The seafood farming – or aquaculture – industry markets many of its products as low-carbon, healthy and sustainable. But there’s a hitch. Intensively reared carnivorous fish like salmon are fed on wild-caught fish. These small, nutritious species are harvested by the tonne in fragile, unregulated zones like West Africa, putting local access to food, fish stocks and jobs at risk.

In this series, DeSmog investigates the sustainability claims of major players in industrial aquaculture, digging into ecological and social harms that range from damaging supply chains, local pollution and pressure on over-exploited fish stocks.