Tag Archives: open pen aquaculture industry
Structural Problems – Washington state fish farm’s collapse has reinvigorated salmon-farming debates
The Washington state fish farm that collapsed allowing many thousands of Atlantic salmon to escape into the Pacific showed signs of trouble last month, and was slated for upgrades. In late July, the Cooke Aquaculture-owned operation near Cypress Island required emergency work to stabilize the net pens after crews saw them moving in currents. Then last weekend, the same pens, containing 300,000 Atlantic salmon, began showing damage on Saturday before collapsing on Sunday, releasing an unknown number of fish. While the incident happened in Washington state, it’s reinvigorated the longstanding debate about fish farming on Canada’s West Coast, including the controversial but common practice of farming Atlantic salmon in Pacific waters. click here to read the story 08:26
Spill of farmed Atlantic salmon near San Juan Islands much bigger than first estimates – The farm held a total of more than 300,000 fish weighing some 3 million pounds. click here to read the story 11:15
Fish farms a necessity: minister – It’s time to get this crap out of the water and into industrial parks
Farmed fish are here to stay as wild fish stocks have come under increasing pressure worldwide, says Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell. Colwell responded Thursday to a federal audit tabled before parliament that warned the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had not yet crafted a plan to restore 12 of 15 wild fish stocks deemed to be in critical condition. “The real issue is we don’t have enough wild fish stocks. We’re probably fishing worldwide to the maximum it can be,” Colwell told the Chronicle Herald Thursday. Read the story here
The Minister is using fear monger tactics to push open pen aquaculture as the savior of humanity, but, at what cost? If this is as he say’s, and he cares about environmental issues, there is only one answer, and it is to remove this industry from the ocean and into enclosed facility’s on land in industrial parks that keep wild fish segregated from the chemicals and waste generated by this industry. Large concrete tanks with the ability to treat the waste is the only answer. Cooke Aquaculture seems to have plenty of money to buy into fishery’s in the US, and other country’s while they wreak havoc on area’s that they conduct their business, perhaps they should invest in enclosed land based fish farms. Perhaps the Minister should do the right thing instead of boosting profits and environmental destruction for the open pen aquaculture industry. 10:48
