Where the Farmed Things Are

30,000 farmed salmon escape off B.C. coast, endangering wild stocks

Posted at 11:26 AM on 03 Jul 2008

Some 30,000 farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped from their pen off the coast of British Columbia into the Pacific Ocean. Farmed salmon can harm wild salmon stocks -- which are already declining on the west coast -- by competing with them for food as well as spreading disease. In this case, the escaped salmon are also a different species which is not native to the area. A spokesperson for the company that owns the fish farm explains what happened. "One of the anchor lines ... apparently slipped to a low spot on the ocean floor and in so doing pulled down the corner of the cage so much the fish were able to swim out." However, in the fish-farm equivalent of making lemons into lemonade, the farm's spokesdude emphasized the tastiness of the escaped fish if anglers are lucky enough to catch one. "[Anglers] should keep the fish, clean it, and bake in a 400-degree oven with a ginger and green-onion garnish. Then serve with fresh lemon slices," he said. Mmm, tastes like freedom.

source: The Globe and Mail

ADVERTISING POLICY

Comments: (12 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Another Ecological Disaster ...

caused by human greed and selfishness. Because of the ecological harms they cause, there's no legitimate reason that fish farms should ever have been allowed to exist in natural bodies of water in the first place. But of course we must allow "freedom" for business people to do whatever they want, despite the harms to the environment that those freedoms cause.

by Wolverine at 12:59 PM on 03 Jul 2008

More fuel for the fire

Down on THIS side of the 49th parallel we're making it a bit harder to have farm salmon county by county, with exactly this kind of event in mind. Sadly, it'll take quite a few more of these catastrophic failures to force closure of the remaining farms and ban new ones.

by hipifreq at 1:24 PM on 03 Jul 2008

"slipped to a low spot"?!

A low spot indeed! It just goes to show, when it comes to the sea, all kinds of things can unexpectedly go wrong, because we simply do not know what is what, and cannot anticipate. The concept of "sustainable fishery" is a fraud.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 2:25 PM on 03 Jul 2008

Well

I've always said.. You let your anchor line slip, you loose 30,000 fish. It's just words to live by son.

by rythmik1 at 2:55 PM on 03 Jul 2008

Where the Farmed Things Are

Imagine that! Private enterprise made a mistake! That's OK, just laugh it off and post a recipe for those "lucky" enough to snag an escapee.

Can you describe the recrimination that any government agency would have to endure if it allowed such a slip-up to happen?

But then, there is nothing worse than a government that is run by private enterprisers.

Des Emery

by Des Emery at 6:13 PM on 03 Jul 2008

Country Bumpkins See the Big City

Those country salmon won't have a chance when they get a load of those dolled up city salmon.

Obama receives news about McCain VP pic

by jabailo at 12:55 AM on 05 Jul 2008

Happy seals and sharks!

I can only imagine the feast by predators such as seals, sea lions, and sharks. Most of the farmed salmon are a little sickly because of persistent sea lice infections. That issue, sea lice, plus the pollution from all the feed and waste, are what gives aquaculture a bad rap.

I have no idea if escaped farmed salmon could contaminate the wild salmon genetic pool ... where's Suzanna of Oceana when you need her? -sam

Onward through the fog

by Sam Wells at 6:20 PM on 06 Jul 2008

excellent questions, Sammie!

If in fact all the escaped salmon are Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), then one would not expect that they should be able to reproduce with the various Pacific Ocean species.
The crustaceans called "sea lice" seem to flourish especially in the CAFO situation. Now that the salmon are swimming free, let us hope that the sea lice are less of a problem for the general populations of wild Pacific salmon.
Suzannah of Oceana is surely there. You just need to click the heels of your ruby slippers three times, in the right way.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:17 PM on 06 Jul 2008

Cook them up!

Hey, now that we all know the problems posed by farmed fish, I suggest that we send a sustainable midwestern gourmet chef out there to come up with a "Salmon Mousse" recipe that would encourage people to catch these escaped salmon.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 4:58 AM on 07 Jul 2008

farmed salmon poses threats to human health

although the farm's spokesdude tried to play this whole catastrophe off as being tasty, in reality farmed salmon can be dangerous to consumer health. Farmed fish are pumped full of chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics which accumulate in their flesh and often contaminate wild seafood as well.

A really good resource I've found about the implications of fish farms is by the consumer group Food and Water Watch. Hope it's helpful!

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fish/fish-farming

by akgirl at 6:45 AM on 07 Jul 2008

Oh Goody

More to eat

by billgee at 7:09 AM on 07 Jul 2008

Invasive species

Wind/wave/current floating power platforms serving as fish cribs could be used to shunt invasive species into pond nets. Fish tend to gather around habitat that could be extended underwater from these platforms.

In inland and river outlet waters polluted by fertilizer and manure run off and aquatic overgrowth, floating energy platforms that filter overgrowth and turn it into biogas and organic fertilizer could harbor invasive species separation installations.

The webcam equipment that could identify each fish individually swimming through the system could be monitered and operated remotely.

The great lakes region has severe energy, run off/weed overgrowth, and invasive species problems, research could really benefit our aquatic eco-system just in the nick of time.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 7:13 AM on 07 Jul 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?