IRISH CHEF AND food writer Darina Allen is one of more than 120 famous chefs from around the world who have signed a letter calling for ocean-farmed salmon not to be served in restaurants.

Allen, who founded Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co Cork, is among names such as the UK’s Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Michelin Italian chef Massimo Bottura.

The letter said that ocean-farmed salmon has “become one of the greatest threats to wild salmon’s future”.

The increase in farmed salmon in recent decades poses a threat to the environment and wild salmon populations. 

Darina Allen, Irish chef and food journalist. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has said that salmon aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production system in the world, accounting for 70% of the market.

However, it said farming salmon may involve an “excessive use of chemicals” that can have unintended consequences for marine organisms and human health, while excess food and fish waste increase the levels of nutrients in the water.

The WWF said farmed salmon can present a threat to wild salmon by transferring viruses and parasites, while if farmed salmon escape they can compete with wild fish and interbreed with local wild stocks.

The chef-led campaign, called Off the table, wants chefs and restaurants to commit to not serving ocean-farmed salmon until the industry can operate without causing harm.

“Ocean-farmed salmon should never have existed at this scale. Not when the cost is wild salmon and all that depends on them,” the letter said.

“Every menu is a choice about what belongs on our tables. Ocean-farmed salmon does not — not as long as it continues to cause this kind of harm,” 

Over 8,700 chefs and restaurants have pledged to stop serving salmon, including several in Ireland. 

The Off the table website includes a map showing which restaurants have made the pledge.