Sprinting Fraser Sockeye Die – New Research

“Days after sockeye passed through extremely fast-moving water, we started to see fish dying only a short distance from their spawning grounds,” said Nicholas Burnett, a research biologist at UBC and lead author of the study, published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

The key question here is whether these fish exhibit the Viral Signature that DFO scientist Kristy Miller has looked into. Fraser sockeye with the signature show high levels of disease morphology and exhibit as much as 90% mortality in some subcomponents of the Fraser run. This is known as pre-spawn mortality

Abstract

Wild riverine fishes are known to rely on burst swimming to traverse hydraulically challenging reaches, and yet there has been little investigation as to whether swimming anaerobically in areas of high flow can lead to delayed mortality. Using acoustic accelerometer transmitters, we estimated the anaerobic activity of anadromous adult sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in the tailrace of a diversion dam in British Columbia, Canada, and its effects on the remaining 50 km of their freshwater spawning migration. Consistent with our hypothesis, migrants that elicited burst swimming behaviors in high flows were more likely to succumb to mortality following dam passage. Females swam with more anaerobic effort compared to males, providing a mechanism for the female-biased migration mortality observed in this watershed. Alterations to dam operations prevented the release of hypolimnetic water from an upstream lake, exposing some migrants to supraoptimal, near-lethal water temperatures (i.e., 24°C) that inhibited their ability to locate, enter, and ascend a vertical-slot fishway. Findings from this study have shown delayed post–dam passage survival consequences of high-flow-induced burst swimming in sockeye salmon. We highlight the need for studies to investigate whether dams can impose other carryover effects on wild aquatic animals.

See: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677219?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Nicholas&searchText=Burnett&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DNicholas%2BBurnett%26amp%3Bfilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000153%26amp%3BSearch%3DSearch%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3BglobalSearch%3D%26amp%3BsbbBox%3D%26amp%3BsbjBox%3D%26amp%3BsbpBox%3D

Escaped Farmed Salmon/Trout in Norway

A major new report has tallied up the losses of salmon and rainbow trout from escapes in the country where fish farms started - Norway. Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood that operate in BC all originate in Norway.

What are the losses? If you can believe it, 16.3% of of farmed salmon and 18.3% of rainbow trout escaped from fish farms.

These companies operate in BC. If they lose fish at the same rate they do in Norway, the roughly 48,000,000 BC farmed salmon (80 farms times 600,000 fish per farm) that would mean 7.68 million farmed fish would be lost in BC every year.

That is a huge number, exceeding losses in Chile - typically 4 million per year, also far below the numbers from Norway. Something wrong is happening in Norway.

Read the science: http://www.mattilsynet.no/fisk_og_akvakultur/fiskevelferd/tap_av_oppdrettsfisk_kartlagt.15427. 

Global Fish Farm Environmental Degradation - The Third World

Abstract: The Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has engaged in development research to address the challenges that population growth, environmental degradation and climate change are having on aquatic agricultural systems. - See more at: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/1936/increasing-productivity-and-improving-livelihoods-in-aquatic-agricultural-systems-a-review-of-interventions#sthash.vmWGVZmW.dpuf

This scientific study on the aquaculture/agriculture potential in the poorest nations in the world, shows that environmental degradation is reducing nations with the 700 million poorest aqua-farm families in the world, abilities to make enough food. This is a critical problem.

Fish farms as we know then in the first world use the ocean as a free open sewer and have a high environmental impact, including using the fish meal that should be used in poorer countries to feed people. This study shows that even in subsistence farming there is a high environmental damage.

This means that fish farms around the world, in rich and poor countries, need to move on to land, something that is far more easily achievable in the first world because of the ability of consumers to pay, and their growing preference for environmentally sound farming methods.

NZ Talley Says Only Future for Farmed Fish is On-land

It is quite surprising to see one of NZs large farming/meat/seafood/vegetable bosses saying unequivocably that there is no future for fish farms in the world's ocean waters.

Peter Talley has this to say: "The future in aquaculture is not going to be out in the wild. Land-based installations farming finfish, that's where it will be."

See: : http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/23882/talley-group-boss-claims-future-of-aquaculture-oversold#sthash.2QXHZUdw.dpuf. While the fishsite is a fish farm news site, they do publish a few articles on the downsides of fish farming. It is a good source of news on a daily basis.

So if you are looking for very current info, that is freely available, go to their site.

This article shows that NZ, is finding what other nations with fish farms have found: that the industry spin, seldom reflects reality. You will know that here in BC, Canada, fish farms say they have 6000 jobs. Even DFO came up with an inflated figure recently of 3700. It upsized the BC Stats report that noted only 1700 multiplier effect jobs.

I found out that BC fish farms have only 795 actual jobs. That is how small fish farms are in BC. All of aquaculture, contributes only $61.9 million to the BC economy - GPP. Sport fishing, on the other hand is 10 times larger with more than $606 million contributed to gross provincial product.

Go see my post on the 69 on-land fish farm systems I have found around the world, representing more than 8,000 actual on land farms: fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/key-document-34-mostly-on-land-closed.html.

Every job Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Food says it has can be divided by 7.5 to find the real number, or, stated another way, the actual jobs in BC fish farms are only 13.25% of what fish farms claim.




See thefishsit