“The conditions of traditional salmon farms
can only be compared to a floating pig farm”
(UBC biologist Daniel Pauly, October 2015)
The more you know
the better you do.
Frankenstein of Fish (movie not yet rated)
What better date than Friday the 13th of May to show a film on the risks to Puget Sound which net pen salmon farming brings. The film will be shown Friday the 13th of May at 7pm, at the Angus Dei Luther Church (10511 Peacock Hill Ave NW Gig Harbor). It is free to the public, and anyone who is concerned over the political pressures being put on agencies by large and well financed corporations to green light these operations, and what they bring with them, should attend. If you're not too afraid of getting out on Friday the 13th, you will find it to be time well spent. And, it's free.
Grade School Lessons from Lesions
(from Monterey Bay Aquarium site
discussing risks of net pen farming
in open waters)
A better world through antibiotics, pesticides and genetically engineered salmon - or is it?
Industrial production of any species, like an elementary school, is a breeding ground for bacteria. Once one child gets sick, almost everyone gets sick. The response? In the past, a prescription of antibiotics was given and all was well. But now, bacteria resistant to most antibiotics is posing a threat. In the marine environment, concentrated populations - whether salmon or shellfish - begin to present the same opportunity for bacteria to spread. One fish gets sick in the pen, they all get sick. The response? Antibiotics thrown into the water with the feed. The result? Bacteria becoming resistant to not only antibiotics applied, but also bacteria which the natural defense systems of wild and native species are unable to fight off, resulting in issues such as the lesion seen above. Pesticides are used to fight off sea lice, which become pervasive in the closed environment net pens create and then spread to the native species in waters these farms are located in.
No, that's not the kind of shot
the shellfish industry is now talking about.
Has your oyster been immunized?
It's just a phage we're going through and no, we don't know what the next problem will be, but $500,000 will help with the old one.
Salmon "farmers" are not the only ones interested in controlling the environment. Shellfish farmers are also an industrial group which uses the marine habitat having problems they feel should be dealt with through modern medicine. In the case of oysters, Food Safety News recently wrote about a number of vibrio bacteria threatening the economic health of the industry and the health of those who consume oysters. In 2008, Vibrio tubiashii was blamed for the deaths of oyster larvae in hatcheries. The cause of death then evolved into ocean acidification being the problem. After hundreds of thousands were spent on monitoring and filtering equipment for the industry, Vt is again being described as the problem larvae are having. The USDA has awarded $500,000 to commercialize of a "cocktail" of bacteriophages to deal with Vt., this following a $99,000 award in 2013. Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus, both present threats to human health if contracted and are both naturally occurring bacteria. The former is pervasive in Puget Sound during warmer summer months and the latter having been found present in recent years. Vv is prevalent in the warmer Gulf waters during the summer and causes death in ~50% of those who contract it and is expected to become a growing problem as the waters of Puget Sound continue to become warmer. Both Vp and Vv forms of bacteria are contracted primarily from consuming raw oysters.
No, that's not a hot dog
you want to eat.
"Fear can drive people away from a product"
No kidding.
Oysters dipped in a bacteriophage soup
As noted in Food Safety News, $500,000 is now available to see if "bacteriophages" are able to be commercialized to control Vt, and perhaps other forms of bacteria causing the shellfish industry economic hardships. How those will be administered is still unknown, but in Seafood Safety News, Bill Dewey, with Taylor Shellfish, suggested a "live seawater oyster-holding system with the phages in it" as one possibility. Whether there would be a risk of the concentrated phages being discharged into the waters of Puget Sound, and what risk to native species there may be, was not discussed.
Better fish through
genetic manipulation.
The Frankenstein of fish.
Big fish cause big problems which Puget Sound cannot afford.
Friday the 13th of May you are invited to see a film on net pen salmon farming and all it brings with it. Whether it be sea lice having to be dealt with through the application of pesticides or bacterial infections dealt with through the application of antibiotics or possibly bacteriophages, the waters and habitat of Puget Sound with its native species are far more important than the profits of a few.
