Salmon farm faces new cruelty claims as Trump pushes aquaculture boom

The Trump administration is pushing to mass-produce fish on an industrial scale, similar to chicken farming, in an effort to boost U.S. seafood output.

However, this “chickenification” of fish may carry significant environmental and welfare costs, as highlighted by a new undercover video from a leading fish farm.

A major seafood company faces renewed investigation after a second undercover video at a Maine salmon farm showed alleged animal cruelty and environmentally harmful practices.

The covert footage, obtained by activist group Animal Outlook and shared with the Guardian, shows staff at the Cooke Aquaculture hatchery in Bingham, Maine, clubbing fish with metal poles, kicking them, and cutting into a living fish. Deformities and fungal infections were also prevalent, the group said.

Employees told the undercover activist that fish are fed rat-contaminated feed, that penned fish have escaped, and that thousands are killed due to overproduction.

“Unfortunately I don’t think the company is in it for the fish health side, they just want fish production,” a worker states in the video.

The video, shot from September to December last year, is the second undercover recording at the same facility. In 2019, a similar video showed deformed salmon suffocating in plastic containers.

“Granted, we did a lot of stuff we weren’t supposed to fucking do,” one employee said on the latest video, referencing the earlier exposé. He recounted being shown throwing fish like basketballs while shouting “Kobe” and wanting to send a horse’s tongue to the “animal activist bitch” who went undercover.

Jareb Gleckel, director of legal advocacy at Animal Outlook, described the mistreatment as “about bad as it gets.” He added, “The facility has no oversight. Seven years after the first investigation, this is a systemic issue.”

Jena Questen, former president of the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association, wrote in an affidavit that the footage shows “inhumane” treatment of fish left to die by asphyxiation or bludgeoning without prior stunning.

The fish would likely “continue to experience unnecessary and avoidable suffering until substantial corrective measures are implemented,” she added.

A spokesman for Cooke Aquaculture, headquartered in New Brunswick, Canada, declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.

Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry said it had opened an investigation and interviewed Animal Outlook, which has requested animal cruelty charges against Cooke.

The salmon from Cooke’s Bingham hatchery are sold as packaged True North salmon, certified by the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) program.

“We take allegations against BAP-certified facilities very seriously,” a BAP spokeswoman said. “Based on what has been brought to our attention, our program integrity team has opened an investigation into this facility.”

The allegations raise broader questions about the growth of the $4 billion U.S. aquaculture industry, which raises fish in land-based ponds, cages, or sea pens.

About 3,500 aquaculture farms exist across the U.S., concentrated on the West Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Maine. Globally, aquaculture now provides more seafood than wild-caught methods.

The Trump administration aims to expand fish farming, noting that while U.S. seafood demand has grown, 80% of it is imported, primarily from Canada, Chile, India, and Indonesia.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the first national office of seafood, aiming to cut regulations and boost aquaculture in designated “opportunity areas” off Alaska, California, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The office will provide “new opportunities, stronger support, and a brighter future for the seafood industry,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Ben Williamson, executive director of Animal Outlook, said the Trump policies will spur an “enormous expansion” in salmon hatcheries like Cooke’s. “It’s going to get the supersize treatment, like the chicken boom in the 1950s. That is what’s about to happen to fish in the U.S.”

Animal welfare regulations vary by state; Washington last year banned commercial net pen aquaculture. A USDA spokesperson said aquaculture “is one of the most environmentally efficient ways to produce animal protein, having feed efficiencies comparable to poultry and minimal use of freshwater resources.”

“The United States should be the world’s dominant seafood leader,” the spokesperson added. “We aim to significantly reduce or eliminate the seafood trade deficit with increased domestic aquaculture production.”

Critics argue that while aquaculture can reduce pressure on wild fish stocks, it poses severe environmental problems. Diseases and parasites can spread from dense farmed populations to wild ones, and chemicals used in feed and medications can affect marine ecosystems. Escaped fish also alter wild populations.

“There are escapes, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution affecting the ecology, dead zones developing underneath open net pens, impacts on fishermen – that’s why we are seeing resistance from states and local groups,” Williamson said. “Even if you take out all the willful animal cruelty, keeping that many fish in captivity is not a good life and therefore it’s cruel.”

Williamson said he would like to see “people shift their protein consumption away from animal protein towards plant-based. We know that specifically carnivore fish is incredibly inefficient when it comes to protein conversion.”