Ducktrap’s Sustainably Sourced Salmon Actually From Unsustainable Farming, Class Action Lawsuit Says

Ducktrap River of Maine’s supposedly sustainably sourced salmon is produced through unsustainable, environmentally destructive means, a new class action lawsuit claims.

Mowi Asa, which makes the smoked salmon, is one of the largest producers of farm-raised salmon in the world and employs industrial-type methods at its various facilities, including a key site in Chile, according to the class action lawsuit.

Yet the product’s labeling, which boasts the fish is sustainably sourced salmon, leads consumers to believe the product is raised “in accordance with high environmental and animal welfare standards,” the class action lawsuit says.

“In reality, the products are made from salmon industrially farmed at Mowi’s facilities using unsustainable practices that are environmentally destructive and inhumane,” the class action lawsuit claims. “As recently as August of 2020, the Chilean government determined that Mowi’s salmon farming facilities have caused ‘irreparable environmental damage’ to the Chilean marine ecosystem.”

Abigail Starr, a Ducktrap smoked salmon customer from Brooklyn, New York, filed the class action lawsuit Dec. 31 in federal court in Maine. Mowi Asa, a Norwegian seafood company, and its subsidiaries, Mowi USA and Mowi Ducktrap, are listed as the defendants in the case. Mowi Ducktrap is based in Maine.

Starr says Mowi misleads consumers through its package labeling in order to capitalize on the growing market demand for sustainably sourced salmon and other food products.

Mowi also charges more than companies whose smoked salmon is not held out as sustainably produced, Starr says. In so doing, Mowi has violated business laws in New York and consumer protection laws in several other states, has committed breach of express warranty and has become unjustly enriched nationwide, Starr claims.

The class action lawsuit says Mowi has experienced “numerous dangerous disease outbreaks” and “massive die-off events” that left hundreds of thousands of fish dead at its industrial salmon farms. Algae blooms, poor health and disease have been reported as the cause, the class action lawsuit claims.

To combat the disease and illness, Mowi’s audit documents show, the company treats its salmon with at least two antibiotics — sulfadimethoxine and florfenicol.

“Mowi’s standard business practices inflict unnecessary suffering on its salmon, and its facilities have been rated by animal charities as some of the industry’s worst due to mortality rates, parasite infestations, stress levels, and overstocking,” the Starr class action lawsuit says. “Thus, Mowi’s marketing of the [sustainably sourced salmon] is false, deceptive, and misleading.”

Consumers, meanwhile, are largely unable to verify Mowi’s claims the fish it produces are sustainably sourced and must rely on product packaging and labels, Starr’s class action lawsuit says.

Before she filed the class action lawsuit, Starr says, she contacted Mowi directly, in writing, in August to state her case and make a claim, but the company declined to offer her any compensation.

A class action lawsuit leveling similar allegations, in addition to others, at Mowi USA was filed in November.

Have you ever purchased Ducktrap River of Maine’s smoked sustainably sourced salmon? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Lead plaintiff Starr and the proposed Class Members are represented by James B. Haddow and Kim E. Richman, Jay Shooster and Margaret Sun of Richman Law and Policy.

The Sustainably Sourced Salmon Class Action Lawsuit is Abigail Starr, et al. v. Mowi Asa, et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-00488-LEW, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.

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