Salmon farmers have to convert their open salmon pens to closed-containment systems in five years--at least that's the recommendation approved by the aquaculture committee of the British Columbia government last week. Not suprisingly, salmon farmers are outraged at the proposition.
The B.C. legislature's sustainable aquaculture committee voted 5-4 to recommend the province become the world leader in developing alternative methods to growing salmon in the ocean. Now those recommendations are voted on by the provincial legislature (likely to happen in October). If the new recommendations are passed, it would be a victory for environmental groups like the David Suzuki Foundation, which strongly oppose offshore salmon farming and the waste and sea lice they bring with them.
Comments
But many so-called wild salmon start their lives in fish farms called hatcheries. What are they going to do about these farmed fish that get to be called wild because they live free for the last part of their lives?
Posted by: Mark Powell | May 22, 2007 9:17 AM
Of course you're right. But at least governments and producers do not have to spend the money (or the subsidies) to catch the fish for wild salmon to eat (just for the hatcheries, which they also spend for farmed salmon). And the magnificent hundred and thousand mile migrations upstream still happen each year...
Posted by: Jennifer Jacquet | May 24, 2007 6:31 PM