30,000 farm Salmon escape in Cambell River

[Last Chance]

SO what if they hit regular fishing lures and bait? I have news for you, MOST FISH WILL HIT ANYTHIGN THAT MOVES.

We still have at best, 30,000 fish that have been released into waters that hold around %10-%30 of the fish that they once did. They are a drop in the bucket, and a **** in the wind. I'm willing to bet that the suckers starve to death by the years end.

Since we couldn't get the darn things to grow when we encouraged them and planted them in our rivers years ago, I ask again, how are 30,000 stragglers going to do the same thing?



Last Chance Fishing Adventures

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[sockeyefry]

Good post Last Chance

30,000 is a drop in the bucket, and none, if history is any measure will survive.

Gimp,

over the last few years gut contents of escapees have been recorded, and in all cases, there were no prey species found, only junk which resembled food pellets

 

[drad2k4]

In the grand scheme of things it is not that much. However, something still needs to be done to force them to act with due diligence.

 

[gimp]

quote:Originally posted by LastChance

MOST FISH WILL HIT ANYTHIGN THAT MOVES.

I'm willing to bet that the suckers starve to death by the years end.

So you agree that if they happen upon wild pacific salmon fry they will be eaten? They move and they look like a lure. So if they "HIT ANYTHIGN THAT MOVES" how are they gonna starve?

Sockeye can you provide me links to those studies you state that re out there please ?

could this be the way of the future?
http://www.neptuneindustries.net/neptunevideo.htm

 

[salmon9]

When I viewed the video the first thing came to my mind was the hunting around in the seine net for a heavily liced fish. Clearly the sample sockeye fry they showed on the video had many lice and would likely die or struggle. When I think about research methodology I keep thinking was that fry a fair sample of the whole population in the seine net or was there bias in selecting the worst off fish. Don't get me wrong, I am concerned about lice and fish farms; however, not certain the science applied in the video represents a fair assessment. I would have liked to have seen them sample randomly at least 50 fry in that seine net and comment on the average number of lice per fry. I still think fish farms should be on dry land with water filtration systems, however, we need good science to prove this point.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Salmon9 - I have to call BS

quote:I still think fish farms should be on dry land with water filtration systems, however, we need good science to prove this point.

THERE IS all sorts of GOOD science that proves that fish farms generate sea lice that impact on wild stock-- Ever heard of the "Precautionary Principle? The right thing to do is to ACT NOW!!! Dont get sucked into the spin ( like LastChance has) that those who dont give a damn for our wild stocks want you to believe.




20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[Last Chance]

quote:Originally posted by gimp

quote:Originally posted by LastChance

MOST FISH WILL HIT ANYTHIGN THAT MOVES.

I'm willing to bet that the suckers starve to death by the years end.

So you agree that if they happen upon wild pacific salmon fry they will be eaten? They move and they look like a lure. So if they "HIT ANYTHIGN THAT MOVES" how are they gonna starve?

Sockeye can you provide me links to those studies you state that re out there please ?

could this be the way of the future?
http://www.neptuneindustries.net/neptunevideo.htm

Yes, wild pacific salmon fry could be eaten. So, while we are chasing around a few Atlantic salmon that could eat salmon fry, why don't we get rid of :

Lingcod
Rockfish
All other species of Pacific Salmon (I bet that there are more then 30,000 of them, and I'm SURE they can distinguish between a little silver salmon fry and a little baitfish)
Mackeral
All pallegic fish that they are going to meet in their lifetime in the open ocean.

My point about them hittiny anything that moves, is that, a fish will hit anything that moves. Period. They are no different then any other fish, they are not super fish, they are not piranahs.
Really, that's a little weak. And if there is such a danger of these things colonsing our rivers, why have they not done so in 30 years of fish farming? Why have they not taken over the Great Lakes, some of which have Coho/Chinook salmon as well, and are connected by aa direct route to the Atlantic ocean via the St. Lawrence seaway (I hear Atlantic salmon come from the Atlantic ocean).

Last, but not least, what would do better for the long term good of the species? The 50 grand or so it would cost hiring seine boats to chase what is really a small spattering of fish around, or spend the 50 grand on one of our troubled salmon bearing waterways, such as the Cowichan or Sooke river.


Last Chance Fishing Adventures

www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com

 

[Little Hawk]

Howdy LC,

Is 30,000 escaped Atlantics' insignificant if those fish were just dosed with 'Slice' and a pod of Orca's descends upon them?

The answer is: We don't know.

But who cares, North Americans' eat the fish that were dosed with 'Slice' and there's no requirement that the fishfarmers disclose to us that the drug (or any of the drugs they use) was used on their product.

This could change though with the proposed adoption of an organic/certification standards system for aquaculture product.

As far as the colonization-threat goes, I believe that we (Canadians who actually give a damn about our ocean and what lives in it) are better to err on the side of caution rather than coming across like 'God' with statements like... "it'll never happen" or, "they tried already and it didn't work."

Our government and the fishfarmers have licensed themselves to roll-the-dice with our marine ecology so that a foreign-owned company can pollute the hell out of our water to grow fish to feed American's.

Still don't think we need to take the ongoing mass-escapes thing seriously?

Consider this: Since live, viable, wild-spawned Atlantic salmon were first discovered on Vancouver Island nearly 10 years ago, to my knowledge, the government has provided no additional funding for this important work. I repeat: How many of our rivers are they in now? How many native salmon and steelhead are they competing with? It's not good enough for me to have a fishfarmer answer this question; they are bias. We need to go out and actually look, rigorously.

The other part of the colonization thing that makes me and many others anxious is this: Indeed, there are many records of previous attempts at introduction of Atlantic salmon.

But things are different now; we have fishfarming to supply a continuous (unabated) supply of escaping fish into our environment.

And perhaps that - God... can you hear me? - just might make the difference.

Standing for Wild Salmon,

Terry Anderson

Wild Salmon Alliance

 

[Last Chance]

LH, if there are viable spawning Atlantics on the island, where are they? I'll bet there have been more sturgeon seen then Atlantics in Island rivers, and we don't go eradicating them.

Last Chance Fishing Adventures

www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com

 

[Kramer]

quote:Originally posted by rbv

I find this quite depressing.

Like liquor and gas, the farmed product should be taxed like crazy and that revenue should be given back to the hatchery programs...
Maybe that would help even things out.

If farmed fish have any adverse impact on wild fish stocks, why in the heck would you give money to hatchery programs? Shouldn't the efforts be on restoring wild fish runs? That doesn't make any sense.