Declaration

Over $700 million USD in dark money has flooded into anti-aquaculture activism in recent years—millions of it targeted specifically at working Chilean salmon farmers. Nearly all of that money has been spent by agenda-driven zealots with zero oversight, driving malicious and distorted coverage in the press while escaping accountability for themselves.

This collusion causes real harm—jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of people, sowing confusion among consumers, and undermining legitimate efforts to promote healthy and sustainable seafood.

That’s why it’s imperative for those involved in salmon aquaculture to speak frankly and directly about the reality of farmed salmon. To address these challenges, we are unveiling a new web platform dedicated to documenting and exposing the systematic misrepresentations afflicting farmed salmon coverage. This platform aims to hold media outlets and activist networks accountable for promoting narratives that ignore or distort the most crucial aspects of salmon aquaculture, on topics like safe and responsible antibiotic use, environmental stewardship, and overall fish health.

Why This Platform Is Necessary

In 2019, two students at the University of California, Berkeley took a journalism class funded by the environmental activist organization Earth Journalism Network (EJN). The class was taught by EJN’s own executive director, who arranged for these students to receive funding for a “carefully orchestrated reporting trip to Chile” focused on aquaculture. EJN also arranged for them to interview a number of sources, all of whom got money from the same donors, and all of whom had been crusading for years against Chilean salmon.

Astonishingly, these two students parlayed their sponsored venture into a front-page investigative report in a major American newspaper several years later—an arrangement that raises legitimate questions about disclosure, objectivity, and the integrity of newsroom policies.

Such events underscore why a dedicated platform is needed. When the public reads supposedly “neutral” or “investigative” pieces, they are rarely informed if deep-pocketed funders, intent on shaping public policy, have financed the reporters’ travel and influenced the sourcing. The result is a type of “vertical integration” of activism and news production: from choosing which journalists to back, to determining the narrative’s framing, to selecting which sources get quoted—often the very same sources funded by the same donor network.

We have seen firsthand how damaging these misrepresentations can be to Chilean salmon farming communities.

Creating Accountability

With this new platform we aim to:

• Catalog Inaccuracies and Omissions
  We will compile a regularly updated database of media articles, op-eds, and activist reports that promote misleading or provably false claims about salmon aquaculture. Each entry will include detailed rebuttals and references to peer-reviewed research, guidelines, and official data.

• Uncover and Document Funding Links
  When activist networks funnel money into journalistic endeavors in ways that remain undisclosed, it erodes public trust. Our platform will shine a light on these arrangements, drawing on publicly available grant applications, donor statements, and additional evidence of collusion between supposedly impartial journalists and openly biased advocacy groups.

• Document the Reality of Sustainable Salmon Aquaculture
  We aim to explain, in clear terms, the existing health and safety frameworks under which salmon farmers operate—emphasizing the responsible antibiotic use protocols, disease prevention measures, environmental monitoring, and ongoing industry innovations.

• Offer a Fact-Based Resource
  Journalists working in mainstream, trade, or B2B contexts need accessible, accurate information on salmon aquaculture. Likewise, buyers, retailers, foodservice operators, and everyday consumers deserve a straightforward reference point to counter the sensational reporting that often circulates in media outlets.

An Invitation and a Pledge

By gathering and analyzing evidence of how activist networks engineer stories—and highlighting how certain media have uncritically published them—we intend to hold accountable anyone who continues to print distortions. Our platform will chronicle specific instances where factual errors go uncorrected and will call for transparent acknowledgment of funding and sponsorship arrangements.

We invite journalists in both trade and mainstream press, B2B professionals, and everyday consumers to make use of this resource.

The credibility of the public discourse around farmed salmon matters to everyone—producers and consumers alike. Reliable, fact-based journalism is critical, and this new platform is our proactive contribution toward safeguarding that principle.

Farmed salmon is a vital, nutritious food source, produced by thousands of hardworking individuals under robust regulatory measures. Attempts to tarnish its reputation through orchestrated activism passing as investigative journalism do a disservice not only to the salmon sector but to everyone who relies on truthful reporting.

By exposing these schemes, we stand ready to defend our industry’s commitment to transparency, responsible antibiotic use, and sustainable aquaculture practices. We look forward to engaging with the public and the media, determined to uphold accuracy and integrity in all stories about farmed salmon.