Current+Events+Project+Example

"New way of fish farming could help fix environment." __Vancouver Sun__ March 25, 2010



Summary Over the last five years, a group of marine biologists in Canada have been taking part in a project that is testing to see if adding other marine organisms to fish farms will make these farms less harmful for the environment. Fish farms are like large cages located in the water just off the coast of BC and also eastern Canada near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Fish, like salmon, mature in these tight living spaces until they can be harvested for food in our grocery markets. While they provide more food for us humans, having fish live in such cramped farms together helps spread diseases like sea lice that escape the farms and effect non-farmed salmon. Farmed salmon also produce more waste (excrement, feces, poo, etc.) around the fish farms that promote more bacteria in the water that consume oxygen from the water that other marine organisms need to survive. Without oxygen, these areas become “dead zones.” These marine biologists involved in the project are suggesting that by adding other marine organisms to the fish farms like mussels, oysters, sea cucumbers, urchins, and seaweed, the amount of waste produced by the fish can be reduced. These organisms can feed on the salmon wastes, prevent the growth of bacteria, and prevent oxygen from being depleted. At the same time, these organisms filter nitrogen and carbon dioxide, two greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, out of the water. Fish farmers were starting to move their farms out of the water and construct them on land ecause of the pollution they contribute to the water. Marine biologists hope this new study will allow the fish farms to remain in the water and also boost the seafood economy by increasing the number of mussels and oysters harvested.

Reaction I have always been against fish farming because of the way these fish are forced to live in restricted containers just like certain companies keep chickens in cages for their short lives before they are slaughtered for human consumption. Bird flu began to spread because of the close contact of chickens on farms, and the same spread of diseases is happening between salmon in fish farms. These fish also tend to be lower quality because they have not been able to swim through the ocean for two years of their lifetime before returning to streams to spawn. I would much rather have my fresh salmon caught from natural processes rather than human-controlled processes. The idea of fish farming is just a little bit too much like playing God and messing with the way fish are meant to be in nature, swimming down streams or in the ocean.