JOURNAL OF THE WORLD AQUACULTURE SOCIETY Vol. 41, No. 2 April, 2010 Toward Improved Public Confidence in Farmed Fish Quality: A Canadian Perspective on the Consequences of Diet Selection Anthony P. Farrell 1 Faculty of Land and Food Systems and Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Centre for Aquacultureand Environmental Research, West Vancouver, BC V7V 1N6 Canada Erin N. Friesen Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada David A. Higgs Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Centre for Aquaculture and Environmental Research, West Vancouver, BC V7V 1N6 Canada Michael G. Ikonomou Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2 Canada Abstract Marine fish oils (MFO) are used in salmon diets to mimic the natural diet, to ensure that essential fatty acid requirements for good fish growth and health are met, and to provide salmon flesh with an omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acid content that can benefit human health. However, an extensive use of MFO in formulated salmonid diets is perceived as an unsustainable use of wild marine fish stocks. In addition, MFOs have a background level of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) unrelated to aquaculture practices. This review considers recently completed studies using alternative lipid sources of terrestrial origin as replacements for MFO and shows that the composition of conventional finfish diets can be altered to reduce the reliance on MFO while concurrently maintaining fish health as well as reducing background levels of POPs. A challenge still ahead is the need for a concerted and sustained outreach to ensure that the public is aware of such improvements to seafood quality so that the preoccupation of the news media with presenting negative images of fish culture to the public is combated. The Canadian aquaculture industry faces considerable public scrutiny through an open dialogue in the media. Canadians are con- cerned that the seafood they consume is not a harm to their health or that of the environ- ment. The expectation is that the seafood prod- ucts are produced in a safe, responsible and sustainable manner. These values are shared by the Canadian aquaculturalists producing 1 Corresponding author. this seafood. Nevertheless, headlines that, for example, link aquaculture with contaminant risks easily shake public confidence in seafood quality and potentially negate the obvious health benefits of the products that are pro- duced for consumption. As it turns out, and shown below, the human health benefits of eat- ing salmon, for example, far outweigh the esti- mated risks. In Canada, aquaculture is dominated by the production of salmon and trout, which currently accounts for about 7% of the global salmonid  Copyright by the World Aquaculture Society 2010 207