Farmed Salmon Escape

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"The company, Cooke Aquaculture, blamed "exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week's solar eclipse" for the failure of the net pen near Cypress Island."

At Cypress Island there are plenty of tides as high, or higher, than the one experienced during the solar eclipse..pretty much every new moon, every 28 days in fact. I think the company is trying to pull one over on the public.
 
I just saw this on the news this morning. AND, there is a meeting in Sequim about the possibility of an open pen fish farm in the Port Angeles area, inside the bay or outside, either place, (IMHO), BAD idea. Meeting is coming up on the 29th.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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johnr":38xl64q0 said:
"The company, Cooke Aquaculture, blamed "exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week's solar eclipse" for the failure of the net pen near Cypress Island."
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Maybe they just wanted some insurance money to rebuild their farm operation. Remember during Depression how resort lodges were always mysteriously burning down?
 
Should be good fishing. These fish are sterile and pose no threat to local population once they have been released. That is why they farm Atlantic salmon in the pacific. And before some tells me they have been seen making reed beds in stream, that does not mean they are able to breed. Its like when you buy a girl a drink, it dont mean your getting laid.
 
johnr":2skqpgn7 said:
"The company, Cooke Aquaculture, blamed "exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week's solar eclipse" for the failure of the net pen near Cypress Island."
At Cypress Island there are plenty of tides as high, or higher, than the one experienced during the solar eclipse..pretty much every new moon, every 28 days in fact. I think the company is trying to pull one over on the public.
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Agree 100%. Not an especially high tide.
 
starcrafttom":1vfvpciz said:
These fish are sterile and pose no threat to local population once they have been released.... And before some tells me they have been seen making reed beds in stream, that does not mean they are able to breed.
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Not so fast...Uh,uh. No!! Nice try. I saw "Jurassic Park". Nature finds a way...😉JK
 
Starcraftcom,

Why would they be sterile? In the book I read about Atlantic salmon farming there was no mention that they were sterile. How do they sterilize them? The book was written by an author who was paid by the industry to extol the virtues of farmed salmon and sterility would have been a plus.

If I remember, Billy Proctor has a different view, in that the farmed salmon can interbreed with the Pacific salmon. He's the guy in BC who's co-authored a book on his life in the Broughtons, BC and his effort to protect the native salmon.

The operators in BC were Norwegian, with Chilean workers.

Were there changes in the last 5 years?

Boris
 
Like you I saw a show about them and they stated several times that they are not breeder. That way their is not chance of them colonizing the river.

from a 2 second search-ABSTRACT: Genetic interaction between farmed escapees and wild conspecifics represents one
of the major environmental challenges faced by the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry. In order
to mitigate genetic interactions, triploid (sterile) farmed fish can be produced.

more reading here
 
journey on":jl8lex73 said:
Starcraftcom,

Why would they be sterile? In the book I read about Atlantic salmon farming there was no mention that they were sterile. How do they sterilize them? The book was written by an author who was paid by the industry to extol the virtues of farmed salmon and sterility would have been a plus.

The operators in BC were Norwegian, with Chilean workers.

Were there changes in the last 5 years?

Boris
Click to expand...

Agree, Open pen farming in BC waters has done nothing but hurt the wild salmon environment, and the wild salmon population there. Don't know if the fish are sterile, but their affect, detrimental, (the open pen farms) is measurable up there. Why are we letting them into US waters?

Pen farms produce increase in infestations of sea lice, and the wild salmon fry pick up the lice during their migration out to sea.

Billy Proctor and Alexandra Morton would agree. Both are experienced with salmon preservation.

And the tides, Nice try but not proven by records.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
In the book I read about Atlantic salmon farming there was no mention that they were sterile. How do they sterilize them?
Click to expand...

So, first the salmon wives nag and nag and nag, telling the male husband salmon how it's so much an easier "procedure" for them...the male salmon get so tired of the nagging they find a really, really good salmon urologist with really, really teeny, tiny instruments...then the male salmon sit around with bags of frozen peas on themselves...



I kid of course. Farmed salmon tastes like crap. My brother in Hawai'i thinks it's delish. So did I when I lived there,because you can't get anything else. Once I moved up here, that crap never entered our house again.
 
There's been a lot of research and interest in farming sterile triploid Atlantic salmon in the last few years. They're not using those fish everywhere in the industry yet, just a small percentage. What Cooke is farming I don't have a clue, but there's no mention of triploid fish on their website. They do go on about how their superior net technology prevents any escapement and impact on wild stocks :disgust

I can't say how many times I had this discussion with fishing buddies as we trolled past the net pins in the San Juans. The one pin just west of Guemes island was a good spot to catch kings. I just figured they were having some kind of a conjugal visit to the fish inside the pen and would strike our spoon as we passed by. I'm not surprised by this, but am shocked nobody anticipated it except some idiot fisherman trolling by in a c-dory :D
 
Starcrafttom,

I read that article on developing triploid fish. First, it was a study and doesn't guarantee that it's common practice. Second, it says that the triploid males will try to mate with a wild female, which I suppose, result in unfertilized wild eggs. And finally, there were pictures of the triploid males attacking other males.

So, I don't know that those male fish were sterile and I assume there were female fish amongst those which escaped. Altogether a bad scene. I also understand that escaping farmed fish is not uncommon. And fish farming is here to stay, so lets work out the problems, not ignore them. It's coming to San Diego, since there's fish farming in the Coronado Isles.

Boris
 
Environmentally responsible fish farming would be done in tanks on land instead of open pens in the ocean. Waste, (food and fecal), would be disposed of as compost, no salmon lice, and water recycled.

Yes it would cost more, BUT it would be environmentally responsible. (Probably not something the fish farmers care about.)

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Boris agree that the problems are all engineering problems and can be worked out. but with all the escapes, which are common ( this one was uncommon in size) have not resulted in any breeding fish in the rivers. I once caught a Atlantic in lake Washington, did not know what it was at the time. That was 10 years ago.

hardee I have to dis agree with you. the key to better fish farming is more open water future off shore. the main problems are waste and clean water. These can be solved with higher water flows and pens in open water.

lets all remember that fish farming was brought about by the rapping of the resource by commercial fisherman. If they had not fished until the last fish then we would not be in the place we are today. It has happened twice. once in the late 1880s to early 1900's then again in the 50's. that is why we have hatcheries. And it was the environmentalist that campaigned for fish farms as a better way then netting.

Now that the fish farms can produce the same produce for far less money the commercials can not really compete except in Alaska where most of the fishing is near hatcheries returns. So the anti fishing tree hungers have combined with the greedy netters to put fish farms out of business.

It would suit me and the fish we have left if no commercial fishing ever happened again. Farms for the market and I will catch my own. I do not buy fish unless its that place in Victoria, because that stuff is like crack.

You all have a good day worrying about this none event.
 
For those who would like to know more about the realities of farming fish (plus and minus), an excellent documentary was recently done by Frontline entitled "The Fish on my Plate".

I am usually skeptical about such "messing with nature", but I was pleasantly surprised by the many positive aspects of fish farming for the future. It is especially well managed by the Norwegians.
 
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