tagged w/ fish farming
-
Renown Salmon biologist Alexandra Morton- flanked by former BC Environment Minister Rafe Mair, Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler, and First Nations leaders- drew attention outside the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's Vancouver office last week to the federal agency's failure to protect wild salmon stocks from the impacts of open net pen salmon farms on BC's coast. Morton highlighted a memo unearthed by the Cohen Judicial Inquiry into collapsing sockeye stocks that reveals DFO's public relations work on behalf of the Norwegian salmon farming industry to counter negative public opinion on the farms.
Morton is currently spearheading a campaign to make salmon a federal election issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pu7NAjAgdI&feature=player_embedded
www.votesalmon.caRenown Salmon biologist Alexandra Morton- flanked by former BC Environment Minister... more
-
-
-
-
-
Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry
by Vancouver Documentary Film maker Damien Gillis (Part 1 of 4 part Series)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZBbYzyuwF0Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry
by... more
-
-
The extinction of bluefin tuna is getting closer daily as idiots seek to trap the last wild fish.
"Tuna then are both a real thing and a metaphor. Literally they are one of the last big public supplies of wild fish left in the world. Metaphorically they are the terminus of an idea: that the ocean is an endless resource where new fish can always be found. In the years to come we can treat tuna as a mile marker to zoom past on our way toward annihilating the wild ocean or as a stop sign that compels us to turn back and radically reconsider."The extinction of bluefin tuna is getting closer daily as idiots seek to trap the last... more
-
-
Take a deep breath and imagine the oceans.... This disturbing video is a short Greenpeace documentary outlining the threats that humans pose to our oceans and a proposal for what we ALL can do to help restore their health.Take a deep breath and imagine the oceans.... This disturbing video is a short... more
-
-
Environmental groups have criticised plans for the establishment of Scotland's first offshore salmon farms. They say building farms in the open sea only moves the problem of a threat to wild fish stocks farther out.
Marine Harvest wants to establish the new farms as part of a GBP 40 million (EUR 43.3 million) project for its Scottish operations. European demand for Scottish salmon has been rising by 6-8 per cent per year.
The move might mitigate concerns about the adverse environmental impact of its existing aquaculture farms, most of which are located in sea lochs. Farmed salmon waste has been accused of contaminating inland waters and disseminating fish disease, The Times reports.
“We are unconvinced by these plans. Farming of carnivorous fish is unsustainable as an industry because it relies on a greater input of fish product than the salmon it produces, roughly 5kg of feed for 1kg of fish,” explained Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
“Moving farms offshore as a means of reducing pollution just moves the problem further out at a time when our seas are under grave threat from climate change. We will be interested to see what the environmental impact assessments find,” he said.Environmental groups have criticised plans for the establishment of Scotland's... more
-
-
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Vancouver Saturday, asking the government of Canada to do more to protect wild salmon, specifically to ban open-net salmon farms.
Organized by a group called Wild Salmon Circle, the event in Vancouver drew an estimated 600 or more people. The rally was held because the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has been largely silent on the collapse of the Sockeye salmon fishery. Many biologists and fishermen link the collapse of the salmon to fish farms. Farmed salmon are thought to be the source of sea lice infestations, which is believed to be the reason for the loss of about 9 million Sockeye salmon. Of the over 10 million Sockeye expected to return for spawning this fall, only 1.7 million came back.
At the rally yesterday, the Wild Salmon Circle urged the the public to boycott farmed fish. Biologist Alexandra Morton, who earlier this year expressed hope that wild salmon would be protected by the DFO because the agency is "mandated to put wild salmon first." helped organize yesterday's rally. Speaking at the rally, Morton called for an inquiry into the decline of the salmon. Morton and others were also demanding that the DFO ban open net salmon farms, which are seen to be a key source of contamination for wild salmon.
There has been no federal response to the collapse of the Sockeye fishery, nor the demands to limit the types of salmon farms. Salmon farms, largely owned by non-Canadians, have been a contentious issue for years. Experts and fisherman have accused Minister of the DFO, Gail Shea, of ignoring the salmon crisis whilst courting Norwegian aquaculture businesses earlier this summer when the Sockeye run collapsed. Fish farms have long been viewed as risky to native fish.Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Vancouver Saturday, asking the government of... more
-
-
The End of the Line, directed by Rupert Murray, on release from 8 June
"BEAUTIFUL" and "vast" are words that come to mind when thinking of the world's oceans. "Inexhaustible" is another, which might explain why we think it is fine to plunder them for our dinner plates.
The End of the Line is a powerful wake-up call for anyone who heads straight to the menu's fish section. It documents how overfishing is decimating the oceans, and makes alarming predictions about how fish stocks might look in 30 years' time.
Adapted from the book by Charles Clover, the film opens with stunning footage of our reefs and oceans. Unusual camera angles explore fishing nets from the inside out. The film follows Clover as he asks top restaurants why they still serve critically endangered species like bluefin tuna, and speaks to industry whistleblowers about how our love of fish is driving some species to the brink of extinction.
This is investigative journalism at its best. More importantly, it is an engaging film that provokes anger and sadness in equal measure. Anger at the greed of multinational companies who seem intent on catching as many tuna as they can before stocks run out, and at the politicians who do little to stop them by setting their fishing quotas well above what scientists recommend. Sadness, too, at the loss of species, and the wasted by-catch casually tossed back into the sea.
end of excerpt
more at this link:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227112.600-the-end-of-the-line-plenty-of-fish-in-the-sea.htmlThe End of the Line, directed by Rupert Murray, on release from 8 June... more
-
-
The USDA requires that feed for cows, chickens and the like be 100 percent organic. But under the fish standard, non-organic feed initially would constitute up to 25 percent of the diet of an organically raised fish.The USDA requires that feed for cows, chickens and the like be 100 percent organic.... more
-
-
Salmon aquaculture is devastating the world's oceans and an international coalition of scientists, Canadian First Nations and tourism operators have called for a global moratorium.
"We've seen a regional collapse of all sea life in the 20 years since the salmon farms moved in," said Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwicksutaineuk Ah-kwa-mish Canadian First Nation in the province of British Columbia on Canada's west coast.
Scientific studies have linked sharp declines in wild salmon populations in British Columbia to disease and parasites originating in open-ocean salmon farms. Millions of non-native salmon have escaped ocean net-pens in Chile and have become an invasive species, transforming the ecology of local river systems.
There is little debate that salmon aquaculture is both unsustainable and environmentally destructive. Three or more kilogrammes of wild fish is needed to produce one kilo of farmed salmon. The ocean bottoms under and around the open-ocean net pens are usually devoid of any life, buried under the excrement of up to a million salmon overhead.
"Salmon farm 'shadows' can extend three or four kilometres depending on the current," said Wolfram Heise, director of the marine conservation programme at the Fundación Pumalin (Pumalin Project), a private conservation initiative in Chile.
These shadows are dead zones where there is nothing but mud and faeces along the bottom of the ocean. "Oxygen levels in the water are so depleted it sometimes forces the farms to move to new locations," Heise told IPS from Puerto Varas, located 1,000 kilometres south of Santiago.
Like land-based factory farms where far too many animals are being raised in confined quarters, heavy doses of antibiotic drugs and hormones are fed to the fish. Despite this, a potent virus swept through Chile's salmon farms last year and has cut production in half. Unable to stem the outbreak, the farms simply moved to new locations hundreds of kilometres away, abandoning their local employees and the contaminated waters and seabed.
On Canada's west coast scientists have connected the decline in wild salmon stocks to the region's 100-plus salmon farms. After publishing their research in the prestigious journal Science, marine biologists warned that one wild salmon species will be extinct by 2011 because of infestations of parasites that originate in salmon farms. More than 80 percent of the annual pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago, 300 kms north of the city of Vancouver, has been killed by these parasites since 2001.
North America's northwest coast is home to several species of wild salmon that remain one of the natural wonders of the world and are a key part of the coastal ecosystem. After spending two or more years feeding in the open ocean, they return to their natal streams and rivers to spawn and die. Many species, including eagles, bears and wolves, feed on the dying or dead salmon. They also bring large quantities of salmon carcasses into forests, which decay, enriching the soil and feed many plants, including the region's giant red cedars and sitka spruce trees.Salmon aquaculture is devastating the world's oceans and an international... more
-
-
Groups Join Together in Exposing Problems With Farmed Salmon & Call on Supermarkets to Change
"Sea lice has the capacity to literally bring (wild salmon) populations to extinction. This is basic ecology."
http://www.farmedsalmonexposed.org/
Released as part of the Global Week of Action (October 20-25, 2008), In a Nutshell - The Problems with Salmon Farms in BC is a new online video that takes viewers up Canada’s Pacific coast to experience the devastating role salmon farms are playing in the decline of wild salmon and the degradation of coastal ecosystems resulting from these losses.
The video is a collaboration by filmmaker Twyla Roscovich: http://www.callingfromthecoast.com/ and the Pure Salmon Campaign.
CAAR is calling on consumers to take a moment to watch this video and put your buying power to work by telling the management of your supermarket why you’re concerned about open net-cage salmon farming. We want to encourage managers to ask their suppliers for more sustainable products, and help protect wild salmon by supporting closed containment.
And we've done the homework for you: just find your major grocery chain and send them an email: http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/page/supermarkets
Watch the new video & send an email!Groups Join Together in Exposing Problems With Farmed Salmon & Call on... more
-
-
Johnny Bell takes a look at the issue of aquaculture when he visits Kona Blue, a fish farm of the future, where kampachi are raised for fancy restaurants all over the U.S.
Produced By: Evan B. Stone & Carrie PyleJohnny Bell takes a look at the issue of aquaculture when he visits Kona Blue, a fish... more
-
-
jbell
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
