Environmental Concerns
Fish Farms
Now that commercial fishing has all but emptied our oceans
of target animals, the seafood industry has turned to raising
fish in contained fish farms.
These farms raise millions of fish in netted cages in coastal
waters. Confining so many fish in small areas leads to extreme
fecal contamination, deadly diseases, parasite outbreaks,
and the depletion of wild fish stocks. You may be surprised
to learn that many of the fish in supermarkets today come
from these farms—for instance, 80 percent of the salmon
sold in the United States. This means that if you eat fish,
you may be supporting horribly cruel fish farms that are even
worse for the environment than commercial fishing.
The massive amount of feces produced by fish on aquafarms
is bad for the environment, and the farms leave behind drugged
feed and animal corpses that upset the natural balance of
the aquatic ecosystem. According to the Norwegian government,
the salmon and trout farms in Norway alone produce roughly
the same amount of sewage as New York City. In some cases,
the massive amount of fish excrement settling below fish cages
has actually caused the ocean floor to rot. Dead fish carcasses
and uneaten antibiotic-laden fish feed also pollute the coastal
areas that surround these farms. The sludge of fish feces
and other debris can be toxic for already-strained ocean ecosystems.
Besides turning coastal waters into open sewers, the crowding
on aquafarms leads to the rapid spread of disease and parasites.
In addition to infecting the fish in cages, ocean-based
fish farms introduce parasites into wild fish populations.
Fish afflicted with parasites such as sea lice suffer from
painful open sores and may die. Fish farms are most likely
a factor in the continued decline in the health of wild fish.
Not only are the fish in farms sick, they’re also making
shrinking wild fish populations sick as well. Farmers dump
pesticides into the water to try to combat fish parasites
such as sea lice, further polluting our coastlines and introducing
even more chemicals into fish flesh.
 Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that fish farms are responsible for introducing non-native fish into areas where they take over indigenous species’ habitats. For example, despite fish farmers’ assurances that the fish would be safely contained, more than 1 million Atlantic salmon have escaped from coastal farms in the past three years. Farmed salmon have reproduced with such great success that they now dominate the habitats and food supply of the already threatened wild salmon—a conflict that, in recent years, has catastrophically reduced the population numbers of wild salmon.
Introducing foreign fish-farm species such as Atlantic salmon can seriously endanger native fish species and throw entire natural balances askew—with completely unknown results.
Commercially caught fish and farmed fish are, in many respects, part of the same industry. Fish farms directly support commercial fishing businesses because fish on farms are fed large quantities of wild-caught fish. Even fish who would naturally eat plants are forced to eat other fish on aquafarms so that they will grow faster. It takes 5 pounds of ocean-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish.
|
Fish Flakes Trading Cards
"Take a Closer Look at Fish " Leaflet
Printer-Friendly