Tag Archives: open-pen fish farms
NOAA Is Rolling Out a Plan to Radically Expand Offshore Aquaculture. Not Everyone Is Onboard
The cardboard gravestones read “RIP Local fisherman,” “RIP Wild Fish,” and “RIP Humpback Whales.” Assembled in response to new aquaculture sites planned off the coast of California, the gravestones were brought to the offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Long Beach, California, in April by activists keen to register their discontent. The sites pave the way for possibly dozens of new open-pen fish farms as far as three miles offshore, the future home of species that range from carp to salmon. Chief among the protesters’ concerns were entanglement of marine mammals, the expansion of dead zones caused by fish excrement, and infringement on wild fishing grounds. >click to read< 09:07
Pacific salmon recovery report gives 32 recommendations to reverse declines
Wild salmon stocks are being affected by a range of impacts throughout their life cycle, which span from freshwater streams and rivers, to coastal ‘foreshore’ areas and deepwater marine environments, per the report. These threats include habitat degradation, impacts of flood control measures, predation, fishing activity, and threats of disease from fish farms. Based on these findings, the committee provided 32 recommendations to reverse salmon declines, which one witness, Richard Beamish, Scientist Emeritus at DFO’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, calls the “international Pacific salmon emergency.” >click to read< 07:58
Fugitive Farmed Atlantic salmon ‘heading to every river in Puget Sound’
The Lummi Nation is marshaling a mop-up of thousands of fugitive Atlantic salmon in the tribe’s territorial waters, and the Swinomish chairman has called for a shutdown of the farmed-salmon industry in Puget Sound after last weekend’s spill. Swinomish fishermen caught farmed Atlantic salmon in the Skagit River on Wednesday night, as the fish continued to disperse through the Puget Sound, said Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. He also received a report of an Atlantic salmon caught off Alki Point on Thursday afternoon. “These fish are headed to every river in Puget Sound,” Cladoosby said. “We have been saying all along it was not a question of if, but when, this would happen. click here to read the story 23:27
COUNTERPOINT: Who’ll police fish farms? – Kathaleen Milan, Sable River
In Lunenburg on Monday, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell announced that aquaculture regulations have gone from two pages to 60. While much has been added, there is still no solid commitment to enforcement, and no mention of increasing the number of inspectors, how many more boats will be needed, nor how many bottom samples or random fish samples will be done. No announcement of millions of dollars to pay for all this new enforcement that will be required. It’s hard not to be cynical,,, Read the rest here 09:47
Who speaks up for tourism in midst of aquaculture pollution?
Our guests are not here to walk among slime-filled rocks, swim in polluted waters, to smell or see decaying fish or debris on our shores. These open-pen fish farms are only just the beginning in Nova Scotia. If these big corporations get the approval they want from the federal and provincial governments, it won’t be long before you see fish farms in every bay, cove and harbour throughout the province, which could eventually destroy everything that was good for tourism in Nova Scotia. Read the rest here 08:17
