Sustainable salmon farming in China

Great news from China, the Holy Grail of salmon farming is becomming real. Good news so long as it doesn't replace carp as a Chinese staple.

A new salmon farm in China will grow fish in closed tanks on land, eliminating most environmental concerns about salmon farming. From a pay-only story on Intrafish.com:

"Production levels at AgriMarine Holdings' closed-containment salmon farms in China are not yet high enough to fill orders from China’s supermarket chains, but as the company sets its sites on big contracts, it is seeking further investment.

On Friday, AgriMarine doubled the size of its non-brokered private placement announced Feb. 15, from a maximum of 25 million units to a maximum of 50 million units. It is selling the units at $0.20 (€0.15) each, for total gross proceeds of up to $10 million (€7.4 million). So far, there has been strong interest from investors, AgriMarine Director Sean Wilton told *IntraFish*.

There are strong indicators that AgriMarine's salmon farming operation is poised for strong growth in China, he said."

But there's one problem. China is currently farming the right species, mostly carp, kelp and clams. These plants and herbivores have a very low ecological footprint, and switching to farming of top predators like salmon would dramatically increase the ecological foot print of China's seafood production. So growing a few salmon for Chinese consumers isn't a problem but replacing carp with salmon would be a problem.

Growing demand for salmon produced elsewhere, like Norway and Scotland, shows the value to China of farming salmon at home. Let's hope that China sticks with the traditional low-footprint seafood that currently tops the charts, and smartly produces just a few salmon for an occasional treat.

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Sustainable salmon farming

Is this the answer for sustainable aquaculture? Salmon grown in locked tanks in Montana? With feed low in fish content? Montana's Hutterites are on the cutting edge of aquaculture.

It's an operation developed by SweetSpring, and it's rated super green by Seafood Watch. Sounds good to me, I wonder how their fish taste? I think I'll find one to try.

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Salmon activist goes to court...again

Salmon farming kills...or does it? Time for a judge to decide.

Salmon farmers have decided to sue environmental activist Don Staniford who has been pushing the message that salmon farming kills. Check out the ominous images at right, equating salmon farming and smoking.

Staniford has been successfully sued before, over unproven claims about use of banned chemicals in salmon farming.

Salmon farming has impacts, like all uses of land and resources. But comparing salmon farming to smoking? That's more than a little bit ridiculous.

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Of salmon and sea lice

What's this? Pink salmon are thriving in British Columbia despite salmon farms? I don't know all the facts yet, but I'm curious. And it's worthy of note to see that some salmon are thriving these days, amidst the bad news for salmon elsewhere.

Recently, scientific studies projected extinction for pink salmon due to sea lice (parasite) infestations caused by salmon farms. But now we hear of an historic boom for pink salmon in the Campbell River, an area in British Columbia that is rich with salmon farms. What's going on here? Is there some reason why this pink salmon run is doing so well despite salmon farms nearby?

Meanwhile, sockeye salmon are having trouble elsewhere and that's now being blamed on salmon farms. Here's a response from salmon farmers on this sockeye problem.

What's the truth? It's hard to say, but the best guess is that salmon farming (and sea lice) are not the only cause where salmon are in trouble.

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Wild salmon declines--possible causes

Salmon are in trouble in British Columbia and elsewhere. Is it salmon farming? Pollock trawling? Or what?

I'm not up on all the data, but there are signs of salmon problems from California to Alaska. Not just near salmon farms, and not just where trawlers catch pollock.

The problem has hit sockeye from the Fraser River. But it's also hit salmon from British Columbia all the way to California. Salmon farming has been blamed, but there aren't salmon farms to cause problems all the way to California.

The kings are in trouble in the Yukon River, and pollock trawlers have gotten some heat, but there are disease problems linked to warmer temperatures also causing problems for these fish.

Oh...and there are seabird problems in some of the same areas, British Columbia and the US west coast.

Not sure what to think about all this, but I'm going to focus my worrying on the larger scale issues like ocean warming, either cyclical or CO2 driven.

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