A company called Aqua Bounty is developing advanced-hybrid fish. 'Average'-Hybrids just aren't good enough anymore. The new 'avanced-hybrids' come in the form of salmon, trout, and talapia broodstocks.
These fish are "engineered to grow faster than traditional broodstock. The Patented fish, called AquAdvantage (tm), were developed to reach market size twice as fast and convert their feed into body mass 10-30 times more efficiently than normal fish.
Aqua Bounty thinks their new 'super fish' will decrease fish waste and use their food more efficiently. Less time in the tank automatically means less waste in the water. The faster the fish grows to market size the fewer meals it needs to eat. With luck they will also grow faster than those pesky diseases known to affect aquaculture's farmed, pen grown fish.
These fish can be grown efficiently inland which will also mitigate the need for more expensive "consequential ocean pens." The fish are also neutered so there is no threat of interbreeding with native populations. I wonder if each little fish gets a vasectomy or a tubal ligation. That sounds pretty labor intensive. Maybe these fish are 'engineered' to be sexless. Maybe engineering creates a 'happy accident' of non-gendered fish.
At any rate, finding faster ways to provide food for an ever expanding population will turn out to be part of our salvation or part of our destruction.
Maintaining the status quo won't solve the increasing problem of how to feed the world's increasing population. It isn't clear yet what increased and unintended problems we will be creating. Only time will tell and time is running out on a hungry world.
Labels: Aqua Bounty, aquaculture, genetically altered fish, gentically modified, Salmon, trout
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Touting the Virtues of Trout. Super fish may become the new Super Hero.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Wednesday, April 23, 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: aquaculture, Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin, Global Warming, Malachite Green, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Salmon, upwelling
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Salmon Season Canceled; Oregon and California take steps to protect the species.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Saturday, April 12, 2008
ISAV, infectious salmon anemia virus was first reported in Norway in 1984. In Norway the virus was thought to be controlled by biocontainment measures.
In January 2000 with health certifications the ban of sea water in smolt farms along with transportation vehicle hygiene and regulations on fish slaughterhouses ISAV was reduced. A paper written by Dr. Eric Anderson, at the University of Maine said, "despite these efforts, ISAV is now endemic in Norway and will pose an on going problem to the industry."
Today the NYtimes is reporting that ISAV is killing millions of salmon being farmed off the waters of Chile. Dr. Felipe C. Cabello, at New York Medical College in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in Valhalla says," Parasitic infections, viral infections, fungal infections are all disseminated when the fish (north atlantic salmon) are stressed and the centers are too close together." Cabello thinks all these problems are "related to an underlying lack of sanitary controls."
The NYtimes is reporting that high levels of antibiotics have been used in the aquafarming of salmon in recent years stemming from a rash of nonviral illnesses from which the fish were suffering. Some of those antibiotics are prohibited in use on animals in the U.S.
The Times article says 29 percent of Chilean salmon is destined to reach the U.S. in spite of those bans. In Chili there is still no registry to track the use of banned drugs on the fish landing in the U.S. or anywhere else.
Apparently the vast majority of salmon infected with the disease end up in Costco and Safeway stores as well as other major outlets in the U.S.
No one wants to hear is that the Salmon she has been buying at Costco is infected with anything. The second least favorite thing to hear is that due to sanitary conditions the fish has been pumped full of antibiotics.
Environmentalists are saying that salmon farms are contributing to the deadzones in the oceans. Salmon feces and food pellets are stripping the water of oxygen.
The O.E.C.D.,Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in a 2005 said Chile's aquafarming needs to get a grip on approximately 1 million salmon that escape each year from aquafarms and excessive use of antibiotics and the use of fungicides like green malachite
control the use of fungicides like green malachiteand the excessive use of antibiotics.
Photo Santiagotimes
Labels: aquaculture, Chile, Malachite Green, Salmon
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
ISAV, infectious Salmon Anemia Virus. What's in the Salmon you eat?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Thursday, March 27, 2008
South Korea's Government faces accusations that it acted too slowly in its response to the horrible oil spill that happened on Friday. Perhaps the slowness isn't in the time it took the government to respond to the accident on Friday, but the time it has taken to respond to the increased maritime traffic in the area.
South Korea's ports are heavily traveled with cargo vessels ladened with exports, and other ships bringing in fuel and imported goods. Traffic control in the heavily traveled Yellow Sea will no doubt undergo some heavy scrutiny.
Investigators looking into what may have gone wrong before Friday's accident that left three holes in the Hebei Spirit. The single hulled tanker lost approximately 66,000 barrels of crude oil. It's amazing that three of her 6 cargo holds were punctured.
The crane barge, the Samsung No.1 and it's tug were reportedly not where they belonged for more than an hour before the collision took place. It is also rumored today that cables and connections had not been inspected before the tug began towing the more than 11,000 ton crane back to Samsung Heavy Industries from Incheon.
The government has promised 5.9 billion won (6.4 million dollars) will be available immediately to help local fisherman and business owners cope with the economic hardships that have already begun due to the oil spill.
Beaches are being fouled and aqua-farms are wiped out. Fishermen at Uihangri village, are saying "It is a complete disaster," Tourism, which brings in more than 20 million tourists a year to the area, will be finished for quite some time putting financial hardship on hotels and restaurants. Many business owners are afraid they won't survive even with sate funds to help out.
The oil has hit destroyed more than 180 aqua-farms in the area and 14 beaches. The farms grow abalone, oysters, littleneck clams and sea cucumbers.
Photo Thanks Nytimesonline slideshow
Labels: aquaculture, Hebei Spirit, oil spill, oil tanker, South Korea
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Lack of Sea 'Traffic Control' May Be One Cause Of Friday's Environmental Disaster: Oil spill in the Yellow Sea
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, December 10, 2007
All is lost.
After swooping in and killing the entire stock of 120,000 mature salmon at the Glenarm Bay organic aqua farm belonging to Northern Salmon Company. Although this was a devasting blow, the company still had young salmon at Red Bay which would have reached maturity in autumn 2008. The company thought they may be able to hang on until then, but that is no longer the case. All is now lost.
The jellyfish took their plundering directly to the juvenile salmon aqua farm at Red Bay days later and wiped them out as well.
According to Mark McCaughan, the Chief Fisheries Officer, Department of Agriculture Northern Ireland "It's an unusual natural phenomenon which is unprecedented in Northern Ireland."
Nothing could have prevented the attack.
The jellyfish surrounded the salmon cages by the billions, blocking tide movement, the salmon were stung and asphyxiated. Dead dead dead. Now the 120,000 200 tonnes of mature salmon will be sent to Co. Meath to be incinerated presumably the same fate will meet the juvenile salmon from Red Bay as well.
The Queen's 80th birthday party guests were served Glenarm salmon. It was said to be one of the highlights of her birthday banquet. The Glenarm salmon had been gaining world wide fans of the product said to be simply the best. The product was making great inroads toward placing Northern Ireland on the map with delectable food stuffs for export.
The density of the jellyfish was such that 3 boats sent by Northern Salmon Co. to attempt a rescue were unable to move through the billions of jellyfish. The attack lasted nearly 7 hours with the jellyfish covering an area in the sea of 10 square miles and they were 35 feet deep.
These jellyfish which are Mauve Stingers can grow to be 10cm in diameter.
Jellyfish have been creating more and more problems in the past few years. Scientists say millions of Juvenile jellyfish have been swept into unfamiliar neighborhoods by unusually strong Atlantic Currents maybe caused by the changing climate.
In 2005 a swarm of jellyfish collected in a Swedish nuclear reactor's cooling system prompting the Oskarshamn plant to shut down one of its 3 reactors. The plant cools its reactors with water from the Baltic Sea.
In Orange County California Millions of jellyfish appeared as if by magic or as fire Capt. Jim Turner in Newport Beach put it "like Mary Poppins" in 2005 also. California jellyfish seam to be more laid back than their marauding cousins in the Atlantic.
The species that hit the California coast were 'giant black jellyfish. Giant compared to what? They had a canopy about 3 feet wide, and their tentacles were reaching up to 12 feet in length.
At the time scientists had only even known of this species for about 10 years, so they took the opportunity to catch and study these guys. Dennis Kelly, head of the Marine Science Department at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, speaking in Californese said "This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime-like-thing."
Japanese fishermen have been dealing with the Jumbo Jellyfish problem which started in 2002. Oddly there isn't a culinary market for these Jumbo Jellyfish and one wonders why Japan hasn't made an effort to turn peoples buns toward jellyfish on a kaiser roll instead of whale meat.
China has had its own problems with jellyfish invasions too.
Photo thanks and notes. Belfast Telegraph
Labels: aquaculture, Climate Change, jellyfish, nuclear, open water aquaculture
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Marauding Band of Jellyfish Wipes Out Entire Stock of Salmon in Northern Ireland.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, November 26, 2007
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle!
In Australia a company called Clean Seas Tuna Limited is attempting to breed the highly sought-after Bluefin Tuna in captivity.
For the Tuna this may be a little like trying to get drunk on Sherry. It can be done, but it's a lot of work, and probably not very satisfying. But, for the sushi and sashimi eater it could be very satisfying.
In 2003 researchers near Osaka Japan became the first in the world to successfully spawn southern Bluefin tuna in captivity. They were able to grow that generation of fish to the point where some actually produced their own eggs.
Remember how excited the world was when the first Panda Bears actually bred in captivity? This, for a lot of people is something like that.
In 2004 Marcus Stehr, Clean Seas Tuna Limited, was able to successfully move 6 Bluefin tuna from offshore nets into an onshore dam. At the time Clean Seas Tuna may have been the only company to even attempt such a thing, let alone succeed.
In April 2007 Clean Seas Tuna's Bluefins started pairing up. Marcus Stehr be lived this to be one more milestone moving toward his quest. The Bluefins were very healthy and they were showing spawning tendencies. The captive tuna's were also very healthy eaters.
Showing signs of wanting to breed, and having a healthy appetite sounds like the tuna aren't too depressed with their situation. Maybe fish Viagra keeps their spirits high.
In the Clean Seas' Arno Bay Breeding facility male Bluefins were given hormone therapy to stimulate their 'need to breed'. Again, maybe like trying to get drunk on Sherry, as I recall the Panda's were shown some X rated Panda films. What ever does the trick I suppose. Though the release of sperm by the Southern Bluefin Tuna was captured on film by an underwater video camera.
How are the females responding to all this courtship behaviour? Hagen Stehr Clean Seas Chairman says the broodstock will continue to be monitored and the therapy potentially repeated, with the expectation of completing their reproductive maturation and producing viable (fertilised) eggs.
If all of this turns out to be really successful the Bluefin in the wild may be given a chance to get a little R&R. While they rest up maybe their Bluefin Brethern in captivity can help shoulder the burden of supplying at least some of the world the protein it so desperately craves.
Oh please, someone pass me the Sherry!
Photo thanks (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
Labels: aquaculture, Bluefin Tuna, bycatch, Longline Fishing, Ocean
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle. Home, home on the Range.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Friday, July 27, 2007
What kind of applications are there for deep seawater? It would seem there is nothing this water can't enhance, change into or be used 'for'.
So how deep is 'deep seawater' and what could it be used for? Deep sea water is located at a depth of generally lower than 200 meters. It takes about 2,000 years for this water to circle the globe.
Once it was discovered that, for example, the Japanese would pay up to $33.50 for a single bottle of desalinated deep seawater all kinds of people started jumping on the deep seawater pipeline.
The NELHA upwells a mind boggling 88,000 metric tones of the stuff per day. Japan has started several deep seawater projects as well as Norway.
Once the attributes of this water were discovered, the race was on to develop new ways to exploit its properties. Can we develop new industires based around this here to fore unexploited resource?
Ice-cold deep seawater was found to be advantageous in the aquaculture of cold-water species unable to be farmed in tropical seawater climates. Other aquaculture benefits are deep seawater increases the ability to grow cold water organisms, disease control and it contains few viruses and pathogenic bacteria.
Other applications could be used in the food industry, in medical treatment facilities, and even cooling water for power stations.
The demand for this water is growing as private companies are inventing new uses for it. Commercial fisheries often don't take their catch directly to market, holding it until prices go up. The need to keep fish alive and in sanitary conditions is another use for deep seawater.
The ease at which water temperatures can be controlled by mixing surface water with the cold deep seawater is another benefit being touted. How can further changing the surface temperatures of the sea be a good thing?
This up-welled water is even being run through pipes underground to cool the temeratures of soil. Cold weather crops such as spinach can be grown in parts of the world where it was never intended to be grown by nature.
This up-welled deep seawater accounts right now for only .05% of all water in the ocean, but it supports nearly 50% of all sea products being manufactured.
The prospect of pulling this water up and sending it all over the earth to cool homes, soil and even power plants sounds like a tricky idea to me. Growing fish and crops in places they were never intended to be grown sounds like a bad idea to me.
Yes, we need to find new ways of sustaining life on the planet, but what will be the unintended consequences of using these methods?
Only time will tell if man will become his own bycatch.
Photo thanks OceanBoy Farms/Marine Photobank
Labels: aquaculture, bycatch, Deep seawater, Japan, NELHA, Ocean
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Will Deep Seawater Systems Produce a New Kind of Bycatch?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Longline Fishing is said to be one of the most efficient methods of killing unintended sea life by commercial fisheries.
These lines can stretch for 50 miles. In some cases up to 3,500 hooks are baited per day. Longlines aren't discriminating when it comes to what they catch either.
In the course of a year more than 4 million creatures are the unintentional bycatch of these longlines. This bycatch includes whales, dolphins, sea turtles and porpoises. Sea lions can also fall victim to the longlines.
Longline fishing has killed approximately 65,000 albatross and Southern Giant Petrels, in just the last 20 years, in the waters off of New Zealand. Longline fishing is a huge threat to these petrels.
Longline fishing is used to catch the bluefin tuna among other types of fish.
Diving birds, like the petrels, plunge into the ocean to grab a morsel of bait and are then hooked and pulled under the sea to their death.
There are method being employed by some to mitigate bycatch of some types of sea birds. Weights attached to lines can cause them to sink faster thereby taking the bait out of the petrels view. Streamers attached to the lines may also scare some of the birds away from the bait. Setting lines at night can also decrease the attraction to birds. But, these methods of mitigation don't address other species in the bycatch such as sea turtles.
In what seems to be an unimaginable or at least surreal scene they bycatch is tossed back into the ocean either dead or dying.
On the other hand, the bluefin tuna once caught on the longlines are very carefully 'KILLED with a SPIKE to the head'. The crew will gently lift the catch wearing gloves to protect the bluefin 'gold'. Blankets and grass mats are used to protect the fish from bruising.
How can mankind be so cruel?
With the advent of bluefin aquaculture maybe flooding the market with more tuna will bring down the prices. If prices are lower maybe it will become economically unfeasible to continue longling fishing.
Photo thanks to Lucy Kemp / Marine Photobank
Labels: aquaculture, Bluefin Tuna, bycatch, Longline Fishing, Petrels
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Longline Bycatch is a Cruel Way to Die
posted by Pacific Spirit on Tuesday, July 10, 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: antibotics, aquaculture, catfish, Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin, genetically altered fish, Malachite Green, Ocean Habitat
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Malachite Green, Ciprofloxacin, Enrofloxacin.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, June 11, 2007
Is the common sense of a fifth grader what we are lacking?
Has the time come to ask our elected officials "are you smarter than a fifth grader" finally arrived?
It may be obvious to a fifth grader that eating genetically altered fish is probably a bad idea. The introduction of non-native species of fish into local habitat might sound like a bad idea too. It also seems that trying to keep fish contained in open water might be an expensive and dangerous folly.
Florida has taken steps to protect its coastal waters against the damaging consequences of accidental introduction of non-native, and genetically altered fish from Aquaculture.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services last week finalized some strict rules governing non-native, genetically altered and open water aquaculture. Florida has already felt the sting of non-native fish escaped from aqua farms in the past. Now well-established, non-native species such as the spotted talapia, some types of catfish and the oscare are only a few species that have established themselves in the coastal waters of Florida.
Farming non-native and genetically engineered fish in the open waters of our oceans should never be allowed. Regardless of what type of pens or nets the aqua farmers install, there is no foolproof way of containing fish. Some of these fish will always escape. Non-native fish will forever alter the Eco-systems and damage natural, local fish populations.
Lack of common sense is running ramped regarding aquaculture in open waters across the globe. Hazards to the Eco-systems of the oceans are well documented, but little is known of the future potential hazards of consuming genetically altered fish by humans.
As the population of the earth burgeons, feeding that population becomes a huge challenge. However large that challenge, there is no reason for common sense to evacuate the planet.
If you have, or know someone with a fifth grader at home ask him or her their opinion on this subject. We just may find out the only thing smarter than a fifth grader is another fifth grader.
*photo:www.olemiss.edu
Labels: aquaculture, Are you smarter than a fifth grader, genetically altered fish, open water aquaculture
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Tuesday, June 05, 2007
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