One of the main principles in sustainable salmon farming is to protect the native salmon populations, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sustainable salmon are grown mainly in pens in the ocean around the northwest part of the United States. I found that Alaska was a hot spot when it comes to sustainable salmon. What the salmon are fed seems like a crap shoot to me. Some sustainable salmon farm Web sites some said they feed their salmon a vegetable based feed or a fish based feed made of forage. Forage is a fish that humans don't eat because it is really small and bony. Some fish farmers want to keep that fish plentiful so "feed manufacturers are developing new feeds that will replace some of the fish-based ingredients in salmon feed with ingredients from other sources such as vegetables – yet still provide high quality, nutritious farmed salmon,"according to New Brunswick Salmon Growers Association.
One of the essential functions of sustainable salmon farming is that the salmon have escapement routes. These allow the salmon to spawn. Since salmon spawn in fresh water, farmers must allow them to go spawn inland. Salmon only spawn once and the amount of salmon allowed to spawn are regulated. This is a healthier method of fish farming as opposed to the fish farms that keep the salmon hostage, creating an unhealthy environment for them. Farmed fish are harmful to the environment because they pollute the water with their leftover food and feces and they can breed with wild fish and disrupt their natural habitat, according to Fishonline.
"The point of sustainable salmon management activities is to keep the full range of salmon resources productive to the full extent possible. Protection of salmon production in the short-term takes the form of limiting harvests to allow ach the spawning grounds. Protecting the salmon production in the long-term means protecting the spawning and rearing habitats, including the entire salmon bearing ecosystem, from degradation . Habitat protection takes the form of land use planning and regulation, including regulating natural resource extraction activities."
-Alaska Department of Fish and Game
In my opinion, sustainable fish farming should be utilized more often by fish farmers, especially since farmed fish are not as good to eat as fresh and they harm the environment. Also, since wild fish are becoming scarcer and scarcer, this would be a life-saving alternative to the wild fish.
The National Environmental Trust offers a customer petition for sustainable farmed salmon on their Web site. Click here to fill one out.
FishWise is a Web site that provides information on sustainable fishing and healthy seafood for you and me.
3 comments:
I agree completely with this and anyone who reads this should spread this good word.
-Alaskan salmon fisherman
You write very well.
One of the huge problems with farmed salmon is that the baby salmon and are exposed to adult salmon with sea lice. This doesn't happen in nature because normally infected adult salmon are not in the baby salmon's migration routes to the sea. Salmon are often raised in open pens that are near the shore, and these are especially problematic if near a river mouth. Adult salmon can coexist with parasitic sea lice because they have developed scales and have more body mass. But a young salmon have little chance of surviving if a sea louse attaches itself to the fish. There have been studies done where 40% of the entire year of hatchlings are killed by sea lice. This is having a HUGE effect on wild salmon runs. The fact is that in especially Canada farmed salmon is endangering wild salmon populations. While this is concern for the populations themselves becoming extinct, another big issue is that pink salmon is the food source for other marine life, particularly Orcas. The extinction of pink salmon will lead to a crash in the Orca populations. Environmental groups have suggested a boycott on farmed raised salmon until the industry addresses the problem. The simple answer to this issue is to raise farmed salmon in closed pens--but this is more expensive and consumers may not want to pay higher prices. But the alternative will be the loss of wild salmon runs and eventually Orcas.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003286031_websalmon02.html
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