The WWF’s un-listing, under threat, of a popular Vietnamese farmed fish has provoked a heated debate in Sweden – the WWF claiming that in exchange it reached a strong agreement for that industry to clean up its business.
Reporters from the Swedish public radio “Matens pris” (The Price of Food) program had visited Vietnamese Iridescent shark (Pangasius hypophthalmus) farms, and returned with reports of greatly harmful effects on the environment, not the least uncontrolled emissions of antibiotics into the nearby Mekong River.
Pollution from the fish farmed threatened the whole ecosystem there with eutrophication, environmentalists claimed, and the reporters described unsatisfactory conditions with more than 300,000 one-kilo fish crammed in a 50×100 metre dam.
The fish in the farm were fed fish meal produced from fish in nearby waters with depleted stocks as a result, depriving the local population of a traditional and important food source, the reporters said.
