The coasts of West Africa are being plundered for their fish, putting millions of people at risk of malnutrition.
Monstrous factories are springing up along the African coast, ravaging local fish populations and boiling them down into oil and powder by the millions of tonnes.
All this is done to feed salmon on overcrowded salmon farms in Europe, so that big restaurant chains like Wagamama can keep the declining Atlantic Salmon on the menu.
Wagamama says, "we believe in the power of small choices for big change" -- so let's hold them to their own words:
Tell Wagamama to take farmed salmon off the table.
In a few decades, salmon has gone from a rare luxury to one of the most available dishes in restaurant menus -- but its popularity comes at a terrible cost.
The chemical pesticides, fish faeces, and diseases flowing from salmon farms can have fatal consequences for other marine life.
And it's not just a problem for countries that host the farms. Farmed salmon are fed with fish that get plundered from oceans half a world away. In West Africa, in particular, the demand for these wild-caught fish causes overfishing and robs local livelihoods.
Wagamama has the power to cut its ties to the salmon farming industry, but it won't move without a push. That's why we've got to raise our voices together:
Tell Wagamama to join the growing movement of restaurants that have already pledged to keep farmed salmon off the table.
Along with partner organisations, 189,000 Ekō members recently took on the Australian salmon industry for shooting seals. Ekō members have for years supported local protests and investigations into salmon farms in Scotland, and earlier this year, we helped stop a major copper and gold mine in Alaska that would have endangered the 60 million wild sockeye salmon that come to Bristol Bay each year.
Wagamama's slogan of "small choices for big change" is nice. Now it's time they walked the talk!
More information
Seafood Source. 8 February 2024.
Feedback. 19 January 2024.
Financial Times. 31 January 2024.
Off the table coalition. 26 January 2023.
The Guardian. 30 January 2024.