This is an interesting documentary. A bit biased, but does present both sides.

Weds. April 21, on PBS/KCTS channel 9:
Net Loss: The Storm Over Salmon Farming

In the Pacific Northwest, salmon are at the heart of people's diet and culture, but decades of poor fisheries management and habitat loss are threatening wild salmon runs. The international salmon farming industry produces huge quantities of relatively inexpensive fish raised in ocean netpens, but in the process may be threatening the fragile marine environment, the economies of local coastal fishing communities, and possibly human health. Scientists, industry spokespersons, traditional fishermen in Chile, indigenous people in Canada, and others provide both global and local perspectives on this industrial approach to producing salmon.

I watched it and was disapppointed in how lopsided it was against farms. I expect a show like that to be more fair. One thing that was driving me nuts was refering to wild salmon as "fresh" salmon and farmed fish as "farmed", implying farmed fish as "not fresh". I am not on the side of the farmers but the sportsmen.

Yoou actually expected a fair report from PBS?

I would expect that they would attempt to make it look as though they were trying to be fair. Same as I would for any other network. I'm disappointed alot when I watch tv.

I don't thik PBS had anything to do with this, but ended up showing it. I could be wrong.

I'd like to see salmon farming succeed, but there were too many facts in this documentry that were pretty straight forward. The industry has a ways to go from the environmental standpoint.

There were a few ideas presented by the farming industry that looked promising, but they were only able to make them work in a small scale operation.

I'd still say it's worth watching, and you don't have to hug a commercial fishermen when it's over! Especially if he's wearing dirty sweats w/ no underwear. Isn't that the uniform?

JD

I thought it was very well done. All sides were represented. But in the end, the anti-farm slant was appropriate given the clearcut environmental and health hazards these mutants pose.

I also thought it was a nice documentary. I caught about 2/3 of the program tonight and am not really surprised by what I heard.

The featured biologists outlined some pretty compelling, hard evidence that these netpens are rapidly degrading the surrounding environment and fish populations. Did you see the sludge underneath the pens on the seafloor? It's sickening. The fact that the operators move their pens now and then because their own frming has degraded the area to the point where they don't even want to be there says alot.
The sealice component of the show was pretty shocking... smolts with a half dozen lice and larvae just becasue they swam in close proximity to the pens.

All this coupled with the impact to shellfish, & Atlantic Salmon out-competeing indigenous wild fish for food and habitat, etc etc. I hope the Canadian and U.S. governments step up and begin performing some major studies on the farming impacts, which would definatley be a required pre-requisite to any reform. Get those studies started now if they are not already underway.

It seemed pretty clear that this program was for the benefit of the commercial fisherman. (personnel take) Although very true, there were many references to the inferior quality of the farmed fish while at the same time complimenting both the commercials and tribes for producing "wild" (we all know the difference between wild and hatchery) salmon.

I am for removing nets from our waters but at this expense the commercial and tribal nets pale in comparison. Keep these damn Atlantics on the other side.

New programs to move fish farms offshore look promising as a way to eleviate the bulk of the problems perceived or real.

The fish farms planned within the 200 mile limit will be set 100 feet below the surface. Maybe some of you should read up on those plans.

It does not matter that they make aqua culture pollution free or not. Industrial fish farming world wide is not just about Salmon. Right now world wide much of the commercial fishing fleets have converted over to fishing for forage fish to feed aqua culture and other industrial farming. Right now there are few if any regulations on this type of commercial fishing. Up to 70 % of the worlds forage fish are being targeted without limitations to feed commercial farming.

We will not have to worry about the saving the worlds top of the food chain fish such as wild salmon if we deplete the forage bio mass as we humans are doing now. Our top of the order fish will starve to death with large chunks of the their food chain depleted.

But hey we will have plenty of cheap shrimp, Cod and salmon from aqua culture to eat until the forage fish population fall to where it can't even feed pen raised sea food..

Land Tuna:

Amen, brother, amen!

Land Tuna,

BINGO.

William

Land Tuna,

The points you raise are good, but ...

Aren't the feed for Hatchery "wild" fish the same as for these fish farm fish?

The documentry confused this issue a bit for me. I understood them to say that fish farming in inefficient because of all the forrage fish required to feed these pen-raised fish.

Well, what do we feed hatchery fish? Or is it just that hatchery fish are in the hatchery only a short period of time. ???

Not clear what side of this argument you are trying to make.

Jeff

Yes, a farmed salmon is held in captivity for much longer than a hatchery smolt. The point is it takes about 5 pounds of table quality fish protein ground into a meal to produce a pound of farmed salmon. At the rate farmed salmon are being mass-produced world-wide, the depletion of forage fish is flat out unsustainable over the long term.

Like said it takes about 5 pounds of forage fish to produce 1 pound of farm fish. I am not sure what it takes in forage fish to produce one pound of wild fish but I'm sure that mother nature has far less waste. An example would be if ocean conditions change and there is a depeltion of forage fish due to warmer ocean conditions then our worlds higher food chain fish such as salmon shortly follow the same path and their numbers naturally decrease untill ocean conditions change again for the better. Mother nature on its own knows how to take care of its self. Fish farming is artificial as it does not care about natural cycels and forage fish will be searched out even in down cycles to feed a shrimp or salmon industry that can remain stable year after year. With little or no restrictions on the commercial forage fish industry world wide then bad ocean conditions will be even more harmfull to wild fish populations than normal because scarce forage fish means higher prices for them and that may mean longer hours commercials fish forage fish but they will because of the higher prices.

Thanks PNP and Land Tuna:

This seems to be a serious strike against this industry in my book.

Prior to watching this documentary, I was hoping that the fish farming industry would succeed and take some of the commercial market pressure off salmon that live in the wild. (Many consumers don't care if their fish is pen raised Atlantic, or wild Coho) But it doesn't look like there is a way to raise these fish that is environmently responsible - even in pens several miles off shore.

The technology exists to get much more efficient conversion of fish meal to farmed salmon.

Using growth enhanced transgenic salmon. They convert feed to body mass much more eficiently than wild fish and reach marketable size in about half the time. I believe they are about to be approved by the FDA for sale in US fish markets.

This could be a good thing provided Land Tuna's concerns about forage fish are addressed before populations crash.

BTW, I don't think that fish meal is the only source of protein that could be used to grow farmed salmon, its just the cheapest. If proper pressure for sustainable farming where placed on the fish farmers, I'm sure they could develop other feeds that were more ecologically sound.


Look at the growth in demand for salmon (and fish in general). It has followed global populations growth which shows no signs of slowing any time soon. Since total salmon harvest appears to be at (or above) sustainable harvest levels in most areas, something has to pick up the slack.
If fish farming can't supply the worlds hunger for salmon, then angling for salmon will continue to decline at the hands of the comercial fishing fleet.

I'm not saying that aquaculture should get a pass, or that it doesn't do damage to the environment. However, I think its the best hope wild fish have in the face of increasing demands for fish. I think we could play a role in helping form public opinion about fish farming. It may not be great for wild fish, but I suspect the alternatives to fish farming are very bleak indeed.

There seems to be an overwhelming negative opinion associated with genetically altered salmon. Even though they grow faster, according to this same documentary, they are less capable of survival in the wild.

So if some escape, (which is probably inevitable), and then mate with wild fish stock, then presumably we have artifically introduced a trait which is bad for the whole species.

I think the book is still out on gene-altered salmon. Probably worth more research before going forward on this track.

The thing that concerns me is that the current DC Administration is about to push a huge aquafarming initiative under the guise of "national security" -- ie we need to protect our food resources. If that happens they could use security as an excuse to bash through a bunch of ill thought out plans. As usual, people are the most scary, and politicians the worst of them all.

There can be no doubt that a significant forage fish biomass is required to grow a wild salmon, but there is far less waste in wild fish consuming natural forage fish when compared to domesticated fish consuming "fish meal."

Every extractive industry is plagued by the human waste factor, and the wreckless mining of the ocean's forage fish to fuel the mass-production of farmed salmon is no exception. Each step in the harvest and processing of this "fish meal" incurs unavoidable waste. Once it has been produced, another element of waste is introduced at feeding time... much of the feed dispersed in the pens goes unconsumed. Such waste does not occur in the wild... fish only consume the amount of forage needed to fuel their metabolism and growth.

The problem with farmed salmon is that they have been reduced to nothing more than a marketable commodity.... they may as well be free-swimming dollar bills corralled into net pens. Every decision regarding their management revolves around maximizing profits out of what the farmer has invested. Funny, that's the same capitalistic worldview that historically got us into so much trouble with our wild salmon stocks.

Wild salmon were also "commodified" as free-swimming cash that returned year after year.... instant wealth virtually free for the taking to anyone willing to make a modest investment.

The key difference is that wild salmon continue to make an incredible contribution to the natural economy... yeah, the so-called eco-system. The nutrients they extract from the ocean's forage are naturally distributed far inland, to fertilize and fuel the coastal and inland ecosystems that we all depend on from California all the way to Alaska. You know, that whole big circle of life thing.

A farmed salmon can't do that... it was never designed to make a contribution to the natural PNW economy. It is merely the product of a purely extractive industry, artificially created to allow the fish-consuming public a year-round supply of "salmon." Is that worth the environmental and biologic hazards associated with the industry. I think not!

Actually, farmed salmon have been a godsend to the rest of the extractive industrial community as well. With the ability to mass produce salmon in the absence of healthy ecosystems (very reminiscent of Jim Lichatowich's Salmon without Rivers), they have free license to continue degrading and destroying what remains of the wild salmon's habitat.

A lot of you guys think that because salmon farming has made such inroads against the commercial fishing industry, that it's a good thing. Think again. Anyone who believes these mutants will somehow help to advance the cause of the angling public is woefully ill-informed.

JUST SAY NO TO FARMED SALMON!

Very well said fishNphysician.
It is understandable that all of us here in the NW are focused on the Salmon Aqua Culture industry. We all at first thought it would be an answer to save wild salmon. One thing we must remember that Salmon Aqua Culture as large of an industry that it is and will become is small in comparrison to other types of aqua culture around the world. I beleive that the shrimp industry is far larger. Throughout South America and SE Asia this industry has become the most devesting thing that has ever happened to our warm water oceans. 80% of the shrimp sold world wide is from Aqua Culture. Shrimp aqua culture is done in the worlds costal mangrove swamps. To make the shrimp pens used in raising farmed shrimp acres of mangrove trees are bulldozed each day. One bulldozed area will only support about 18 months of shrimp growth before the diease factor comes into play due to pollution. The industry just moves on to bulldoze new areas to raise shrimp. The mangrove swamp is the key breeding grounds and natural rearing grounds for the top of the food chain warm water fish and a majority of the worlds forage fish. Reports from some of the central and South American forage fish industry are saying that in the last few years whole spiecies of forage fish have disapeared off shore. That they just never migrated to open ocean because they no longer existed in the first place.

Just one more thing about industrial aqua culture. A lot of us some how think that it can feed the world. This it can not do, the amount of calories used to the amount to be consumed by humans does not fit in the ratio guide lines to make the food inexpensive enough to help feed our worlds problem areas. The best industrial aqua culture can do is bring a moderatly price product to the first worlds middle class income bracket. I'm not sure it's worth it for what it will continue to do no matter how many changes the industry makes. I strongly believe in aqua culture but it has to be localized to feed the population who grows it. That is the only way the calorie to calorie ratio makes sense.