The Future of Fish Farms ????

Cohen Commission Exh 1342 - CAN386274
Memo from B Hargreaves re Nov 20 2003 Meeting with BC and BCSFA on Preliminary Sea Lice Results, undated - CAN386274

On November 20, 2003 several DFO staff attended a meeting with the B.C. Province and Industry (B.C. Salmon Farmers Association) to share preliminary information on sea lice results. John Pringle co-chaired this meeting. At this meeting Dick Beamish announced that Dr. Laura Richards, Regional Director, DFO Science Branch had recently instructed him to fully integrate his research on sea lice into the broader DFO "Pink Salmon Action Plan" (PSAP) program. If this is true then I request that you re-consider this decision.

I believe that integrating Beamish's sea lice research into the PSAP at this point will seriously diminish the credibility of the results from the PSAP. The research on sea lice that has been conducted by Beamish has been strongly and widely criticized in both the scientific community and the public media. This criticism has been directed not only to Beamish's earlier research and reporting on sea lice with Don Noakes, but also at Beamish's more recent work. For example, the David Suzuki Foundation recently criticized Beamish's sea lice research in August 2003 as being "unsound" and Beamish's release of preliminary results in a Times Colonist article just weeks after this cruise as "intended to confuse and cloud the serious issue ..." Criticism of DFO is not unusual, but unfortunately in this case I tend to agree with these criticisms. I think to a large degree it was the inadequacies of Beamish's research and conclusions that led to the lack of public confidence in DFO science and the intense pressure that forced DFO to initiate the very costly PSAP in March this year. The initial success we have achieved since March 2003 with the PSAP has begun to rebuild the credibility of DFO research on sea lice within the science community and also with the general public. I believe integrating Beamish and his sea lice research into the PSAP at this point will seriously undermine this new credibility and respect that we have worked so hard to earn for DFO with the PSAP.

I also do not want to be directly associated, either professionally or personally, with
either Beamish or his research. I have spent 18 of my past 20 years of service in the DFO working as a research scientist at PBS and I have never found Beamish to be a good "team player". He always does more or less exactly as he pleases, regardless of the (often negative) impacts on other DFO staff and research programs. There are many personal examples I can relate, but perhaps just one that occurred at this recent meeting will suffice to support my position.

At the meeting on November 20, 2003 Beamish made a presentation of results from his recent research on sea lice. In his PowerPoint presentation he included a slide that summarized the results for sea lice infections of sub-adult salmon species that he said I had sampled in the Broughton in March 2003, as part of the marine monitoring component of the PSAP. Beamish then proceeded to say how these data supported his novel "theory" that sea lice attached to adult salmon returning to spawn may over winter in the Broughton, by transferring to the numerous sub-adult salmon that over-winter in the Broughton. Beamish stated that his new research showed this could be an important "alternative reservoir" for sea lice that subsequently infect juvenile pink and chum in the Broughton the following Spring. He noted that other people might not agree, but "we'll just publish this idea and then see what happens". This is not a novel idea even by any stretch of Beamish's vivid imagination. However, the possible implications of this are huge and it was very provocative to the industry people and Province staff who aended this meeting. It is also potentially explosive if/when this "theory" is leaked or released by Beamish to the public.

I have no problem with Beamish claiming anything he wants to -if it affects only him and the credibility of his science. I do, however, have a problem when he directly implicates me without my agreement or even any prior discussion with me. In this case I did not provide Beamish with any fish samples or data from the sampling I did in the PSAP this year. I checked with Simon Jones and he said he also did not provide Beamish with either these fish samples or data. As I had not given anything to Beamish, I concluded it had to be from Simon's "shop" and I asked Simon to investigate how Beamish might have obtained this information. Simon subsequently informed me that Beamish had obtained the data he used in this summary table through Mark Trudel. Apparently Mark had offered to assist Simon's staff with analyzing some of the fish I had collected in the PSAP, and gave the results to Beamish after Beamish requested them from Mark. I also am concerned about Mark's role in this, but he has been away and I have not yet been able to discuss this with him. In the interim I can perhaps overlook his actions as resulting from his inexperience in science research and protocol. However, there is no acceptable or legitimate excuse for Beamish's behavior. Obtaining samples or data that are collected by someone else (in this case me) without their knowledge or permission is unethical. "Analyzing" these data and presenting the results in an important DFO meeting with industry and the Province, without even bothering to discuss these results first with either me or Simon, is extremely unprofessional. It was also personally embarrassing to me not to be able to answer questions raised about these data by industry at this meeting, because I have yet looked at these data for sub-adult salmon myself. How credible can DFO science be when a "novel hypotheses" like this is proposed by Beamish, when he cannot know where a critical piece of the information he is basing it on actually come from or how this should be interpreted? He does not know where these fish samples were collected or how the resulting data should be interpreted (at least in the opinion of the person (me) that collected these samples in the first place). This really is "shoddy" science.

No doubt if/when Beamish is ever confronted with this "lapse" injudgement he will just grin and shrug it off, as usual. I have seen this too many times in the past to be surprised any more, or to think that Beamish or his "research" will ever change. Two weeks have now elapsed since this meeting and I have passed Beamish several times in the hallways at PBS. Clearly even if he just had not had the time or opportunity to discuss these data with me prior to this meeting, this can no longer be a credible or acceptable excuse. If Beamish had any thought at all that he has done anything unethical or unprofessional, then I expect he would have found the time by now to discuss this with me and apologize. I can only assume Beamish either does not recognize what he did was wrong, or he does not care if he does recognize this. In any case, I do not want to work or even be associated with any DFO "senior scientist" with this kind of behaviour and ethics. Please do not put me on the same "team" as Dick Beamish.


Brent Hargreaves
 
Now while DFO senior level scientist are being discredited, what’s happening with Doctor Alexandra Morton? Let’s take a recent look, shall we?

Four North Islanders to receive Queen's Jubilee medal
Courier-Islander November 30, 2012

Anti-fish farm activist Alexandra Morton will be one of four North Island people to receive a Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal next week.

But a press release about the occasion did not mention fish farms or aquaculture at all.

"Alexandra Morton's name has become a household word for many people on the BC coast, for her unrelenting commitment to the wild salmon stocks," said the press release from local MLA Claire Trevena. "As a young marine biologist, Morton moved to the Broughton Archipelago to study orcas. Over time she became concerned with the loss of their principle food, wild salmon, and has since devoted her life to finding the causes.

Her energy and leadership, securing funds for studies and bringing thousands of people out to demonstrate their shared concerns, has brought the issue to the forefront."

Jacquie Gordon, Chief Robert Joseph, Wa Wasden and Morton will receive medals at ceremonies in Campbell River on Dec, 3 and at Alert Bay on Dec. 6.

Trevena, along with MLAs and MPs across the country, were invited to recognize the hard work of people who volunteer their time to make Canada a better place. MLAs were tasked with selecting just four people per constituency.

Trevena appointed a committee to recommend her appointments and she's said she was pleased with their choices which honour the hard work of people who champion the causes of First Nations arts, culture and social welfare, the environment and the arts.

Jacquie Gordon and Chief Robert Joseph will receive their medals on Dec. 3 from 5: 30 to 7 p.m. at the Museum at Campbell River, an award winning facility both played a role in developing.

Chief Joseph spent much of his early career in Campbell River, where he served on the boards of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council. His recent work as Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and Special Advisor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission continues to have a powerful net impact. Chief Joseph was presented with an honorary law degree at UBC in 2003 in recognition of his outstanding work on behalf of the First Nations.

Jacquie Gordon has dedicated much of her adult life to the arts, giving her time and creative energy to many of Campbell River's arts organizations, from the Tidemark Theatre to the Shoreline Musical Theatre Society. Her most recent role was as chair of the City's Cultural Commission, advising council on the arts. Her greatest source of pride, aside from her family, remains the conversion of the old Van Isle Theatre into the Tidemark as a venue for the performing arts.

Two more awards will be presented at the U'Mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay on Dec. 6 from 3: 30 to 5 p.m. Honoured with Diamond Jubilee medals will be Wa Wasden Jr. and Alexandra Morton.

Wa Wasden Jr. has made it his life's work and passion to train as an artist and a traditional singer to keep his Kwakwaka'wakw culture alive, and to pass it on to younger generations. He excelled at visual art as a youth and in his late teens he trained as a song keeper, composer and historian under Tom Willie ("MacKenzie") and his wife Elsie. He shares the wealth of those teachings with youth in the Gwa'wina Dancers Cultural Society in Alert Bay.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News
http://www.canada.com/Four+North+Islanders+receive+Queen+Jubilee+medal/7632667/story.html

“Open net pen” feedlots have no future anywhere in the world let alone in the Pacific Northwest!
 
ziggy said:
Wow, lighten up folks. What if he isn't a fish farmer ,like he says, and is just a guy who is giving his honest opinion based on his own knowledge and experience. I found some of his posts educational and IMHO he never came out in support of fish farms but just expanded the discussion to other factors that impact salmon .Some of that expansion came from answering questions. I personally don't support salmon farms, but am also worried that they are getting too much focus at the expense of other contributing factors that are being conveniently ignored because they are too hard to tackle.
Click to expand...
Ziggy, this thread is titled “The Future of Fish Farms” (feed lots). Diverting the topic to bigger broader issues simply confuses and obfuscates. It is a tactic adopted by the fish feed lot spin doctors and apologists. People on here are passionate because the scientific evidence against salmon feed lots is simply overwhelming. Yet the government does nothing. Even the Cohen commission, using the measured language of an official report gave a pretty devastating indictment of the industry. And this was done despite the highly charged political atmosphere it had to work in, which hates inconvenient data and evidence.
If Dave wants to start a thread on the impacts of global warming, he can go do it. Just stick to the point on this one!!

Fishtofino said:
I agree Ziggy. I feel some on this thread are getting a little too worked up over this subject. I can assure that the salmon populations have been diminishing long before the fish farms came on the scene but they probably aren't helping matters.
Click to expand...

Once again Fishtofino, no informed person believes one single factor is responsible for all the recent declines in salmon populations. But that is not the point. The thread is titled “The Future of Fish Farms”. This is something that was inflicted on us locally by an industry that ignores the science of ecology/environment and politicians who are ignorant of the same. It is something we can do something about. It is something the Cohen Commission says we should do something about now! Once we have removed the fish feed lot pens from the open ocean we can turn our attention elsewhere. But one thing at a time. Looking at all the factors at once is diversionary and overwhelming and blocks progress, which can and should be made with a first step of outlawing the fish feed lots.
 
The future of fish farm? I am in forestry and the changes in how and where we log in relation to water sources being fish bearing and non-fishbearing has gone from day to night and thats only in the last 20 years. Pulp mills went thru immense changes with their effluent. Every industry has gone thru huge changes over the coarse of time, it inevitable. Fish farms are no different, they will change more as I am sure their practices have evolved since their inception on the B.C coast. I just hope its sooner than later, as I am biased and just don't like the idea of fish farms(sorry if you work in the industry, but us loggers are not liked that much either).

I just hope that the Cohen inquiry will speed the changes along but the government has to step up and force it, and with the $$$ that are lining the political parties pockets its is going to be a long painfull struggle. I am sure that farmers feel the same way about genitically modified seeds, and how the monopolies are held by 1 or 2 manufacters, but again the $$$ rule.

So in reality there will be fish farms in the future, but they will change, maybe one day closed containment will be norm but who knows.

This being said opinions are like a**ho**s every one has one!
 
We all have lint in our belly buttons. I am enjoying seeing both sides of the coin, very informative.
 
Special report How our growing appetite for salmon is devastating coastal communities in Peru
Andrew Wasley and Jim Wickens
1st December 2008

The coast of Peru is being blighted by an industry sprung up to satisfy the West’s voracious appetite for salmon – marine life, human health and whole ecosystems are paying the price. Andrew Wasley and Jim Wickens report
It is a life of poverty and filth. Standing above the tangle of rusting metal pipes and concrete-rimmed pools that lead into the ocean, Segundo Vorges and Luis Diaz explain how they scratch a living here in Chimbote harbour, Peru. They are part of a twilight community of ‘pipe people’ who survive by reclaiming waste discharged from nearby fishmeal production plants.

When operational, the pipes carry effluent – an unsavoury mixture of fish bodies, scales and fat – into the pools and the sea. Vorges and Diaz skim off the useful waste, particularly the fat, before shovelling it into containers. Some is turned into pellets used for cooking and sold at nearby markets. Whole families, including children, are involved in this dirty enterprise, earning $3 per day.

Despite some nasty-looking substances festering in the pools, the ‘pipe people’ maintain they are unconcerned about potential risks – unlike the environmentalists, who claim such effluent contaminates the sea. ‘Whatever the job is, it’s work,’ says Vorges. ‘We need to bring money to the table.’
This shocking scene is a million miles from the succulent pink salmon fish-steaks on sale across the western world. But the two are inextricably linked: much of the fishmeal and oil produced in Peru from anchovy fish stocks is the principal ingredient of feed used in salmon farming.

Aquaculture has long been targeted by pressure groups concerned at its apparent unsustainability and ecological footprint. Campaigners in Peru and Chile are now claiming that there are serious environmental and social costs, however – including pollution and health problems, overfishing, and impacts on ecosystems and wildlife – arising from production of fishmeal and fish oil. And the Ecologist has learned that at least one major supplier of farmed salmon to UK supermarkets and wholesalers has partnered with a feed company procuring significant volumes of controversial Peruvian fishmeal.
Overfishing and illness
Fishmeal is a protein-rich flour produced by cooking, drying and milling raw fish and trimmings. Fish oil is a byproduct of fishmeal processing. Both are largely derived from oily fish including anchovies, herrings and sardines. High nutritional values – both contain omega-3 fatty acids, beneficial both to humans and animals – has led to massive demand from the aquaculture industry.

Globally, the sector is worth almost $2.5 billion, with 400 plants producing approximately six million tonnes of fish flour and one million tonnes of fish oil annually. Principal fisheries supplying producers of meal and oil are situated in European waters and in the Pacific bordering Peru and Chile. Peru is the world’s leading exporter, supplying 28 per cent of the UK’s fishmeal in 2007.

After processing, meal and oil is usually exported for mixing with binders, such as soya, for output as feed pellets. Salmon are carnivorous and require large amounts of feed: environmentalists estimate 4kg of wild caught fish are required to produce 1kg of farmed fish, fuelling claims that aquaculture is not sustainable.

Peru’s Pacific waters contain a vital fishery and one of the world’s most biologically productive coastal ‘upwelling’ ecosystems. Coastal ‘upwelling’ occurs when deep oceanic currents collide with sharp costal shelves and force nutrient-rich cool water to the surface. The nutrients support the proliferation of phytoplankton, which in turn provide sustenance for enormous schools of anchovy and other marine animals.

In Chimbote, 40 fishmeal plants process anchovies caught by the city’s fishing fleets, making it one of the world’s most important fishmeal hubs – and a flashpoint for associated conflicts.

When we visited one heavily afflicted community – known as April 15th – more than a dozen women and children gathered in the dusty, unpaved street to vent their anger at the fishmeal plants. They claim the plants that loom over their houses are responsible for asthma, bronchial and skin problems, particularly in children.

‘We know the factories are responsible for these [problems], because when it operates the illnesses gets worse,’ says one young woman, holding her young child. ‘When the smoke comes it gets so bad we need a mask.’ Another says when the plants are operating the pollution is so thick you cannot physically remain on the street.

Footage shot by Chimbote residents, and seen by the Ecologist, graphically illustrates typical conditions when fishmeal plants are operational: billowing black smoke drifts through the streets, obscuring vision and choking passers-by. It looks like the aftermath of a bomb or a major fire.

Although fishmeal production is now restricted to fixed periods – corresponding with reduced fishing seasons – community members say the industry continues to make their lives a misery. Local people also claim buffer zones designed to separate processing plants from dwellings are being disregarded, and that at least one house is no longer habitable because of the pollution.

‘These people deserve more than to be subjected to this,’ says Maria Elena Foronda Farro of NGO Natura, which is campaigning to resolve the problems associated with fishmeal production. ‘It’s even worse because this fishmeal is being processed for salmon farmed and consumed abroad.’

The activists – and medical professionals – claim they have witnessed first-hand the disturbing pattern of health problems connected to the fishmeal sector.

Dr Ramon de la Cruz, dean of Chimbote’s Colegio Medico del Consejo Regional XIX, told the Ecologist: ‘All these respiratory problems are caused by contamination from the fishing industry in Chimbote, which is a very big focal point for contamination’. Although acknowledging that there are other causes of contamination – including the steel industry and cars – he says the fishmeal industry has been particularly to blame.
Cruz states that there is a direct correlation between the onset of fishmeal production and illness in children in Chimbote: ‘As the fishing season increases, the production of fishmeal begins, and this immediately and fundamentally accentuates in the infantile population the occurrences of asthma’.

Pupils at a Chimbote school afflicted by the industry also complain of health problems and environmental damage. ‘It causes fungal growths, breathlessness, we cannot breath,’ says one boy. Another says: ‘As well as make us sick it changes the colour of the ocean. We used to play years back, but now it’s polluted there is nowhere to play’.

During a tour of a row of dilapidated classrooms, teacher Yolanda Lara Cortez claims the industry has proved disruptive and costly. ‘We had to build walls to keep [smoke] out,’ she says. ‘We used to hold classes here, but the smoke, noise and pollution was so bad we can no longer use them.’ Other schools have suffered too, according to Cortez, with as many as 5,000 pupils affected by the pollution.
Down on the shoreline, Romolo Loayza Aguila, a biologist from the city’s Universidad Nacional del Santa, says that research shows how untreated effluents from fishmeal plants are contributing to serious contamination of the Bay of Ferrol off Chimbote’s coast. He claims the impacts of the waste on the bay’s biodiversity ‘have been dramatic’, as the area was ‘rich in species and also in biomass’.

According to ecological group Mundo Azul, the Bay of Ferrol is among the most polluted marine areas of the country, largely due to contamination by the fishmeal industry. ‘The plants are discharging protein, fat and oil into the bay’s water, as well as contaminated marine water used during the process of pumping the fish from the ship’s hull to the processing plant,’ the group states.
It claims that this, combined with contaminants deposited by air pollution, raw sewage and discharge from the steel industry, has led to the accumulation of a toxic layer – up to a metre thick – of undecomposed, organic material on the sea bed, creating a marine ‘dead zone’.

Dead zones are areas where algae blooms, and, although they can occur naturally, are often triggered by nutrients from fertiliser run-off, sewage, animal and industrial wastes, and atmospheric deposition from the burning of fossil fuels, removing oxygen from the water. Low levels of oxygen make it difficult for fish and other marine creatures, as well as important habitats such as sea-grass beds, to survive. The UN recently warned that such areas can threaten fish stocks.
Coast to contaminated coast
Other parts of Peru’s coastline have also been contaminated by waste from the fishmeal industry – fishermen believe such pollution has led to a reduction in artisanal fish catches, but they also blame the activities of industrial anchovy fleets.

Fishing chiefs and campaigners say the volume of anchovy taken for fishmeal negatively impacts the ocean’s wider food chain, and thus the availability of other, previously plentiful species fished for human consumption. They also claim spawning grounds are damaged by industrial fishing.

‘Fish is the basic food in Peru, but now there is not enough for local people,’ says Manuel Montesa Arroyo, a spokesman for Chimbote’s artisanal fishermen. ‘We catch less because there are more fleets. There is [now] more deprivation as we catch less.’
 
Arroyo says that although laws exist to prevent industrial fishing within a five-mile zone of the coast – to protect artisanal food resources – enforcement is weak and breaches frequent. In 2006, local media reportedly filmed as many as 50 industrial vessels fishing just metres off the beach. According to eyewitnesses, harbour authorities took no action ‘because they had no fuel’.

Javier Castro, who represents the industrial fishing industry in Chimbote, admits that the sector was ‘anarchic’ and that frequent breaches of the law occur, with regular instances of fishing vessels manipulating satellite positioning technology to mask their positions when operating inside exclusion zones or closed seasons.

Campaigners cite official research as evidence of the precarious status of anchovy stocks in the South East Pacific: the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is quoted after characterising the Peruvian anchovy fishery as ‘fully fished’ – meaning it has been exploited to the maximum safe biological limit. And in 2006, the FAO noted two main stocks of anchovy in the South East Pacific are ‘fully exploited and overexploited’.

The Peruvian Institute of Fisheries Research – IMARPE – which advises the authorities on fishing policies and practice, is also cited for reportedly stating that ‘anchovy biomass is down, distribution scattered and anomalous distribution of juveniles due to dynamic environmental conditions’.

But the fishmeal industry maintains that anchovy stocks are carefully monitored and industrial fleets controlled through vigorous enforcement. The International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organisation (IFFO) states that Peruvian anchovy fishing is subjected to ‘comprehensive management controls to protect the stock from overfishing’. It says the Peruvian government adopts a ‘precautionary approach’ to regulating catches, with controls including closed seasons, net-size restrictions, vessel licensing, catch quotas and restricted fishing areas.

The IFFO also points to the satellite tracking system – referred to by fishing chiefs – as further evidence of the framework in place to prevent overfishing, as well as the existence of strict codes of conduct for industrial fishing vessels. IFFO head Jonathan Shepherd says that Peru is an ‘excellent example of a country which heeded earlier warnings on overfishing, conducted extensive research and introduced controls and third-party surveillance’.

Feed companies procuring Peruvian fishmeal also claim the country’s anchovy stocks are managed sustainably. Skretting – a subsidiary of Nutreco – which in the first half of 2007 saw 47 per cent of its fishmeal globally made from Peruvian anchovy, told the Ecologist ‘all [our] suppliers of marine products must document that fish used to produce fishmeal and oil have been responsibly sourced, without depleting fish stocks or damaging the wider marine environment’.

Peruvian anchovy was used in almost 50 per cent of the feed Skretting supplied to the UK in 2007, mostly to salmon farms. The company recently signed a contract with Marine Harvest, a major salmon producer, to supply 70 per cent of its feed. Marine Harvest, with farms in Scotland and elsewhere, has supplied salmon to British supermarkets Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, and seafood wholesaler Young’s, which has in turn sold salmon to virtually all major UK retailers, including Asda, Tesco and Somerfield.

While there is no suggestion that any of these companies is directly involved in bad practice or wrongdoing, the sourcing of fishmeal from Peru will concern consumers and raise questions over sourcing policies.

Marine Harvest stated: ‘The only way we can maximise the value for our shareholders is to ensure that we operate on a sustainable basis. This is why Marine Harvest takes all aspects related to sustainability very seriously… Marine Harvest’s feed suppliers have programmes for sustainability including routines related to the purchase of sustainable raw materials’.

Young’s says its farmed salmon is a ‘sustainable, consistent and high-quality fresh fish raw material’, and an alternative to wild caught fish. The company claims the marine ingredients in the feed used by its suppliers are sourced only from ‘managed fisheries’.

Maria Farro acknowledges some fishmeal processors are taking steps to reduce the negative impacts of their operations, after Natura established initiatives – involving all stakeholders – to clean up the industry. ‘Six or seven are leading the way, implementing better, less polluting and less wasteful practices,’ she says, ‘but plenty of others have so far refused to enter into dialogue.’
Ecosystem crash

Natura argues that ultimately, however, fishmeal production primarily to feed salmon and other farm animals can never be truly sustainable, as long as there are ‘human mouths to feed’ – especially as Peru has experienced problems with malnutrition.

Yards away from Chimbote’s bustling port, our investigation discovered another, hidden victim of the fishmeal industry. Lying on the rubbish-strewn beach are the carcasses of six sea lions – a protected species – rotting in the sunshine. The animals are reportedly increasingly being killed by fishermen who see them as competitors for dwindling fish resources.

Seabird colonies too are reported to be under threat because of excessive anchovy fishing to supply the fishmeal industry. Mundo Azul claims that a noticeable reduction in guano – seabird excrement, traditionally harvested for use as a fertiliser – on a series of rocky islands near the coastal town of Pucusana is hard evidence of a significantly reduced population of seabirds, including Guanay cormorants, the Peruvian pelican and the Peruvian booby.
Biologists have recently stated that the number of such birds in the region totals some four million, a massive decrease of a population that once stood at more than 60 million. Although other factors contribute to the problem, biologists have warned that, unless overfishing in the region is curtailed, the ‘guano’ birds could die off by 2030 as their fish sources dwindle.
The salmon rush
A thousand miles south of Chimbote, the windswept mountains of Patagonia drop steeply into the stormy ocean that surrounds this region of Chile. This is salmon farming country, and the hub of Chile’s multibilliondollar aquaculture industry, soon to outgrow Norway’s as the world’s biggest. It is estimated that 40 per cent of all salmon eaten in the USA is produced here, as is much of the frozen salmon supplied to the UK and EU.

Salmon-cage manufacturers, net defouling factories, feed-pipe manufacturers and industrial boat-builders line the highways around the regional capital Puerto Montt. It is an economy underpinned and fuelled by cheap fish feed, and the controversial anchovy fisheries and soya plantations of Latin America that supply it. Multinationals – including Marine Harvest and Skretting – have migrated here to profit from the salmon rush.

The Ecologist visited the Mapuche community of Pepiukelen, located in Pargua, just in front of the crossing passage to the island of Chiloé, where many salmon farms are based. Feed companies were quick to buy up strategically valuable land here. For the Pepiukelen, however, the growth of feed production plants in the area has brought only hardship.

‘We used to have 30 pigs running free in the forest here, but now the land is so restricted we can farm only one,’ says lonko (chief) Manuel Vera Millaquén. ‘Today the water in our river is so polluted that the farm animals die, but when we complain to the feed companies, they simply laugh.’

Forced from the land, today only 30 Mapuche remain, and those that do must seek work in the feed plants that have grown on their doorstep, and endure the stench of the fumes from the plants every day. On the seashore, the tribal meeting area stands empty. A traditional place for teaching and ceremony, today it is hemmed in by the barbed wire and brimming towers of the feed plants all around. ‘People are losing their traditions. It’s like a new kind of slavery,’ says Millaquén.

Driving south, snow-clad peaks rising out of the ocean create the image of a wild land that seems – on the surface – virtually untouched by human hand. But every bay is dotted with salmon cages and feed stations and the supply vessels that support them. Vast floating net structures, some stretching as deep as 80m, are interlinked with tangled networks of feed pipes that spew feed pellets into the frothy mass of factory-farmed fish inside each cage.

Under the surface, faeces and feed crumbs create what scientists claim are virtual marine deserts on the sea bed. Commercial divers in Chile told the Ecologist, on condition of anonymity, that the corpses of sea lions ‘can be found under every farm here’, apparently shot for trying to ‘steal’ the salmon.

Disturbingly, these corpses are joined at times by those of humans. An average of 1.5 divers die every month in Chile carrying out routine work on the salmon farms, according to diving unions. Poorly trained, overworked and underpaid, the salmon farmworker mortality rates in Chile are higher than anywhere else in the world.

For John Volpe, professor of ecology at the University of Victoria, Australia, such examples are by no means isolated. ‘Salmon is not cheap,’ he says. ‘We’ve created a way for it to be cheap for the consumer by shifting the cost to ecosystems and social communities, who are being degraded in the name of cheap salmon.’
 
Critics in Chile claim that free trade agreements have created a system whereby producer countries bear the hidden costs of the feed and farming processes used to grow cheap salmon sold in the west. ‘The salmon we produce is eaten by the mouths of people in the USA and Europe, but the asshole is here in Latin America,’ says Jean Carlos Cardenas of Ecoceanos. ‘The true cost of the cheap salmon you eat is being paid with the blood of our people and the health of our oceans.’
http://www.theecologist.org/trial_i..._devastating_coastal_communities_in_peru.html



Can't say I see much of a future!
 
Hey Charlie,

You have to add: Chicken, Pork, and Pet food, as well as a host of other products to the list of things made from or fed by Fish Meal, not just salmon. Funny how you forgot to mention these. Guess it don't fit into your agenda does it?
 
sockeyefry2 said:
Hey Charlie,

You have to add: Chicken, Pork, and Pet food, as well as a host of other products to the list of things made from or fed by Fish Meal, not just salmon. Funny how you forgot to mention these. Guess it don't fit into your agenda does it?
Click to expand...
Thought you died! :)

That article is about "fishmeal" I didn't say anything about your salmon feedlots. You must have a guilt complex, as I said "Can't say I see much of a future!" regarding "fismeal"!
 
‘The true cost of the cheap salmon you eat is being paid with the blood of our people and the health of our oceans.’
Recognize this from your second to last post?

Nah didn't die, just relocated.

Fish meal supply is a real concern with farmers also. That's why the feed companies are working toward a diet with as little FM as possible.

A lot of people don't realize that the main ingredient of chicken feed is FM.

Regarding Closed Con farms as the future, they are already here, and have been for 20 years or more. Running one isn't child's play, and you have to operate them right at their upper limits to even hope of turning a profit. Main issue regarding CC farms is that they will still face competition with Net pens farms in other countries, such as Chile. As long as they set the price, no CC will survive.
 
Future of fish farms???? well I don't know what the future holds but here is a taste of what the present is.

Fisheries and Aquaculture
Newfoundland and Labrador
December 18, 2012
CFIA Confirms a New Case of ISA at Aquaculture Site ​
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmation of the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus at an aquaculture site on the south coast is being monitored closely by the Provincial Government. The presence of the virus has activated federal and provincial protocols and procedures that aim to limit the spread of the virus. The Provincial Government and officials from the Centre for Aquaculture Health and Development in St. Alban’s will continue to provide support to the CFIA throughout the process.
“The CFIA has confirmed the presence of the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus at an aquaculture site on the south coast of Newfoundland and Labrador,” said the Honourable Derrick Dalley, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. “While ISA is not harmful to humans, if not managed properly it could cause further risk to other fish farms in the region. Thus far, there is no sign of the virus spreading. However, in all cases where aquatic diseases are suspected or confirmed, the goal is to minimize exposure to infection and disruption to producers, while respecting obligations to take appropriate and prudent precautionary control measures. For that reason, CFIA had previously quarantined the infected site and our government will continue to provide any and all necessary support as the situation evolves and a depopulation order for the infected fish is issued.”
Preliminary laboratory results tested positive for Infectious Salmon Anemia virus on Monday, November 26. The Provincial Government immediately notified CFIA per federal policy. The following day (Tuesday, November 27), CFIA placed the site under quarantine as a precautionary measure to restrict movement of people, fish, vessels, equipment and other potentially infectious material, to prevent the spread of the suspected virus. The Provincial Government was notified of confirmed test results by CFIA last evening (Monday, December 17). Strict biosecurity protocols remain in place at the infected site.
“Infectious Salmon Anemia is a virus that occurs naturally in the wild and has been observed in many fish farming jurisdictions around the world,” said Dr. Daryl Whelan, Director of Aquatic Animal Health with the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. “The Provincial Government, through the Centre for Aquaculture Health and Development, provides veterinary advice, support, facilities and quarantine assistance in such cases. The virus is a normal risk associated with fish farming. Our veterinarians and technicians perform regular testing and it is through such a proactive testing regime again that this second occurrence of ISAv in recent months was found. Analysis we have conducted to date does not point to this new case of ISAv being related to the first presence of the virus last summer. We will continue to work with the CFIA and the company to effectively deal with the impending order to destroy the infected fish.”
Under the Federal Health of Animals Act, CFIA is solely responsible for reportable disease cases found in Canada, of which ISAv is one. Under the Act, CFIA can issue a depopulation order when a new disease is identified, and provide support to assist with compensation to cover the loss and costs of destruction and clean-up of the infected sites.
As a proactive measure, the company which owns the infected farm had submitted quarantine Standard Operating Procedures to CFIA, and the Provincial Government has provided various operating procedures and assisted with revisions related to disinfection, harvest, destruction and movement of the fish in the event a destruction order was issued. A decision on next steps is anticipated to come from the CFIA in short order. Further updates will be provided by the Provincial Government at that time.
“The Provincial Government recognizes the importance of this industry and continues to uphold high standards for production and processing in cooperation with all stakeholders,” said Minister Dalley. “Our government is committed to supporting the development of an aquaculture industry that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. While we continue to address the second occurrence of ISA in our province, it is business as usual, and fish farms continue to produce high quality product for the global seafood market.”
The aquaculture industry throughout Newfoundland and Labrador consists of 133 aquaculture sites which provide essential employment for those living in many coastal and remote rural communities. In 2011, the total market value of aquaculture production was $120 million.
http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2012/fishaq/1218n06.htm

So ... what's the count for ISAV infected fish feedlots on the east coast this year. 1,2 maybe 3?
How about 8..... http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals...anaemia-2012-/eng/1339179653413/1339179772511
not to worry the government will bail them out....... some future that is.....
GLG
 
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