Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The West Coast fishery managers put it to a vote; suffer now or maybe suffer forever. They voted on Thursday to ban salmon fishing for one year hoping a rest will allow the salmon population to recover along the Oregon and California coast.
Two years ago the salmon catch was only at 80% of normal and the Commerce Department estimated the losses then at $16 million. This year with the catch being 0% of normal the losses will be unthinkable.
The loss of the king salmon is being billed as the “catastrophic disappearance” of the famous fish.
6 years ago the Sacramento River and tributaries had more than 800,000 salmon spawning. The predictions for this coming fall are a frightening 50,000. The reason for the vanishing king salmon (chinook) could be a ’sudden lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings. The sudden lack is thought to be caused by ocean temperature changes.
The decline in the salmon isn’t something that happened overnight in spite of the sudden lack of upwelling. There can be problems in the ocean that affect the salmon populations, or problems in the rivers that do the same. This year there are problems in both and that spells catastrophic.
As gas reaches $4.00 a gallon in the U.S. a lovely salmon entree any favorite eatery could reach $40.00 a portion.
This has to be good news for the salmon aquaculture business. For the consumer trying to stay clear of Malachite Green, Ciprofloxacin and Enrofloxacin just to name a few known toxins in aqua-farmed fish this ban on salmon fishing is bad news.
The list of reasons for the down turn in salmon populations could be a foot long. For years juvenile salmon have been turning up in irrigation ditches and in some cases dead juveniles have turned up in fields that are irrigated by those ditches. The laws requiring screens that hold back young salmon have not been enforced and the regulations are not uniform.
Diseases that spread quickly through high density farmed salmon populations can spread to adjacent waters. Some salmon often escape and compromise nearby native salmon habitat.
This news release from the Pacific Fishery Management Council indicates just how bad the situation really is for the salmon population. It also indicates this news came rather suddenly after a very successful rehabilitation of the Chinook previously known as the “work horse”.
Labels: Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin, Global Warming, Malachite Green, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Salmon, aquaculture, upwelling
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Salmon Season Canceled; Oregon and California take steps to protect the species.
Monday, June 11, 2007
What’s in the fish you’re eating?
In aquaculture antibiotics have been used for therapeutic purposes and as prophylactic agents. Nearly all aquaculture operations use antibiotics in some amounts to limit the growth of fungi and bacteria.
Many bacterial species are able to double in numbers every 20-30 minutes. This gives the bacteria a huge advantage when it comes to adaptation. The results are mutations that enable them to survive therapeutic doses of antibiotics, thus becoming resistant. In turn, higher levels of these antibiotics are required to maintain the health of the farmed fish.
Catfish imported from China has been found to contain ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin. These are two powerful antibiotics banned by the FDA for use in human foods. The use of these powerful drugs is playing a major role in the transmission of resistant microorganisms from animals to humans through the food chain.
The US Department of Commerce states, 10 million pounds of Chinese catfish have been imported to the US alone in the fist 6 months of this year. This is up from 4 million pounds to date last year. It would be nearly impossible to check all fish being imported from all over the world.
According to FDA records, ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin have been found in shipments of catfish and basa from China and Vietnam. Shrimp from Vietnam, Venezuela, Thailand and Malaysia have tested positive for the antibiotic chloramphenicol.
Gentian violet and malachite green, anti-fungal or anti-bacterial agents applied to fish grown in tight quarters have also been found in shrimp from Mexico, eel from Taiwan, Vietnamese basa, Chinese eel, talapia and catfish.
A Canadian study in 1992 determined that people who eat fish contaminated with malachite green are at risk for liver tumors. Gentian violet has been linked to mouth cancer. Malachite green is used as a fabric dye as well as a fungicide. The United Kingdom and the US have denied entry of farmed salmon from Chile and Scotland after finding high levels of malachite green in their farm raised salmon.
More inspectors, better laws over imports and the aquaculture business using better practices is not going to be the answer to the growing hazards to our health and the health of our oceans.
We need to restore the health to our Oceans. We need to stop over fishing and give the species that are surviving in the wild time to rejuvenate and replenish.
Advances in commercial fishing techniques have created the unintentional catch of approximately 27 million tons of fish and sea life in the wild that never makes it a table. 27 million tons of unintentional ‘bycatch’ simply discarded.
Food for thought.
Labels: Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin, Malachite Green, Ocean Habitat, antibotics, aquaculture, catfish, genetically altered fish
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Malachite Green, Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin.
