Salmon farming is a massive global industry. Just off the coasts of countries like Norway or Chile, hundreds of millions of these fish swim around inside big ocean nets. They provide crucial proteins and fatty acids to many people’s diets, but are they more or less healthy than their wild cousins? That’s what CrowdScience listener Jodie wants to know. For presenter Marnie Chesterton, answering this question means visiting a Scottish salmon farm and collecting dispatches from the ocean around Alaska; it means a closer look at what the salmon themselves are eating; and it means moving beyond nutrition to explore the health of the environment as well. What problems do salmon farms solve, what problems do they cause, and could moving onto land be the future for this field?

(Photo: Atlantic Salmon jumping out of the water. Credit: Kevin Wells)