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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Can Salmon Be Farmed Safely?

posted by on May 17 at 15:50 PM

Posted by Sage Van Wing

Not bloody likely says a new legislative report in Canada. In fact, the report, from the Sustainable Aquaculture Committee of the B.C. Legislature, recommended shutting down all salmon farming operations in the province. My favorite part, though, is where they say that the only way to farm salmon safely without undue environmental impact is… something that hasn’t been invented yet. That’s right, until those Canadians figure out how to raise salmon in giant, completely sealed pens—which will float in the open ocean but not interact with the water at all—we may not be getting any salmon from across the border. Never fear, though. For those who still need their cheap, dyed salmon, we in the U.S. import most of our farmed fish from Chile anyhow.

RSS icon Comments

1

The short answer is No.

The long answer is No.

However, we do need to start thinking about moving Salmonid species further north from their original locations, due to global and specific local warming of their spawning streams and rivers.

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 17, 2007 4:05 PM
2

@ 1: a different proposal: we leave nature the fuck alone (since we are little but arrogant monkeys and don't know what the fuck we are doing) and stop digging our graves with fossil fuels.

Posted by adrian! | May 17, 2007 4:09 PM
3

You know what kind of salmon they're talking about when they say in whatever the fuck restaurant commercial is: Salmon that just TASTES expensive.

Ha the fucking ha.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | May 17, 2007 4:37 PM
4

There're 120 large Atlantic salmon farm pens off of Bainbridge Island, Port Angeles, and a couple of other places right here in Washington, belonging to American Gold Seafood. They sell to Whole Foods -- not the Seattle stores, because people here won't buy farmed Atlantic salmon, but in other states. The fish eat "all natural" wheat, corn and soy gunk, among other things that fish don't normally eat. The pink of their flesh is food coloring. It's "all natural", but it's threatening Puget Sound, which is one of the most endangered waterways in the world.

Not least of the threats is the harboring of Salmo in waters that belong to Onchorynchus (better known as Chinook, Pink, Coho, Chum, Sockeye, and Steelhead). A couple hundred thousand of the Salmo escape in Washington waters every year.

The 11 million pounds of waste is also killing the Sound. It's not as serious a problem as the thousand failing septic systems, but it's a problem. Hood Canal is already dead; how long before the rest of it is gone? When we KNOW what the problem is?

Posted by Fnarf | May 17, 2007 4:59 PM
5

Damns. They seemed like such a good idea at the time... clean, natural power - now look. Just when the middle of the country gets an appetite for fish, we ain't got no more. Now we've got to turn the Sound into a giant disgusting aquarium? Ugh.

Kind of a tangent, I know, but I can't but help read this and still feel a little sad for the coastal fishermen that have bared too much of the blame (and are hit hardest by regulations) for salmon depletion, when really the supply is being choked out way upstream, not to mentioned what farming is doing to our waters, and what these unnatural specimens are going to do to the natural gene pool.


We really suck sometimes.

Posted by Dougsf | May 17, 2007 5:59 PM
6

Something that hasn't been invented yet? Contained farmed fish is done all over the world. It's called recirculating aquaculture. Some of it is done in pens floating in waterways, some of it is done on land.

It's also a key component of aquaponics - recirculating aquaculture with a hydroponic system acting as a filter for the water. It's extremely sustainable, very eco-friendly, and uses little to no water after setup (enough to balance evaporation). In a very basic sense, the fish waste feeds the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish.

There's a gentleman doing salmon in an aquaponics system with wasabi up in BC, near Chilliwack. It really is an excellent setup and is especially useful in areas with limited water for growing plants - islands in particular. The University of the Virgin Islands does a ton of work with it. There's also a trial-sized system in Lynden, which I set up when I was working down there. They'd probably be happy to show it off if anyone's interested. =)

Oh, and the reason for feeding farmed fish plant matter is that otherwise they have to decimate ocean fish stocks to provide fish protein for the penned fish. It just changes the stock depletion to a different species.

Posted by wench | May 17, 2007 8:00 PM
7

@2 - too late. We already doomed the world to a 2.5 to 4 degree rise in global temperatures.

Should have thought about that when you were 6.

Now it's just triage - damage assessment.

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 21, 2007 12:04 AM
8

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9

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Posted by wsvrzxgd ckbwgxq | May 21, 2007 10:56 AM
10

Fnarf don't you sound like an uninformed idiot… I’m sure you have personally been to these site out in Puget Sound.. NOT!!!
You say “Not least of the threats is the harboring of Salmo in waters that belong to Onchorynchus (better known as Chinook, Pink, Coho, Chum, Sockeye, and Steelhead). A couple hundred thousand of the Salmo escape in Washington waters every year.” NOT A TRUE or Factual Statement at all …

People in the Seattle do eat farmed Salmon and so does every other person that buys WILD… HELLO most wild salmon in Puget Sound, Alaska, Oregon and may other places start in a Hatchery … and oh yes they eat feed too… here’s a nice YOUTUBE show for you ….. FARMED “WILD” SALMON http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDUYFg-lNiI

Posted by truefacts1 | May 23, 2007 8:40 AM

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