from soy,

6:19 and only using soy, you are taking our own food,

6:23 giving it to the salmon and giving it to the fish.

6:26 Raising a carnivore is not sustainable, period.

6:30 Seafood farming also has consequences on wild salmon,

6:33 whose population has dropped by half in Norway.

6:38 These lazy cousins escape and mix.

6:42 And when you have this kind of mix,

6:44 you have to be careful not to mix it too much,

6:47 because if you mix it too much,

6:49 the salmon will not be able to digest it.

6:52 These lazy cousins escape and mix.

6:57 And when you have these lazier, fattier genes in wild fish,

7:02 it makes them degenerate and they destroy the wild population.

7:08 You don't see that with chickens.

7:10 You don't see that with cows.

7:12 You don't see that with pigs.

7:14 If they escape you, you can catch them.

7:17 At each mission, he posts videos for the members of his organization.

7:23 We have been informing you for almost 20 years

7:25 about these marine farms and their impact on nature.

7:32 That's what's crazy.

7:34 The problems related to salmon farming

7:36 have been denounced since the beginning of this industry,

7:39 even in our country.

7:43 Look at this excerpt from Abonnentendeur,

7:45 the RTS console program.

7:47 It dates from 1997, almost 30 years ago.

7:52 And there is a war of differences today

7:54 between salmon farming and poultry and chicken farming.

7:57 This implies a very rich diet,

7:59 based on fish flour,

8:01 and a density that can go up to 10 kg of salmon per m3 of water.

8:07 In farming, the animal has transformed.

8:09 It has become too fat and not enough muscular.

8:11 But this did not prevent the formidable growth of the Norwegian industry.

8:16 ABE was telling you about a density of 10 kg of salmon per m3 of water.

8:20 Today, we are often twice as much.

8:27 More than 1,000 farms produce here

8:29 some 400 million salmon each year.

8:31 A production that has tripled in 30 years.

8:35 In 30 years, it has also become a global industry

8:37 that thrives in Chile, Scotland, Canada,

8:40 the Faroe Islands, Tasmania, New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland.

8:45 Farming very often in the hands of three Norwegian giants,

8:48 Mövi, Salmar, the King.

8:53 And this empire, which collects billions of benefits,

8:56 does not appreciate those who come to put their nose in the cages.

9:00 The employees of the farm in Kwakol call on Ruben O'Dekalb,

9:03 reproaching him for being too close to the enclosures.

9:08 No law forbids us to film the facility

9:12 as long as we stay 20 meters from the buoys.

9:15 No, no, you have to stay 100 meters.

9:17 No, reread the rules.

9:19 100 meters from the cages, that's if we fish.

9:24 Do you have problems when you criticize the industry?

9:27 Have you been pressuring on you?

9:30 Yes, absolutely.

9:32 This is the only industry that has acted like this.

9:35 We are attacking the oil industry, the chemical industry.

9:39 The fish farm in Kwakol is the only one that has pressured our sponsors,

9:43 the only one that has attacked us in the media

9:46 and the only one that has tried to destroy our organization.

9:52 They are not answering the critics.

9:54 They are attacking the messenger,

9:57 which is a very valid point that there is something to what we are saying.

10:10 In Scotland, the vast majority of salmon farms

10:13 are also in the hands of Norwegian producers.

10:16 And here too, they do not appreciate war, their contradictor.

10:26 Don Staniford in particular is in their sights.

10:29 He is the one who showed us the dead salmon during a night operation.

10:33 He is preparing a new attack.

10:36 We are here in a beautiful forest.

10:38 When the forest is cut down,

10:40 for example when they cut down the Amazon forest,

10:43 you can see it.

10:45 It is very visible.

10:47 You can see it from the sky.

10:49 But if you look at a salmon farm overnight,

10:52 it looks like nothing.

10:54 People may not even see it.

10:56 You can see it from the sky.

10:58 But if you look at a salmon farm overnight,

11:01 it looks like nothing.

11:03 People may not even see it.

11:05 And even less the damage it causes.

11:07 You have to film inside a farm to see the abuse.

11:11 Otherwise, it is far from the eyes, far from the heart.

11:18 To denounce the salmon industry,

11:20 he made a reputation thanks to his kayak

11:23 and a certain sense of self-deception.

11:26 This is Don Staniford in a clever disguise.

11:29 I am here in front of a salmon farm.

11:33 This is me.

11:35 They want to block access to public salmon farms.

11:38 They are trying to stop us, me and others,

11:41 from filming inside salmon farms.

11:45 Look at these shocking photos.

11:47 I obtained them thanks to the law on transparency

11:50 and hidden cameras.

11:54 I started off as a university student.

11:57 I was studying the impact of salmon farming

12:00 on the environment in the early 1990s.

12:03 Then I became an activist.

12:07 Governments around the world have allowed these salmon multinationals

12:11 to privatize the coast,

12:13 to close off the marine environment and the freshwater environment.

12:18 It's all about money.

12:21 They do support jobs, but it's a huge cost.

12:26 Since 2018, he has multiplied his kayak expeditions

12:29 to get closer to the cages

12:31 and even climb on these facilities to film them better.

12:34 But several salmon producers have sued the law

12:37 to prevent this.

12:40 One of the Norwegian giants has obtained a cause.

12:43 The activist is no longer allowed to set foot on the cages,

12:46 but he can still get closer.

12:48 Other complaints are being dealt with by the Scottish courts.

12:52 The boat is coming towards me. I'm going to stop.

12:55 They want an exclusion reserve.

12:57 They want to ban our drones.

12:59 You can see the boat behind me.

13:01 They want to shut down the criticism.

13:05 And we understand why.

13:07 Don Staniford's videos reveal what's going on under the surface.

13:12 Filmed illegally in many marine farms

13:15 and published in the media,

13:17 Don Staniford's videos reveal what's going on under the surface.

13:22 Filmed illegally on social media,

13:24 they have also been broadcast all over the world

13:27 thanks to several documentaries.

13:30 The salmon from the farms swim in a cloaca

13:33 full of waste.

13:35 They are exposed to infectious diseases.

13:38 They are infested with lice.

13:41 Filming in 2023, I discovered what I call zombie fish.

13:46 These are fish that are pretty much dead.

13:49 Pieces of flesh have been devoured.

13:51 They are zombies. It's shocking.

13:57 What does the Scottish industry say?

14:00 In the capital Edinburgh,

14:02 the doors of its holiday association, Salmon Scotland,

14:05 have remained closed.

14:07 The theme is still burning.

14:10 In January, a parliamentary commission

14:12 led by the Conservative MP Finlay Carson

14:15 published a highly anticipated investigation

14:17 on Scottish farming

14:19 after a first alarming report.

14:22 Back in 2018, we had issues of mortality.

14:25 That was probably one of the most important points of the report.

14:29 At that stage, we had 25% of mortality within the sector

14:33 and the committee stated that to be unacceptable.

14:36 Now, we find that that mortality is still the same.

14:40 There are even farms in Kwakol

14:42 that have a mortality rate as high as 85%.

14:47 85% is a hecatomb,

14:49 often due to the attack of micro-jellyfish,

14:52 more and more frequent due to sea water warming.

14:56 As shown in this video by a British NGO,

14:59 it mortally hurts the salmon that are already weakened

15:03 and trapped in their cages.

15:07 In its report, the parliamentary commission is concerned

15:10 about the situation and denounces the lack of progress in the industry.

15:14 It asks the government to tighten the bolts.

15:17 We also made recommendations

15:19 that a competent authority should have more power

15:23 to enforce certain regulations.

15:26 We recommended the closure of farms

15:28 that show a high mortality rate and would be closed down.

15:33 But there is no question of too embarrassing this industry

15:36 that is at the origin of some 12,000 direct and indirect jobs.

15:41 It is also the largest exporter of food products in the United Kingdom.

15:48 At this point, we did not ask for a pause or a moratorium

15:52 because the exact implications of such a measure are not clear.

15:56 We do not want to jeopardize jobs

15:59 or compromise the future investments of the big salmon companies.

16:05 This sector is an important employer

16:07 but also a major player in the Scottish economy.

16:18 In Norway, the weight of the salmon industry is even greater.

16:22 There are 50,000 jobs and sales of 10 billion francs in 2024,

16:26 which makes it a strategic export sector,

16:29 the second after oil and gas.

16:33 It is the first country in the world to have created a Ministry of Fisheries

16:37 and inevitably the interests of the government and the industry converge.

16:43 The government wants the industry to develop.

16:49 The main objective is not necessarily to increase volume

16:53 but rather to add value

16:55 or the contribution of the industry to our GDP,

17:00 to our economy.

17:04 Of course, if we can also increase production,

17:07 that's a good thing,

17:09 but it has to be done in a sustainable way.

17:13 Sustainable is a key word for the government and the industry.

17:17 Here too, farming has recorded a record mortality in recent years.

17:22 62 million salmon died prematurely at sea in 2023

17:27 and nearly 40 million in hatcheries.

17:32 This photo of thousands of dead salmon at the bottom of a cage

17:35 that leaked in the press in 2023 made a lot of noise.

17:40 We take the issue of fish well-being very seriously.

17:45 We have just published a strategic plan for Parliament

17:49 which will be discussed in the coming months

17:52 in which we recognize that the current mortality is too high.

17:56 We need to reduce this mortality

17:58 and we are looking at how we can do that.

18:04 As a reminder, no major salmon producer has accepted our interview requests.

18:12 So we went to see Trick V. Popé

18:15 to understand the causes of this record mortality.

18:19 He is one of the most respected fish health experts today, retired.

18:30 Today I can speak freely.

18:35 It's clear, there is a certain pressure from the industry.

18:40 Many scientists hesitate to show too much negativity about the industry.

18:49 They risk, in particular, to see their funding reduced by the government

18:53 to carry out independent research, as we say.

18:57 It's really a problem.

19:01 Training veterinarian, he is still very active.

19:04 With other retired scientists,

19:06 he is determined to raise the veil on breeding methods.

19:11 It's very intensive from the very beginning,

19:14 from the incubation of the eggs to the slaughtering of the fish.

19:19 We are constantly accelerating the process to maximize the profits.

19:26 This is why we frequently observe what we call diseases related to production

19:31 as well as infectious diseases.

19:34 Dozens of thousands of fish in cages,

19:36 it's the feast for the viruses that attack their gills, their pancreas, their hearts.

19:43 It is also open bar for this little creature, the seahorse,

19:46 a mini crustacean that feeds on the flesh and blood of the salmon.

19:54 This photo dates from the early 1980s,

19:57 when we first became aware of the fact

20:00 of the gravity of the problem posed by the seahorse.

20:03 Look at how the head of the fish has been rinsed down to the skull.

20:08 The industry first got rid of seahorses with pesticides,

20:11 but this affected other marine species.

20:14 So breeders have put in place other methods,

20:17 such as the so-called thermal.

20:19 They immerse the salmon, a cold-blooded animal, in water at 30 degrees.

20:23 A rare process,

20:25 The salmon are pumped up from the cages into a treatment chamber

20:29 and they are kept in these cages for about 30 seconds

20:32 and then pumped out again into a new cage.

20:35 During this process,

20:37 the high temperature is supposed to kill the parasite or paralyze it.

20:42 Of course, this is not the end of the story.

20:45 This is the end of the story.

20:51 Of course, the fish panic.

20:53 They swim in all directions.

20:55 They collide with each other

20:57 and hit each other on the wall

20:59 before they are pumped out again.

21:01 There is therefore a strong mortality just after the treatment

21:05 or in the following days,

21:07 or even a week later.

21:09 They also develop large cutaneous ulcers

21:12 that end up in the mouth of the fish.

21:18 They also develop large cutaneous ulcers

21:21 that end up in the mouth of the fish.

21:26 Look at this article published yesterday

21:29 in the main Norwegian newspaper Afton Posten

21:32 which reads,

21:33 Your meal has been tortured.

21:36 This is a very strong term, tortured.

21:39 It's a very strong term.

21:41 But what we have seen in many cases

21:44 is far more than just an animal welfare problem.

21:47 It's abuse and abuse,

21:49 or torture, as they say here.

21:51 Because the industry knows exactly what they are doing.

21:54 They know the consequences of its actions

21:57 and they know that these fish are dying a terrible death.

22:00 So it's cynical

22:02 and I think the word torture is quite appropriate.

22:05 Absolutely.

22:06 When you are telling that,

22:08 consumers can say,

22:10 but it's just a fish.

22:14 Yes, that is the problem.

22:16 Just a fish.

22:18 But just a fish is not just a fish.

22:21 Because fish,

22:22 and in particular Atlantic salmon,

22:25 they are very sophisticated animals

22:28 and they have all the senses that you and I have.

22:31 They are capable of feeling pain and fear

22:34 and even despair.

22:45 In Oslo, we contacted the large producers' fair,

22:48 which represents 80% of the breeders

22:51 and 90% of Norwegian production,

22:53 to explain to us how salmon are produced

22:56 that we buy and eat in Switzerland.

22:59 In vain.

23:00 The door remained closed.

23:02 On our return, we witnessed,

23:04 and by force,

23:05 Christa Roas, regional director of Sjomat Norge,

23:08 answered our questions.

23:10 First of all,

23:11 how does the industry fight mortality?

23:16 The newest numbers on the mortality rate

23:19 came out just a few weeks ago.

23:21 It's an average of 15.4% in Norway

23:24 for all marine production.

23:27 That's down

23:29 4.8%

23:31 from last year.

23:33 It's been too high

23:35 and it's been too high level.

23:38 We hope that this is the beginning of a transition

23:41 that will take off.

23:43 Nobody has a bigger interest

23:45 in reducing mortality

23:47 than the breeders themselves.

23:50 We have more and more

23:52 methods that we are using

23:54 and they are more gentle.

23:59 BioSort presents iFarm.

24:02 What some producers are developing

24:05 are high-tech treatments

24:07 in the cages themselves,

24:09 as shown in this commercial video.

24:11 A kind of facial recognition of the salmon

24:14 that allows to count the fish individually

24:17 and to sort the fish that will be treated.

24:23 The thermal treatment

24:25 currently used to fight sea lice,

24:28 can we say that it's a torture?

24:32 No, I wouldn't say that.

24:34 The Norwegian Food Authority

24:36 doesn't say that either.

24:38 They authorise this treatment

24:40 and it's within the limits of what we can do.

24:44 And this process has also been improved.

24:48 The mortality rate has gone down considerably

24:51 during this kind of treatment.

24:53 We are always improving,

24:55 but talking about torture,

24:57 no, I don't agree with that at all.

24:59 Do people get hurt by this treatment

25:01 because they are stressed?

25:03 Yes, of course.

25:05 The whole handling of fish

25:07 is an additional stress factor.

25:09 That's why we are trying to reduce

25:11 the number of treatments

25:13 and the handling of fish as much as possible.

25:16 Do we get also this injured fish

25:18 in our plates?

25:20 Of course, yes.

25:22 Because lots of these injured fish

25:24 cannot be exported as whole fish.

25:27 They have to be transformed into Norway.

25:30 So you can cut away the ulcers,

25:32 you can remove the skin, etc.

25:35 And they can be marketed

25:37 for smoking them as smaller fish pieces.

25:41 And of course,

25:43 the consumption of these small fish

25:45 is not a danger for humans

25:47 because the bacteria that kill the fish

25:49 are not harmful for humans.

25:52 But the quality is obviously inferior

25:55 and the consumers do not pay for that.

26:04 Does all this make sense

26:06 for our other consumers?

26:08 Why have we become accustomed

26:10 to eating so many salmon

26:12 as if they were falling from the sky?

26:14 In the south of England,

26:16 we met a man who has long been

26:18 investigating our food production

26:20 intensive systems

26:22 and their impact on our environment.

26:24 He is a scientific by training.

26:26 Georges Monbiot is the author of several books

26:28 that document this impact.

26:30 We started by submitting him

26:32 our packets of salmon.

26:40 The great majority of people

26:42 who buy this product

26:44 completely ignore the realities

26:46 of their production.

26:48 Look at these packages.

26:50 Smoked salmon is almost

26:52 the perfect example

26:54 of the disconnected consumerism

26:56 of reality.

26:58 Because this product

27:00 has been so far removed

27:02 from its manufacturing process

27:04 that one might think

27:06 it comes from Mars.

27:08 It says,

27:10 here is this substance,

27:12 this orange gelatineous stuff

27:14 which you'll like to taste

27:16 and it comes from somewhere

27:18 in the shadow of some detached

27:20 and without physical realities.

27:24 It is interesting to note

27:26 that none of these packages

27:28 show a fish

27:30 or even the place

27:32 where these fish come from.

27:34 Even people who might have

27:36 heard about the realities

27:38 of salmon farming

27:40 have relayed this information

27:42 in a corner of their mind.

27:44 And so when you step into

27:46 the supermarket,

27:48 you see that

27:50 there is a vacuum

27:52 in the package

27:54 and they are vacuum packed

27:56 in your mind.

27:58 And so it's that disconnection,

28:00 that disappearance

28:02 of our moral values

28:04 which is one of the great

28:06 diseases of our food system.

28:08 So what do those

28:10 whose mission is to regulate

28:12 the industry and its production methods do?

28:14 In Norway,

28:16 farmers are the ones

28:18 who have this responsibility.

28:20 Farmers must declare

28:22 any disease or parasite infestation

28:24 and the treatments used.

28:26 If a certain threshold is reached,

28:28 they must reduce their production.

28:30 But there is no greater constraint.

28:34 Everything depends on

28:36 the production technology

28:38 used on each site.

28:40 There are good sites

28:42 and there are bad sites.

28:44 There is no single

28:46 or unique treatment

28:48 to solve that problem.

28:50 You have to be able to consider

28:52 several measures simultaneously.

28:54 So shouldn't practices

28:56 such as thermal treatment be banned?

29:00 A ban

29:02 is not always a solution.

29:06 It is preferable

29:08 to give incentives

29:10 to producers

29:12 and to ban

29:14 a thing because

29:16 someone does not work

29:18 in an acceptable way.

29:20 It is not perhaps very fruitful.

29:22 We therefore prefer

29:24 to modify the operational procedures.

29:28 So we regulate,

29:30 but not too much.

29:32 Norway relies

29:34 on salmon as the main

29:36 export resource in the long term

29:38 once its oil and gas reserves

29:40 are depleted.

29:44 Independent journalist

29:46 Simen Satre spent four years

29:48 investigating behind the scenes

29:50 of this gigantic industry.

29:52 In his book,

29:54 he explains that for a long time

29:56 the industry had a kind of special status.

30:02 It is as if laws and regulations

30:04 had been written

30:06 for the industry to develop

30:08 according to its own needs.

30:12 But today,

30:14 the state becomes a little more critical.

30:16 The sector has taken great importance.

30:18 A lot of money is at stake.

30:22 And there is probably today

30:24 a greater will to regulate.

30:26 Nevertheless, the state remains very careful

30:28 when it comes to imposing

30:30 requirements on the sector.

30:32 His book and several other

30:34 investigations published recently

30:36 have undermined the reputation

30:38 of salmon producers in Norway.

30:40 In particular, those who benefit the most

30:42 are the big billionaire bosses.

30:44 By the way,

30:46 several of them have found

30:48 a tax haven in Switzerland.

30:52 When those who are nicknamed

30:54 the salmon barons,

30:56 that is to say managers

30:58 and owners of the industry,

31:00 appeared in the media,

31:02 they left a bad impression.

31:04 They showed themselves rich and arrogant

31:08 and little inclined

31:10 to understand criticism.

31:14 They have thus acquired

31:16 a very bad reputation over the years.

31:20 And today, many Norwegians

31:22 say that they have simply

31:24 stopped consuming salmon

31:26 and that they boycott it.

31:30 Norwegians know that there are

31:32 a lot of salmon in the sea.

31:34 But very recently,

31:36 they have also discovered

31:38 that salmon hatcheries

31:40 have an impact

31:42 on their well-loved fjords.

31:48 We are in the village of Erand,

31:50 with 240 inhabitants

31:52 and 2.5 million salmon babies.

31:54 Here, the Norwegian Mövi,

31:56 the world's largest producer,

31:58 exploits a hatchery.

32:00 The salmon grow

32:02 in sweet water tanks

32:04 for 12 to 18 months.

32:06 They are fed with industrial fish

32:08 and cereal granules.

32:10 Exploited since 1986,

32:12 this hatchery provides jobs

32:14 and income to many inhabitants.

32:16 It has changed the life of the village,

32:18 but not always for the better,

32:20 because these rejects

32:22 are directly evacuated to the bay.

32:26 Twice a week,

32:28 the Norwegian Mövi

32:30 bathes a few dozen meters

32:32 from the hatchery.

32:34 It's around 3 degrees.

32:36 These last two weeks,

32:38 the water was between 1 and 4 degrees.

32:44 It's been very good

32:46 for the last couple of weeks,

32:48 but sometimes it's a little bit stinky.

32:50 And they say they don't know

32:52 what it is,

32:54 but it smells like

32:56 and if it's too disgusting

32:58 here to swim,

33:00 then we go on the other side

33:02 or further out the fjord.

33:10 Lars Kettil Holdus

33:12 is also a neighbor of the hatchery.

33:14 This passionate fisherman

33:16 is disgusted by the fish

33:18 he catches.

33:22 They are pouring

33:24 unfiltered rejects into the bay.

33:28 There are food pellets

33:30 floating all around.

33:34 A lot of fish we used to catch here

33:36 are full of these granules

33:38 and their liver is green.

33:42 They smell bad.

33:44 It's not good at all.

33:46 So we throw it away.

33:48 Another neighbor of the hatchery,

33:50 Stuart Barry,

33:52 has dived several times

33:54 in the Erand Bay

33:56 near the evacuation ducts.

34:00 It's easy to see

34:02 where the evacuation ducts stop.

34:04 It's about 15 to 16 meters deep

34:06 where these birds are.

34:08 It's really not safe

34:10 to actually dive there.

34:12 I've experienced it myself.

34:14 Why that?

34:16 The amount of bacteria

34:18 and chemical products in the water

34:20 irritates the skin

34:22 and can cause cutaneous eruptions.

34:24 I also had an infected eye

34:26 for a month or two.

34:28 It stinks and the hatchery

34:30 doesn't tell us anything.

34:32 When we complain,

34:34 they tell us that everything is fine

34:36 or they ignore us.

34:38 Like us, by the way.

34:40 He shows us this video

34:42 filmed last summer

34:44 of fish waste

34:46 and a lot of other chemical products.

34:48 You can see the gas bubbles

34:50 escaping.

34:52 The evacuation duct is

34:54 150 meters from here.

34:58 These images were shot

35:00 by another passionate diver,

35:02 a famous war photographer.

35:06 Alexander Nordahl

35:08 has given himself a mission

35:10 that now takes up all his time

35:12 all along the Norwegian coast

35:14 and shows how human activities

35:16 affect them.

35:18 We are in one of the most famous

35:20 fjords in Norway.

35:24 We dive there in winter

35:26 because the ocean is clean

35:28 and we can see everything.

35:32 There is no algae proliferation.

35:34 It's extremely cold

35:36 but the water is clear.

35:42 This is the farm.

35:46 This is one of the

35:48 salmon hatcheries

35:50 that somebody had tipped me off.

35:58 So here we are.

36:00 I'm going to check

36:02 if we can dive here.

36:06 With another diver friend,

36:08 he wants to see

36:10 how the local marine ecosystem

36:12 is affected.

36:16 I'm putting in hot water

36:18 and soap

36:20 to put my suit on more easily.

36:24 I do all the free diving

36:26 which allows me

36:28 to swim longer

36:30 and be more flexible.

36:34 We're swimming over there

36:36 and observing

36:38 the surface.

36:54 Four degrees.

36:56 He dives

36:58 near the evacuation points

37:00 at a depth of ten meters.

37:02 Little life,

37:04 organic waste

37:06 and a lot of fish.

37:08 It's too deep.

37:10 No fish,

37:12 just an anemone.

37:20 But he saw much worse

37:22 than in his video

37:24 filmed off the coast of Erindh.

37:26 We showed it

37:28 to a specialist

37:30 from the Norwegian University

37:32 of Science and Technology

37:35 You see what we call

37:37 the marine snow.

37:39 That's food waste

37:41 mixed with fish excrement.

37:43 It creates an ideal environment

37:45 for bacteria to proliferate.

37:47 These bacteria

37:49 are consuming oxygen.

37:51 It's just a very simple phenomenon

37:53 to understand.

37:55 It doesn't make these habitats healthy.

37:57 That's for sure.

37:59 It's degrading.

38:01 And what we see here

38:04 is that the fish

38:06 are getting sick.

38:08 It's worse than a hamburger.

38:10 It's a food waste

38:12 that is not healthy for the fish.

38:14 That's why it's getting sick.

38:16 On other sites,

38:18 Alexander Nordahl

38:20 has captured several of these wild fish.

38:22 They are not salmon,

38:24 but other species.

38:26 And we can see

38:28 that they have swallowed

38:30 industrial granules

38:33 but no brown algae

38:35 like the varek

38:37 that should be present

38:39 if the ecosystem is healthy.

38:41 So we just see

38:43 a lot of species disappearing

38:45 and we see a decline

38:47 of the organisms

38:49 that should be there

38:51 for a functional living area.

38:53 And they are gone.

38:55 The industry says

38:57 that there was a syria

38:59 in the region for centuries

39:01 that was responsible

39:03 basically.

39:05 Yes, I mean, this is a classic.

39:07 They are just

39:09 giving the responsibility

39:11 to others, you know.

39:13 But when you look at this

39:15 marine snow,

39:17 that's not from a sawmill.

39:19 That's not from a sawmill.

39:21 It's an evident sign

39:23 of extreme environmental stress.

39:25 And that we do know.

39:27 To understand who is

39:29 responsible for

39:31 the effects of

39:33 this environmental stress,

39:35 we have to look

39:37 at the report

39:39 of the inspections

39:41 carried out in Herand

39:43 by the Regional Environmental Protection Agency.

39:45 The first date is 2001.

39:47 It indicates that

39:49 the aqua farms'

39:51 exploitation of the aqua farms

39:53 is in a state of infraction.

39:55 It has exceeded

39:57 80 tonnes.

39:59 And so it has doubled its rejections.

40:03 The second date is 2015.

40:05 And it also denounces

40:07 non-conformities,

40:09 notably the absence of reports

40:11 and rejection plans

40:13 as required by the authorities.

40:15 Fourteen years after the first inspection,

40:17 there was still no filtration system.

40:19 And today,

40:21 nothing has changed.

40:23 Herand is far from being an exception.

40:25 A Norwegian daily report

40:27 recently revealed that,

40:29 over a period of 20 years,

40:31 9 inspections out of 10

40:33 have found violations

40:35 in the country's

40:37 some 200 hatcheries.

40:39 At sea, under the cages,

40:41 there are the same rejections

40:43 of food and waste,

40:45 but in much larger quantities.

40:47 The farms carry out

40:49 an auction

40:51 between each breeding cycle,

40:53 which brings out cages

40:55 along the whole coastal line.

40:59 So all of this food

41:01 and salmon excrement

41:03 is transported further away.

41:05 Of course it will be diluted,

41:07 but with the enormous

41:09 number of cages

41:11 along the shoreline,

41:13 it affects the whole ecosystem.

41:15 I've been full-time diving

41:17 all along the Norwegian coast,

41:19 from south to north.

41:21 And the only way

41:23 I can describe what I see

41:25 as being an absolute nightmare

41:27 is that this is going to hell.

41:29 And for me,

41:31 it's destruction,

41:33 it's death.

41:35 It's basically the same mechanism

41:37 as in wartime,

41:39 but we don't see the destruction

41:41 that we create.

41:43 That's why I feel it's really important

41:45 to document it.

41:47 The industry, it,

41:49 relies on the research

41:51 of government institutes

41:53 to refute these criticisms.

41:57 Under each site,

41:59 there are tests

42:01 before and after

42:03 every breeding cycle

42:05 in the pens.

42:07 These tests are carried out

42:09 by a third party,

42:11 and they are sent

42:13 to the Directorate of Fisheries

42:15 in Norway,

42:17 and 94%

42:19 of all sites

42:21 get good or very good

42:23 evaluations.

42:25 So there could be problems

42:27 in some fjords

42:29 or under certain farms,

42:31 but then you just have to

42:33 increase the duration

42:35 of the hatchery

42:37 or reduce the volume

42:39 of the hatchery.

42:41 If we can really change

42:43 the way we produce food,

42:45 it's a lot cheaper

42:47 to change your marketing,

42:49 to change your marketing

42:51 in a way that enables

42:53 to increase

42:55 the number

42:57 of aquaculture projects

42:59 in the world

43:01 and increase

43:03 the number

43:05 of aquaculture projects

43:07 It's a lot cheaper

43:09 to change your marketing

43:11 and convince people

43:13 that doing the same thing

43:15 will give different results.

43:17 You're going to stick words

43:19 like sustainable, regenerative

43:21 or organic on your products

43:23 but actually the impacts

43:25 remain the same.

43:27 You might have changed

43:29 one or two impacts

43:31 to a small extent

43:33 but you're causing

43:35 a lot of trouble.

43:37 Look, we've produced

43:39 a far more efficient machine.

43:41 It's much quicker,

43:43 it operates much more effectively

43:45 but you're still cutting

43:47 off people's heads.

43:49 This industry

43:51 is morally unacceptable.

43:53 We should no longer

43:55 accept an industry

43:57 whose economic model

43:59 is based on deceit

44:01 about its realities.

44:05 The Calves' Farm

44:07 continues to fight

44:09 to limit the damage

44:11 of wild animals

44:13 on nature,

44:15 pleading for closed enclosures.

44:17 But its fight

44:19 may be prolonged.

44:21 Other wild fish

44:23 are starting to be raised

44:25 in cages like the capybara.

44:27 These escaped

44:29 a farm in 2023.

44:31 You see a lot of

44:33 capybaras

44:35 in the wild.

44:37 And this one is another.

44:39 It is special to this place.

44:41 Its proportions are not natural.

44:43 It's the result of a genetic defect.

44:47 Little by little

44:49 these slower,

44:51 more stupid,

44:53 more lazy fish

44:55 will destroy the wild population

44:57 with their degenerated genes.

44:59 And that is really, really scary.

45:01 We know from the salmon industry

45:03 everything they did wrong

45:05 and they made the same mistakes again

45:07 with another species.

45:09 Today the wild salmon population

45:11 has collapsed largely

45:13 because of industrial farming.

45:15 And now they are starting to do the same

45:17 with the capybara.

45:19 That scares me literally.

45:31 .

Saumon d'élevage : ce que l'industrie nous cache | RTS

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