Fish Farms Kill Billions of Fish, Updated Oct 2, 2016

(See notes at bottom, and that I give you the updated numbers of forage fish killed to feed fish farm fish in this post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/10/fish-farms-kill-billions-of-wild-fish.html. The updated figures are: 113 forage fish killed per farmed salon.  

The updated figures are: 113 forage fish killed per farmed salmon; 67.8 million forage fish killed to feed one farm to harvest; 5.76 Billion killed to feed an industry the size of BC's to harvest. The larger figures below are those if one uses the commonly found conversion rate of forage fish to fish feed of 5 to 1. I have been convinced by The Sea Around Us that it is too high).

How many fish does the carnivore fish farm industry kill to feed their own fish? Plenty.

And like the sewage cost that took me a very long time to research and come up with a defensible estimate of $10.2 Billion in BC alone (that's what we absorb for them to use our ocean as a free, open sewer) I have spent many bleary-eyed days researching the literature for reliable forage fish stats.

Cutting to the chase, here's how bad the situation has been:

Fish farms kill 282 fish to feed a single farmed salmon.
Fish farms kill 169.5 million fish to feed a single farm in BC.
Fish farms kill 14.4 Billion fish to bring one harvest of fish to market in BC.

These are staggering numbers and more than 96% of global fish stocks have problems from fish farms killing them for fish meal and fish oil. The only one of 20 left is Antarctic krill, and that is not even a fish -  3.8%. Urgent reform has been called for by the best report I used:

Reduction Fisheries: SFP Fisheries Sustainability Overview 2016. See: http://cmsdevelopment.sustainablefish.org.s3.amazonaws.com/2016/08/22/SFP_Reduction%20Fisheries_Sector_2016-fc08787e.pdf.

The major numbers you need to compute the number of fish killed to feed carnivore Atlantic salmon are:

1.Size of forage fish and number/kg                       88.2 gms, 11.3fish/kg

2.Kg of bait fish per kg farmed salmon                  5kg

3.No of kg before salmon harvest                          5kg

4.Number of fish per farm                                       600,000

5.Number of Farms in BC                                       85

And here is the equation for BC: (1kg/fish weight = fish/kg) X 5kg X 5kg X 600,000 X 85 =14.4 Billion dead fish.

If you leave out the number of farms, the number per farm is: 169.5 million dead fish.

If you leave out the number of fish per farm, the number per farmed fish is: 282 dead fish.

And they would like you to believe they are sustainable. I don't think so. Anyone who would like to follow the links, send me a comment as my notes have a good 15 links, to back up what I am saying.

How about Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg Seafood? Come on, make my day. 

Update  Sept 28, 2016 post: Link to come

Just so you know, while the kg conversion rate for wet fish to fishmeal/oil has not changed, because those 19 stocks of pelagic fish have been fished down so much, there no longer is enough to make feed with. So, fish farms are using protein and other components from plant materials as substitutes for fish that no longer exist. There are problems with that - in my next post.

So when fish farms claim a 1.2 kg feed to 1kg fish farm growth rate, they are still being deceptive, because the amount of fish has gone down so drastically, because the stocks have been destroyed.

See my next post: 

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Background, for keeners:

1. Percentage of forage fish killed, from Table 5 in the above reference, and average size computed from another dozen links:

Stock Fished                                                    Percent of Global Harvest               Weight in

                                                                                                                                 Grams

Peruvian anchovetta                                                                                                  

            Northern-central                                  22.1 

Chilean anchovetta

            Regions 111, 1V                                 .4

            Regions XV-1-11/Southern Peru        13.9% = 36.4% X 46.5g                   16.9

NE Atlantic Blue Whiting                              14.8     X 207.5g                               30.7    

NW African

European Pilchard, Southern Stock    3.6

European Pilchard, Central Stock      7.4 = 11% X 112g                             12.3

Chilean Araucanian Herring                           7.0 X 25g                                          17.5

Icelandic Capelin                                            6.6 X 20g                                          1.3

Chilean jack mackerel                                     5.3 X 23g                                          1.2

US Gulf menhaden                                         5.0 X 180g                                         9

Antarctic Krill                                                 3.8 X 1g                                            0

Total Average weight                                      89.9%                                               88.2g

And, number of fish per kg: 1000g/88.2g = 11.3 fish.

2. The commonly accepted number of kg of dead forage fish you need to feed a farmed salmon to put on 1 kg of weight is 5kg. 

3. Farmed salmon can be grown to harvest as large as 10kg, but I use the more common harvest weight of 5kg. This is a conservative figure.

4. Fish farms can be over a million farmed fish, but the more common average is 600,000 farm fish per farm. So, again, a conservative number.

5. Of 130 fish farms in BC, the average in operation is 85, again conservative. To put this in perspective, there are more than 1,000 in-ocean fish farms in Norway. Chile, the dirtiest country, is putting in another 100 in its southern region alone, more than the entire industry in BC. Sadly, they are now going to pollute Patagonia one of the last pristine nature areas in the world.

One more thing, fish farms like to say that fish trimmings are used in fish feed. Well, the global industry amounts to 1% of feed (2016), even though the IFFO said it was 25% (2009). See: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/1288/production-consumption-of-fishmeal/. And the word 'trimmings' means, in English, guts and factory waste.

One more thing, the situation is even worse because Asian data is not included, including China that uses all of its own and buys more. They are still currently fishing off Peru and Chile the major areas in the world, but are taking the catch back to Asia, largely for prawns, as well as to China.

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Here is a new paper just in on world wide fisheries from The Sea Around Us. After I read it I will make adjustments to this post: http://www.seaaroundus.org/doc/publications/books-and-reports/2016/End_Use_Reconstruction_Report.pdf http://www.seaaroundus.org/doc/publications/books-and-reports/2016/End_Use_Reconstruction_Report.pdf.

Here is another paper just in, from NOFIMA, on fish feed constituents. Once I have read it, I'll add some comments to this post, now Sept 22: https://www.nofima.no/filearchive/rapport-53-2011_5.pdf. 

Here is a news story that says the ratio of plant to fish meal/oil is two thirds to one third, respectively, because of depleted marine fish: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-environmental-salmon-farming.html?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=f84e65e777-Salmon_News_Sept_29_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-f84e65e777-166907249.

At the Hitra plant, for example, cultivated salmon are fed a diet that is two-thirds plant-derived and one third fish meal and fish oil—a reversal of the previous ratio, in a bid to limit depletion of marine resources.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-environmental-salmon-farming.html#jCp

At the Hitra plant, for example, cultivated salmon are fed a diet that is two-thirds plant-derived and one third fish meal and fish oil—a reversal of the previous ratio, in a bid to limit depletion of marine resources.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-environmental-salmon-farming.html#jCp

At the Hitra plant, for example, cultivated salmon are fed a diet that is two-thirds plant-derived and one third fish meal and fish oil—a reversal of the previous ratio, in a bid to limit depletion of marine resources.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-environmental-salmon-farming.html#jCp

At the Hitra plant, for example, cultivated salmon are fed a diet that is two-thirds plant-derived and one third fish meal and fish oil—a reversal of the previous ratio, in a bid to limit depletion of marine resources.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-environmental-salmon-farming.html#jCp