Farm Raised Salmon Need to Beef Up When it comes to farm raised
fish, it doesn't pay to let them be lazy. Fish like wild salmon,
tuna and eel are built for the vigorous swimming required during
migration. These fish are "uniquely adapted to a physiology of
high levels of exercise performance," says Tony Farrell, who
studies fish physiology in the University of British Columbia
Zoology department. "Therefore when we put them in constrained
environments and remove predators, the consequences are they
become a little more like couch potatoes." When these fish are
raised on farms in captivity, they are prone to a variety of
health problems — everything from heart disease to viral
infections — kind of like human couch potatoes. And, just like
with humans, getting more active seems to make a big difference
in their health. There's at least 50 years of research on the
physiological benefits of exercise to fish, demonstrating that
when fish are good swimmers, they have better cardiovascular
fitness, a stronger immune