FINALLY, a fish-farmer that gets it!

Little Hawk

Active Member
Thought I'd share this great article from the Scientific American magazine.

There is hope yet!

January 14, 2010 | 16 comments
Sea Change: Environmental Group Gives First-Time Nod to Sustainable Salmon-Farming Method
An aquaculture company devises a new, sustainable process that raises Pacific coho salmon in freshwater

By Clare Leschin-Hoar

X

SALMON SOLUTION: A new farming technique for Pacific coho salmon has received approval from a consumer education group that advocates for sustainable fisheries
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
e-mail print comment

Farm-raised salmon has long been the poster child of unsustainable aquaculture practices. Issues of escape, pollution and inefficiency have plunged it deeply into the "avoid" territory of environmental groups—until now.

In a report released January 14, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program is taking the unprecedented step of approving a particular method for farming Pacific coho salmon that is currently employed exclusively by the Rochester, Wash.–based AquaSeed Corp. The sustainability nod from the consumer education group means that these salmon also will be assigned a green "Best Choice" rating on Seafood Watch's Web site. The approval follows several months of intensive site visits by Seafood Watch scientists and reviews of the company's production facility, feed ratios, fish contaminant and pollution discharge levels, and more.

The salmon, to be sold under the SweetSpring label, have also been shown to contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, placing the salmon on Seafood Watch's newly created Super Green List, which denotes that the fish is good for human health without causing harm to the ocean. To appear on the Super Green List, the salmon must provide the daily minimum of omega-3s (at least 250 milligrams per day) based on 28 grams of fish, and have PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) levels under 11 parts per billion (ppb). AquaSeed came in at 335 milligrams per day of omega-3s and had a PCB level of 10.4 ppb.

"This is the first farmed salmon we've ever talked about as a good source [for food, since the program's inception in 1999]," said Geoffrey Shester, senior science manager for Seafood Watch. "This is extremely exciting. It's not an experimental science project. It is mature to the point where there is real potential to scale it up."

The farming method
The AquaSeed Pacific coho salmon are raised in a freshwater, closed containment system, which is not how salmon are conventionally farmed. Salmon in the wild live primarily in saltwater but swim to freshwater every year to spawn. Traditionally raised farm salmon are grown in open-net ocean pens. This has led to problems such as nonnative species escaping into the wild and pollution as well as sea lice infestation and disease, because there is no barrier between captive salmon and the wild version in surrounding waters. Plus, traditionally raised farmed salmon require as much as five pounds (2.3 kilograms) of meal made from smaller fish caught in the wild for every pound (half kilogram) of salmon meat, a level that is considered unsustainable by environmental groups.

AquaSeed's salmon are grown in land-based, freshwater tanks ranging in size from 60 centimeters to 15 meters wide depending on the salmon's developmental stage. Containment tanks prevent escapes and problems with sea lice infestation that have plagued open-net ocean pen operations. Also, a high-end salmon feed and selective breeding has helped minimize fishmeal use, reducing the ratio of pounds of wild feed fish to produce pounds of farmed fish to 1.1 to one—a number AquaSeed owner Per Heggelund says he expects to whittle further.

"What's interesting about this is this is they've taken salmon back millions of years evolutionarily, to the point where they're freshwater again," Shester says.

Now on their 17th generation of pedigree breeding, the egg-to-plate operation is in the process of providing the salmon with a DNA fingerprint to help thwart any unauthorized breeding. AquaSeed's core business is selling "eyed" salmon eggs (eggs that have developed to the point that their eyes are visible) under the Domsea label to salmon farms in Japan, China and other countries. They've also been working to conserve endangered wild Pacific salmon stocks by maintaining an isolation and breeding facility operation, protecting 40 distinct families of salmon.

"We didn't set out to be in a food fish program in a land-based facility," Heggelund says. "That wasn't our goal. We were more focused on the genetics—the livestock breeding of salmon for the normal traits of survival at certain stages of the life cycle, productive growth and feed conversion, and egg production."

Producing 90,700 kilograms of salmon a year, Heggelund is preparing to rapidly expand production on his 20-hectare farm, and is already working closely with large purchasers such as Compass Group and Whole Foods as well as Mashiko, a Seattle-based sustainable sushi restaurant.


"Some could care less if there's any fish left for our kids!"
 
There's a guy here in the Lower Rainland who's been doing the same thing for years now, closed containment freshwater, Coho he sells them for premium prices to restaurants in Vancouver.

Bruce and Mary Lou Swift-Swift Aquaculture in Agassiz is the name of the place.

billreidsalmon.jpg
 
Oh no guys, this can't be true! You must be mistaken! Sockeyefry here on this forum has "proven" to us a hundred times that it cannot be done and is clearly uneconomical and could not survive in a competitive market...[:eek:)]
 
BTW, 4 out of 5 pacific salmon plus steelheads thrive in the Great Lakes for decades, which is freshwater in case someone does not know. Hence it should not come to a surprise to anyone that you can raise salmon in freshwater.
 
If memory serves me right it was very early sixties that was done and it was very successful.:D

IMG_1445.jpg
 
You are right Chris. If memory serves, the 'World Record-Light Tackle' Coho came out of the Great Lakes.

Coho fishing is HUGE on the Great Lks; just ask Ian Scott (Scotty's) how many downriggers and line-releases they ship back East.

"Some could care less if there's any fish left for our kids!"
 
Mock if you must Chris73, but 90,000 kgs is a small mom and pop outfit, marketing to a niche market. Yes he will make money at that level, similar to a small market garderner selling carrots at the farmer narket in the summer. But I wouldn't bet your food supply on this kind of production.

There are thousand of these guys right across the country.

"Also, a high-end salmon feed and selective breeding has helped minimize fishmeal use, reducing the ratio of pounds of wild feed fish to produce pounds of farmed fish to 1.1 to one—a number AquaSeed owner Per Heggelund says he expects to whittle further."

I love these incorrect statements. This is the ratio of fish feed pellets to fish produced and has nothing to do with wild fish. And in freshwater it is actually pretty high. Normal production in freshwater is 0.7 lbs of feed to 1lb of fish flesh.
 
Usually the mom and pop outfits get wiped out by big business. That is how it works everywhere. The big guys roll in clean up and disappear.
[8D]

IMG_1445.jpg
 
There is a saying about fish farming:

If you want to become a millionaire in fish farming start as a billionaire.

Profits margins are not as lucrative as you think.
 
Back
Top