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Net Loss

All over the world, fish are at the heart of people's diet and culture. And in the Pacific Northwest, there is no fish like the legendary salmon. But decades of poor fisheries management and habitat loss have decimated many wild salmon runs. Now there's a new way to produce fish - raising them in giant underwater cages known as 'net pens.' At first, these pens and the salmon farms that use them seem like a good idea, providing more fish for consumption, while taking the pressure off their wild counterparts. But the farms themselves have become a serious new threat to the survival of wild salmon.

Filmed in Chile, Washington, and British Columbia, NET LOSS assesses the risks and benefits of salmon farming through interviews with government and industry spokesmen, who make the case for salmon farming, and the fishermen, native people, and scientists who extol the dangers it poses and the damage it has already done.