http://www.earthisland.org/journal/...ows_what_sustainable_aquaculture_can_be_like/
Monterey Bay Abalone Farm Shows What Sustainable Aquaculture Can Be Like
BY KEVIN M. BAILEY – MARCH 12, 2015
As world demand for seafood continues to grow, so does demand for green aquaculture practices
At the end of Fisherman’s Wharf #2 in Monterey, California there is a small building which houses the Monterey Abalone Company. In the morning chill, a smell of fresh fish and salt hangs in the mist. This the same wharf John Steinbeck walked while looking for a boat to take him and Ed “Doc” Ricketts to the Sea of Cortez in 1940. The small office inside is lined with counters that are cluttered with papers, shells, and instruments. In the deck there is a hatch that opens into a gaping hole. A wood ladder leads down under the pier. It’s dark and dripping under the wharf. There’s an odor that is both fishy and animal. A pathway of planks leads to the end of the pilings. Pigeons coo overhead, while barks and splashes come from the darkness where the planks disappear. As you walk towards the noises, large shapes emerge and the lugubrious California sea lions, startled, raise their heads in defiance. They grunt, lumber off like overweight men on short crutches, and dive into the water.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7632/16790302702_77a173e958_z.jpg
hands holding an abalone
Monterey Abalone Company farms abalone in cages suspended in the water under Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, California.
Unbeknownst to the tourists sauntering overhead, there is a sea farm with 150,000 abalone under the boardwalk of the wharf. Down here, sturdy mesh cages hang in the sea from the network of beams. There are 150 to 6,000 abalone per cage, depending on the size of the shells within. A system of pulleys and ropes is in place to lift the cages out of the water. The enclosures protect the abalone from the marauding sea otters who constantly circle in search of snacks. A worker pulls a cage up, opens the lid, and inside are rigid plastic sheets with abalone stuck fast on their surfaces. The capacity of this abalone farm is 300,000 shellfish.
Worldwide aquaculture production has skyrocketed over the past two decades, while capture fisheries have leveled off. In 2011, aquaculture production surpassed marine harvest fisheries, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Currently more that 50 percent of seafood destined for human consumption is cultured. At the same time, there has been growing alarm about the impact of aquaculture, especially about the use of chemicals and antibiotics, introduction of diseases to wild populations, pollution and damage to natural habitats. Since world demand for seafood continues to increase, it is important to encourage "green" and sustainable aquaculture practices and promote the consumption of seafood raised in this manner.
California’s abalone farms, numbering six in all, are a great example of this kind of sustainable aquaculture. Three of these farms, including Monterey Abalone Company, are oceanic. The other three are inland farms, where the abalone are grown in concrete tanks supplied with fresh circulating seawater. The farmed abalone are raised in sea and land-based enclosures with scant use of chemicals and antibiotics. Hence, they have little impact on the natural habitat. Everything is kept as local as possible, from sourcing food to sales. As a result of these green practices, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists California abalone as a “Best Choice” seafood.
The story of the California coast abalone is long and complex. It is the narrative of an interconnected ecosystem: of a community of sea otters, kelp beds, abalone, sea urchins, and many other species, clashing with the outside force of man. Man’s harvest of otters and abalone contributed to the collapse of both of these species, and it was human effort again that contributed to their revival.
Abalone, a flattened marine snail, normally creeps over rocks on the shallow sea bottom along the California coast. They need a hard substrate and feed off algae growing on the stones and on kelp that’s washed into the tide pools. Abalone was a traditional food of the Ohlone and Esselen Indians of central California for thousands of years. The tribe used the alabaster shells to make fish hooks and ornaments. Based on evidence found in the Channel Islands, abalone might have been used 12,000 years ago by the first people to populate the Pacific Coast.
Seven species of abalone live in coastal California, the most abundant being the red abalone, Haliotis rufescens. Red abalone populations cycle out of phase with their major predator in central California, the sea otter. That is, when otters are abundant, the abalone are scarce.
Otters once numbered 150,000 to 300,000 in their range from Russia across the Pacific to Alaska and down coastal California. When the German naturalist Georg Stellar, who went on an expedition to map a northern sea route from Russia to North America in the mid-1700s, found and killed large numbers of otters in the Commander Islands in 1741, their pelts became fashionable, and ranked among the world’s most prized furs. Then, as the Russian otters became depleted, the “Great Hunt” spread across the Pacific and down the west coast of North America. The harvest of otters continued for over a century.
In the late 1700s, Americans, English, and Russians began trading for pelts with Native Americans. In 1812 the Russians founded Fort Ross in northern California to facilitate the trading enterprise. Canadians and Americans joined the hunt, trading beads, clothes, and metal implements with the coastal Indians for otter pelts. As the otters became more and more sparse, the value of a pelt increased from $105-165 in 1880 to $1,125 in 1903. By 1900 there were no more otters in Monterey Bay. By 1911,Russia, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States finally signed a treaty putting a moratorium on hunting sea otters, there were only 1,000 to 2,000 otters remaining worldwide.
...continued...
Monterey Bay Abalone Farm Shows What Sustainable Aquaculture Can Be Like
BY KEVIN M. BAILEY – MARCH 12, 2015
As world demand for seafood continues to grow, so does demand for green aquaculture practices
At the end of Fisherman’s Wharf #2 in Monterey, California there is a small building which houses the Monterey Abalone Company. In the morning chill, a smell of fresh fish and salt hangs in the mist. This the same wharf John Steinbeck walked while looking for a boat to take him and Ed “Doc” Ricketts to the Sea of Cortez in 1940. The small office inside is lined with counters that are cluttered with papers, shells, and instruments. In the deck there is a hatch that opens into a gaping hole. A wood ladder leads down under the pier. It’s dark and dripping under the wharf. There’s an odor that is both fishy and animal. A pathway of planks leads to the end of the pilings. Pigeons coo overhead, while barks and splashes come from the darkness where the planks disappear. As you walk towards the noises, large shapes emerge and the lugubrious California sea lions, startled, raise their heads in defiance. They grunt, lumber off like overweight men on short crutches, and dive into the water.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7632/16790302702_77a173e958_z.jpg
hands holding an abalone
Monterey Abalone Company farms abalone in cages suspended in the water under Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, California.
Unbeknownst to the tourists sauntering overhead, there is a sea farm with 150,000 abalone under the boardwalk of the wharf. Down here, sturdy mesh cages hang in the sea from the network of beams. There are 150 to 6,000 abalone per cage, depending on the size of the shells within. A system of pulleys and ropes is in place to lift the cages out of the water. The enclosures protect the abalone from the marauding sea otters who constantly circle in search of snacks. A worker pulls a cage up, opens the lid, and inside are rigid plastic sheets with abalone stuck fast on their surfaces. The capacity of this abalone farm is 300,000 shellfish.
Worldwide aquaculture production has skyrocketed over the past two decades, while capture fisheries have leveled off. In 2011, aquaculture production surpassed marine harvest fisheries, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Currently more that 50 percent of seafood destined for human consumption is cultured. At the same time, there has been growing alarm about the impact of aquaculture, especially about the use of chemicals and antibiotics, introduction of diseases to wild populations, pollution and damage to natural habitats. Since world demand for seafood continues to increase, it is important to encourage "green" and sustainable aquaculture practices and promote the consumption of seafood raised in this manner.
California’s abalone farms, numbering six in all, are a great example of this kind of sustainable aquaculture. Three of these farms, including Monterey Abalone Company, are oceanic. The other three are inland farms, where the abalone are grown in concrete tanks supplied with fresh circulating seawater. The farmed abalone are raised in sea and land-based enclosures with scant use of chemicals and antibiotics. Hence, they have little impact on the natural habitat. Everything is kept as local as possible, from sourcing food to sales. As a result of these green practices, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists California abalone as a “Best Choice” seafood.
The story of the California coast abalone is long and complex. It is the narrative of an interconnected ecosystem: of a community of sea otters, kelp beds, abalone, sea urchins, and many other species, clashing with the outside force of man. Man’s harvest of otters and abalone contributed to the collapse of both of these species, and it was human effort again that contributed to their revival.
Abalone, a flattened marine snail, normally creeps over rocks on the shallow sea bottom along the California coast. They need a hard substrate and feed off algae growing on the stones and on kelp that’s washed into the tide pools. Abalone was a traditional food of the Ohlone and Esselen Indians of central California for thousands of years. The tribe used the alabaster shells to make fish hooks and ornaments. Based on evidence found in the Channel Islands, abalone might have been used 12,000 years ago by the first people to populate the Pacific Coast.
Seven species of abalone live in coastal California, the most abundant being the red abalone, Haliotis rufescens. Red abalone populations cycle out of phase with their major predator in central California, the sea otter. That is, when otters are abundant, the abalone are scarce.
Otters once numbered 150,000 to 300,000 in their range from Russia across the Pacific to Alaska and down coastal California. When the German naturalist Georg Stellar, who went on an expedition to map a northern sea route from Russia to North America in the mid-1700s, found and killed large numbers of otters in the Commander Islands in 1741, their pelts became fashionable, and ranked among the world’s most prized furs. Then, as the Russian otters became depleted, the “Great Hunt” spread across the Pacific and down the west coast of North America. The harvest of otters continued for over a century.
In the late 1700s, Americans, English, and Russians began trading for pelts with Native Americans. In 1812 the Russians founded Fort Ross in northern California to facilitate the trading enterprise. Canadians and Americans joined the hunt, trading beads, clothes, and metal implements with the coastal Indians for otter pelts. As the otters became more and more sparse, the value of a pelt increased from $105-165 in 1880 to $1,125 in 1903. By 1900 there were no more otters in Monterey Bay. By 1911,Russia, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States finally signed a treaty putting a moratorium on hunting sea otters, there were only 1,000 to 2,000 otters remaining worldwide.
...continued...