About Salmon Farming

How is salmon farmed?

Salmon are farmed in carefully controlled environments that replicate their natural life cycle. They begin life in freshwater hatcheries, where eggs hatch and young fish are raised for about a year before being moved to sea farms — large floating pens in cold, clean coastal waters. In these pens, the salmon are fed a nutritious diet and farmers monitor fish health, water quality, and feeding using advanced technologies and increasingly AI-based systems. Some producers extend the freshwater stage in land-based systems to reduce disease risk. After 18–24 months, salmon are harvested and processed locally, ensuring a consistent, sustainable, and high-quality source of protein.

Salmon farming follows the species’ natural life cycle. The fish spend their early months in freshwater hatcheries, where eggs hatch and young salmon (smolts) develop under controlled conditions. They are then transferred to seawater farms, where they grow to full size in cold, clean ocean waters. Increasingly, farmers are extending the freshwater or onshore stage using post-smolt or closed-containment systems, which keep fish in land-based tanks for longer periods to reduce time at sea and limit exposure to sea lice and other environmental challenges.

Once the salmon reach harvest size, they are transported to processing facilities where they are prepared for market - most often as fresh fillets, though whole fish and other products are also common. Salmon farming today is a highly regulated sector, with strict standards to ensure environmental sustainability, fish welfare, and food safety, while meeting growing global demand for healthy, protein-rich seafood.

Aquaculture in the global food system

Today, most salmon available in supermarkets and restaurants comes from aquaculture rather than wild capture. 

Fish farming, or aquaculture, is a vital part of the global food system — providing a sustainable, efficient, and scalable way to produce healthy protein for a growing population. By raising fish in carefully managed environments, aquaculture helps reduce pressure on wild fish stocks while supporting local economies and food security. When practiced responsibly, it can deliver nutritious seafood with a lower carbon footprint compared to many land-based proteins, making it a key contributor to feeding the world’s future population sustainably.

• Aquaculture is the farming of fish, shellfish, or mollusks in water
• It is one of the most eco-efficient forms of protein production
• Around half of aquatic animals produced globally now come from aquaculture
• It is the fastest-growing global production sector
• In 2019, the fraction of fish stocks sustainably fished decreased to 64.6%
• The planet is 70% ocean and if managed responsibly, the Ocean Panel highlighted it could provide six times more sustainable food than it does today, offering a significant contribution to sustainable food systems

As global demand for protein rises, fisheries trends underscore the importance of responsibly managed aquaculture.

How salmon farming began

Fish have been farmed for millennia, but salmon farming started on an experimental level in the 1960s and became an industry in Norway in the 1980s and in Chile in the 1990s. The farmed salmon industry has grown substantially in the past 60 years, and today approximately 70% of salmon produced worldwide is farmed. In 2021, more than 2.8 million tons of farmed salmonids were produced. In comparison, only around 705,000 tons of wild salmonids were caught.

Atlantic salmon farming has traditionally been dominated by a small number of farming regions – Chile, Norway, Canada, and Scotland – as several natural conditions often have to be present to ensure optimal salmon farming production. Such conditions include: cold water temperatures varying between 8°C and 14°C (46°F – 57°F), a sheltered coastline, and optimal biological conditions. Today, salmon farming also takes place in Australia, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand.

Responsibly farmed salmon supports global food system solutions by:

• Contributing a nutrient-rich food source to diets that meets global dietary recommendations
• Delivering high-quality and eco-efficient protein to help meet growing global demand
• Driving continuous innovations that help support healthier diets and more resilient global food systems
• Providing a food source that is celebrated in cuisines and communities around the world

A responsible industry also supports local communities

• Our salmon farms are often located in remote, rural communities, and through the jobs we create we often help these small communities thrive and retain the younger generations who not only work with us but also become part of the value chain
• Collectively, GSI members employ over 24,000 full-time employees across their operations, not including the wider value chain and network of supporting businesses we work with
• Our member companies also offer mentorship programs and work experience opportunities to cultivate the next generation of responsible salmon farmers