The evidence mounts that we can safely prohibit net pen fin fish aquaculture from being in our waters without killing the industry. It’s time to give some financial support to the industry to get them over the hump, and out of our waters. But this will also take the Department of Ecology and NOAA to get their scientists off the dime and on the same page as the rest of us. They have shown no intention of changing their industry hardened position on this. The courts likely will have to force them, and that challenge may come sooner than later. Here’s the latest from BC, where there is a huge movement to ban net pens,based on emerging science that is very much showing problems with the industry. However the BC government has been, until recently, hiding negative science and banishing scientists who don’t tow the industry line. This is a small glimpse at the work being done there to change that. It doesn’t have to be the industry argument of “jobs or environment” . It can and should be both.
It’s technologically possible to raise salmon in closed containment pens but questions remain whether it’s financially viable for the aquaculture industry, says a parliamentary report released Thursday. The report, by members of the House of Commons’ standing committee on fisheries and oceans, was delivered Thursday and included testimony from all sides of the controversial issue of closed containment aquaculture.
Judith Lavoie reports.
Closed-pen fish farms offer challenges and opportunities: study
Filed under: Aquaculture, fisheries | Tagged: Canada, Net Pens Aquaculture |
Good points Alan. It would be great to simply convince people to buy wild fish, but in lieu of that, it’s good to give an option to having these pens in our open waters.
I’m a skeptic when it comes to cold water, closed-pen, fish farms. During a misspent youth I worked in marine research in CA. Later I raised salmon fry to release as part of a series of school/classroom projects. The energy costs of cooling, filtering, monitoring, and maintaining cold saltwater systems are huge. Denmark has some small fish farms doing this, but they may not be profitable. There is a current proposal to build a really large closed pen salmon farm in Scotland. The hope is that many of the energy needs can be met with renewable sources of power. They also plan to use alternative sources of feed to cut costs and also avoid high Dioxin and DLC levels in the fish they produce. Some challenges remain, one being the need to maintain high fish populations without disease, but it will be very interesting to watch.
Closed-pen fish farms seem to offer a solution to the problem of transmitting disease to local wild salmon populations. However use of closed-pens does not offer a solution to the high levels of Dioxin and Dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) found in farmed fish. Studies have indicated that the cancer risk from eating fish contaminated with Dioxin and DLCs may cancel out any cardiac health benefits associated with their consumption. The high levels of Dioxin and DLCs come from fish meal (processed from forage fish which is in itself another potential problem) fed to the farmed salmon. It might be smarter to restore wild salmon runs. It would take longer, but would be healthier and ecologically sustainable in the long run.