Guest guest Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 ***************************Advertisement*************************** TechCentral http://star-techcentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my) URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/1/13/features/6869568 & sec=f\ eatures ________________________ Tuesday January 13, 2004 A fishy endeavour By JEFF BERNARD Salmon farming, long criticised for pollution problems, struggles to green its act, JEFF BERNARD reports. WHEN it & #8217;s feeding time at Humphrey Rock, British Columbia, oily brown pellets engineered for size, sink rate, nutrition, and medication spray out of computer-controlled hoses to 600,000 swirling and jumping Atlantic salmon. Standing on floating net pens, workers watch intently through underwater cameras, speeding the feeding rate when the fish swim faster and closer to the surface, slowing it when the fish swim deeper and slower. The idea is to feed the fish as much as they will eat for maximum growth without letting any feed fall through to the bottom. “You & #8217;re playing them like a piano,” said Rocky Boschman, manager of Stolt Sea Farm Inc & #8217;s Humphrey Rock facility. “It takes a person five to six months to get a handle on it. It & #8217;s the most important thing we do.” British Columbia has some 85 salmon farms rotating through 125 sites, nearly all of them around the remote western end of Vancouver Island. They produced 70,000 tons of salmon in 2002, 80% of it exported to the United States. When British Columbia lifted a seven-year moratorium on new aquaculture sites last year, the industry looked forward to a major expansion to feed an aging US population seeking heart-healthy foods. However, high prices that marked the late 1990s have turned disastrously low, putting the industry into a global shakeout that has caused millions of dollars in losses and made every feed pellet count. Meanwhile, stricter new environmental regulations have slowed federal and provincial government approval of new sites. Environmentalists in the United States and Canada joined forces in a boycott campaign to pressure salmon farmers to get greener. And Indian tribes are in court challenging the right of the government to put farms in waters that they claim for their own, arguing the fish farms threaten wild salmon. “This business is not for the faint of heart,” said Dale Blackburn, vice president for West Coast operations for Stilt Sea Farm, generally considered British Columbia & #8217;s biggest salmon farmer and one of the top four in the world. Salmon farms in British Columbia began in the 1970s as mom-and-pop operations dotted around coastal inlets. When US wild salmon runs crashed in the early 1990s, international conglomerates controlling the industry filled the gap. Salmon turned from a seasonal treat to a global commodity. According to H.M. Johnson & Associates & #8217; 2003 report on the US seafood industry, salmon farms produced 1.4 million tons in 2002, 60% of world supply. Norway led with 530,000 tons, followed by Chile, Britain, Canada, the United States, and Japan. The US imported 118,000 tons as salmon grew to the third most popular seafood in the country, after shrimp and tuna. Most of it came from Chile, poised to overtake Norway as the world leader. After the heady days of the late 1990s, rapid expansion in Chile has been widely blamed for driving down prices, sending the industry into a tailspin. As the industry grew, so did environmental problems. The first was waste. Tons of fish faeces and uneaten food settling on the bottom beneath anchored net pens created dead zones of depleted oxygen and few plants or animals. Seals and sea lions broke through the nets to prey on the captive fish, allowing millions of Atlantic salmon to escape. Biologists feared the Atlantics would pass disease to Pacific salmon, interbreed, and push the natives out of scarce habitat. Established runs of Atlantics were reported in two rivers. The feed, based on ground-up fish such as mackerel and anchovies, was questioned by scientists who feared it concentrated contaminants such as cancer-causing PCBs and depleted the oceans of prey for wild fish. A lawsuit in Washington forced grocery stores to label farmed fish as containing a dye, given through the feed to turn the flesh pink without crustaceans in the natural diet. The latest issue is sea lice. A half-dozen lice on the tail of an adult wild salmon tells a chef it is fresh from the sea. But that many on each of the 600,000 fish at a salmon farm can broadcast millions of larvae into surrounding waters, where they can attach to tiny young salmon migrating to the ocean. Stolt environmental manager Clare Backman said a combination of market forces, government regulation, and environmentalists have pushed salmon farms to get better. Farms lie fallow a year or more to allow wastes to dissipate. Stronger nets keep out seals. Better infection-control minimises disease outbreaks and reduces the need for antibiotics. As fish meal prices rise, feed producers look for plant materials, such as canola oil, reducing demand on the ocean food web. Environmentalists, Indian tribes, and salmon farms are still fighting over the sea lice. Biologist Alexandra Morton argues that sea lice swarming around farms in the Broughton Archipelago amount to a lethal gauntlet for tiny pink salmon smolts migrating to the ocean. Four tribes are suing Stolt and Heritage Salmon Ltd, blaming them for precipitous declines in pink salmon. Stolt & #8217;s Blackburn countered that sudden population crashes are typical of the pink salmon, and the scientific evidence on sea lice and young salmon, largely from Europe, is inconclusive. Moving salmon farms onto land or exchanging fibreglass tanks for net pens in the ocean, as environmentalists want, would solve most of the problems. But prices would have to double or triple to cover the high cost of pumping water, said Backman. Dissatisfied with government regulation, environmental groups have taken out ads in the New York Times and held demonstrations in front of grocery stores urging consumers to boycott farmed salmon, arguing they are tainted by chemicals, antibiotics, and dyes. Recognising that consumers want greater assurances for food safety and sustainability than government regulation, the industry will begin establishing criteria for independent certification this spring, said Yves Bastien, Canada & #8217;s commissioner for aquaculture development. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives concluded in a report for environmentalists that salmon farms are still a bad deal: jobs are limited, taxes generated may not cover the cost of regulation, and they threaten sport and commercial fishing, fish processing, and tourism, each of which generate more money. & #8211; AP<p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. 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