Dr. Alexandra Morton has championed a prolonged fight to convince our Provincial and Federal Governments of the harm that fish-lice are doing to the salmon which run up our inside waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Much has been written and done in the quest to stop the destructive effects of salmon farms on the West Coast of BC, Canada.
Dr. Alexandra Morton has championed a prolonged fight to convince our Provincial and Federal Governments of the harm that fish-lice are doing to the salmon which run up our inside waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
A visit to my Environmental Page on this website will give details of her tireless work, including its frustrations and triumphs. In my opinion she is our "Jane Goodall for the wild salmon". Please read this latest project proposal from her: Wild Salmon People.
Besides this, I have a comment to make as a long term SCUBA enthusiast in these waters.
It has not been much mentioned that these fish farms are extremely destructive to the bottom life beneath them. The public cannot see this without donning SCUBA gear and venturing below.
These salmon are fed with pellets which are seeded into the water each day. The fish eat most but the rest falls through the nets and down to rot on the bottom. Oxygen is sucked out of the water by the bacteria and fungus which decays the food. The result is death to most of the life on the bottom below the nets. This is a devastating and ugly scene.To a biologist, like myself, this is most distressing and, I believe, every bit as important as the effect of fish lice.
These farms are large and destroy the incumbant life in so many spectacular bays up and down our coast. When, or if, the farms move out, the recovery will be extremly slow.
Our Governments are not listening to the science on this which is all too obvious. Our valuable marine wild resource is being sold out to, in many cases, offshore interests.
SHAME!! (Please write letters to your MLAs and to The Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (As requested by Dr. Alexandra Morton.)
Take a look at this land-based fish farm: Another way to farm salmon
This is very possibly the way to go. Yes we do need to explore other methods of Aquaculture.
The only snag in all this is the present dependence on fish oil and fish meal for the feed in aquaculture.This report does hightlight this issue quite well Salmon Aquaculture Feed and the Environment.
Right now the aquaculture industry generally uses fish sources for the feed far more that any other livestock rearing sector. Much of this unfortunately comes from the forage fish of the oceans and this eats into the delicate balance of marine ecosystems....sort of "robbing peter to pay paul".
Work is being done on plant sources to replace the fish source load but there are some problems there too.
The ideal situation is a system which utilizes cellulose-rich plant material as the basis for feed production in a closed system. In this way we could get away from the total reliance on fish meal and oil..
The process should be flexible with spin-offs of other marketable products besides the main fin fish output.
Fish wastes should be recycled back into the system, not allowed to be disposed of in the form of environmental pollutants. Fish and invertebrates such as shrimp and clams could be a valuble offshoot as the cycle proceeds..
Also, a local closed-containment salmon aquaculture pilot project has moved closer to reality with the arrival of the first floating solid-wall tank. However it does seem likely that the feed used will consist of some significant proportion of fish meal products which is difficult to avoid in any fin-fish aquaculture.
AgriMarine Holdings and the Middle Bay Sustainable Aquaculture Institute (MBSAI) announced this Wednesday 29th. Sept:
"This new marine installation will mark a new era of sustainable coastal aquaculture in BC and demonstrate that the industry can transition to closed containment without putting the environment or the economy at risk," AgriMarine CEO Richard Buchanan said in a release. "This is game-changing technology and we are grateful for the support of our project partners."
| Salmon Farms and Sustainability Recently Launched Marine Closed System The Facts about Salmon Farms More about Closed Systems |