Plan Would Expand Ocean Fish Farming (No Resource Left Unexploited!)

[DeepModem Mom]

No Water Left Unpolluted! STOP these people!


New York Times:
Plan Would Expand Ocean Fish Farming
By MARIAN BURROS
Published: June 6, 2005


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expected to announce a proposal on Tuesday to allow greatly expanded offshore fish farming, up to 200 miles from shore.

The draft proposal of the National Offshore Aquaculture Act calls for development of regulations to permit farming in federal waters and the addition of species to farming, like cod, halibut and tuna, which are farmed in other countries. Fish farming, or aquaculture, is currently confined to state waters, closer to shore.

According to the draft, which intends to quintuple fish farming by 2025, ocean resources would be divided into privatized zones with renewable leases good for 10 years....


***

....critics are worried that NOAA, a branch of the Commerce Department, has not addressed the health and environmental problems of existing fish farms: pollution from wastes, chemicals and drugs; the impact of escapes on wild fish, including transference of disease and parasites; the dependence on wild fish, which are used as feed for the farmed fish; and the impact on traditional fishing....

***

Proponents of offshore fish farming believe that if the farms are placed in the deep ocean, strong currents could dilute waste, uneaten food and medications from the pens. Ocean pens would also put the farms out of the reach of state authorities....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/national/06fish.html

[losdiablosgato]

1. People have to eat

The population of this planet is growing. And people have to eat. The ocean, responsibly used is a good place to find some of that food.

[Toots]

2. How often do you buy fish at the market?

Did you know that Alaska has been having record catches for more than a decade and has in fact been catching so many fish they are unable to sell them all. Alaska is struggling hard just to find some one to buy their fish and yet you want to dump a bunch more on the market.:crazy:

[losdiablosgato]

3. My wife and I eat seafood at least once a week

Some fish, some shrimp, some crab, and every so often lobster.

[fed-up]

4. Read Labels-DO NOT BUY FARMED FISH

Educate your friends and family about the environmental hazards of fish farming.

We are so spoiled here in America and want it all NOW. Whatever happened to buying locally and in season? People think they are getting such a great deal because the price is low and most don't even bother to read the labels to realize that they are not buying wild fish.

Fish farming is based on supply and demand. If people buy farmed fish, they will grow more and more. Eating at a salad bar?? Where do you think they get that cheap shrimp??? Its farmed, most likely.

I am realizing more and more that our food is NOT real food anymore, which is why I shop at our local co-op and only buy organic meats, and wild fish.

[hatrack]

5. But deep ocean farms would do ZERO for aquaculture's primary problem

Namely this - farming carnivores like salmon and tuna is a pyramid scheme, plain and simple.

It takes between three and five pounds of wild-caught fish (capelin, herring, etc.) to produce one pound of salmon. Quintupling fish farming would quintuple demand for wild-caught protein, further speeding the stripping of the oceans beyond any level of depletion we have yet seen.

This would continue until wild-caught protein is either fished out or becomes too expensive, at which point the pyramid scheme collapses - along with planetary fisheries.

Oh, and by the way, would you like to guess what the latest trend in conventional industrial fishing is? Jellyfish. That's right, we've fished so far down the chain that processing, packaging and promoting jellyfish into as a protein source somewhat resembling fish is a hot sector in the industry.

[Karenina]

6. PRIVATIZE THE OCEAN????

:crazy::wow::crazy:

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Yep! "privatized zones with renewable leases good for 10 years"

n/t

[Trillo]

9. That's what I wondered about.

Used to be anyone with a small boat and a fishing license could go "out there" and try to catch dinner. I've even read of people fishing from surfing boards.

New "signs" of some kind will read, "NO TRESPASSING" violators will be EATEN by Artificially-Intelligent Cyborg-Hybrid GM-Human/shark clones.

[alarimer]

8. That is the problem

I notice no one is talking about farming menhaden or sardines, just top predatorslike tuna, salmon, etc. This is a bad iden environmentally. Where does the waste go? Right to the bottom, causing a buildup in nutrients which leads to bulidup in phytoplankton leading to depletion of oxygen when they die.

[arikara]

10. You got it

Not only are the fish unhealthy to eat with all of the chemicals that they pump into them but fish farming is extremely wasteful of resources. Wild fish are hauled out of South America and rendered into pellets in order to feed the north's farmed fish. This creates a problem in the countries whose people depend upon the fish to live as their wild fish are depleted by the north's greed.

snip... net-pen farms produce only one kg of salmon for every four or five kg of other fish (wet weight) embodied in feed pellets. Thus to produce 40,000 metric tons of salmon on BC salmon farms we must consume over 100,000 tons of other fish, mostly caught elsewhere. In short, salmon farming actually reduces global food supplies. Much of the southern hemisphere fish-catch destined for fish meal could be consumed directly by the poor in the exporting countries, rather than be used to produce a smaller quantity of salmon for rich consumers in the North. Surely there is a moral issue hidden in the money-driven global market for farm-raised salmon....snip

http://www.georgiastrait.org/Articles2001/vanDongen.php

Lots of good info out there, google on ecological footprint and fish farming

[hatrack]

13. Farming salmon for meat is like raising tigers for meat

I didn't invent the phrase, I'm merely repeating it.

[Weembo]

11. Shouldn't that be "No Chad Left Behind?"

[MisterP]

14. No chub (or other whitefish) left behind

[pinniped]

12. I see the POS* has people installed at NOAA, too.

.

[Chicago Democrat]

15. Farmed fish = Toxic Fish BOYCOTT for your health and the earth

Farmed fish have quadruple the toxins as wild caught. Fish farms pollute an already overpolluted ocean.