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Fish Farms: Underwater Factories
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"Conditions on
aquafarms are so horrendous that on some farms, 40 percent
of the fish may die before farmers can kill and package
them for food." |
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Fish farming, or “aquaculture,” has become a billion-dollar
industry, and more than 30 percent of all the sea animals
consumed each year are now raised on these “farms.”
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization
reports that the aquaculture industry is growing three times
faster than land-based animal agriculture, and fish farms
will surely become even more prevalent as our natural fisheries
become exhausted.
Aquafarms can be based on land or in the ocean. Land-based
farms raise thousands of fish in ponds, pools, or concrete
tanks. Ocean-based aquafarms are situated close to shorelines,
and fish in these farms are packed into net or mesh cages.
All fish farms are rife with pollution, disease, and suffering,
regardless of their location.
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"We don't take
what Mother Nature throws at us. This is a factory for
fish."
—Bill Evans,
Vice President of Mariculture Systems, Inc., Salmon-farming
company |
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Aquafarms squander resources—it can take 5 pounds of
wild-caught fish to produce just 1 pound of farmed fish—and
pollute the environment
with tons of fish feces, antibiotic-laden fish feed, and diseased
fish carcasses.
Fish on aquafarms spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy
enclosures, and many suffer from parasitic infections, diseases,
and debilitating injuries. Conditions on some farms are so
horrendous that 40 percent of the fish may die before farmers
can kill and package them for food. In short, fish farms bring
suffering and ecological devastation everywhere they go.
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Many land-based aquafarms
are indoors, so farmers even control the amount of light
that fish get. |
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These farmed fish will spend
their entire lives crammed together, constantly bumping
against each other and the sides of their grossly overcrowded
cage. |
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