Salmon, Sea Trout and Fish Farms
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:16 am
An interesting article from the Countryside Alliance is posted below: personally speaking, and before anyone misreads anything into my posting this -I think fish farms are a good thing (in the right place) I am also a keen salmon and sea trout angler, I would just like to bring this one to the Forum's attention and urge you to sign the petition on the link shown below.
The film The End of the Line, which is based on Charles Clover's extraordinary book, is attempting with some success to reveal the great ecological disaster man is perpetrating under the sea. A part of Charles' thesis is that the environmental degradation of modern commercial fishing is out of sight and so out of mind. He uses the image of a huge net being trawled across the African savannah destroying the ecosystem and sweeping animals of all shapes and sizes to their deaths to illustrate just how unacceptable some fishing practices should be.
At first sight fish farming, rather than the continued over-exploitation of wild fish populations, seems the obvious answer. Unfortunately as Charles and many others have pointed out, under the surface the farming of carnivorous species, especially salmon, can cause even more damage than over fishing.
The west coast of Scotland has become the focus of the salmon farming industry in the UK and it is here that the effects are most obvious. The huge amount of waste created by salmon farms (they produce more effluent than the entire population of Scotland) cause toxic algal blooms. Chemicals used in fish farming impact on the surrounding environment and leave residues in farmed fish. Hundreds of thousands of escapee fish compete with wild stocks and threaten the genetic purity of wild salmon stocks. Meanwhile for every one tonne of salmon produced a minimum of three tonnes of wild fish, mostly sand eels and whiting, are hoovered from the seas to produce fish meal and oil. The scarcity of these fish at the bottom of the food chain is now thought to be affecting sea bird populations.
For the rod fisherman there is one more even worse impact than these. Salmon farms also create huge concentrations of sea lice: parasites that live in particular on salmon and sea trout. In the past finding a few sea lice on a river caught salmon or sea trout was something to be welcomed. Sea lice only survive a day or two in fresh water so they are a sign that fish are running a river fresh from the sea. Now, however, on the West coast of Scotland especially, they are a reminder of the devastation that fish farming has wrought on migratory species. As salmon and sea trout return from the sea to the rivers of their birth they have been forced to run a gauntlet of salmon farms producing clouds of sea lice which quite simply eat them alive.
Salmon numbers have dropped dramatically and, in contrast to the East coast where there are no salmon farms, there is little sign of recovery. It is the sea trout, however, that has fared worst. The beautiful sea run brown trout has been absolutely devastated. In some rivers they have all but disappeared and great sea trout lochs like Loch Maree, which produced hundreds and hundreds of sea trout to the rod every year, have been destroyed. The fishermen who headed religiously to Scotland to famous west coast lochs and rivers now travel to Russia, Canada and Alaska. The ghillies and boatmen have been laid off. The famous fishing hotels stand quiet. The only argument for salmon farming is economic and even that comes at huge cost to other parts of the rural economy. Realistically, in the short term at least, salmon farming will continue to protect salmon and sea trout, and the jobs in the industry, it needs to change. Salmon farming will never be good for the environment, but it can be less bad.
That is why we are supporting the Salmon and Trout Association's internet petition calling on the Scottish Government to take action to save our wild salmon and sea trout. The petition reads:
"We the undersigned, call on the Scottish Government to take immediate action in recognition of its international responsibilities and overwhelming scientific evidence, from both the UK (including some of its own leading fisheries scientists) and abroad, with regard to the massive damage that is being caused to wild salmon and sea trout stocks from inappropriate fish farm activities. Wild salmon and sea trout stocks in the west Highlands and Islands have been decimated by sea lice infestations from salmon farms. Furthermore the positioning of salmon smolt farms within salmon river and loch systems has potentially disastrous implications for wild salmon populations; this practice is already banned in Norway. We therefore call on Scottish Government to ensure that:
* All sea-based fish farms are moved away from the estuaries of major wild salmon rivers to reduce the impact of sea lice.
* Salmon smolt farms are banned from operating within any wild salmon river system."
I believe that everyone with an interest in conservation and the countryside should send a strong message to the Scottish Government by signing the Salmon and Trout Association's petition. You can lend your support here http://www.salmon-trout.org/save_petition.asp
The film The End of the Line, which is based on Charles Clover's extraordinary book, is attempting with some success to reveal the great ecological disaster man is perpetrating under the sea. A part of Charles' thesis is that the environmental degradation of modern commercial fishing is out of sight and so out of mind. He uses the image of a huge net being trawled across the African savannah destroying the ecosystem and sweeping animals of all shapes and sizes to their deaths to illustrate just how unacceptable some fishing practices should be.
At first sight fish farming, rather than the continued over-exploitation of wild fish populations, seems the obvious answer. Unfortunately as Charles and many others have pointed out, under the surface the farming of carnivorous species, especially salmon, can cause even more damage than over fishing.
The west coast of Scotland has become the focus of the salmon farming industry in the UK and it is here that the effects are most obvious. The huge amount of waste created by salmon farms (they produce more effluent than the entire population of Scotland) cause toxic algal blooms. Chemicals used in fish farming impact on the surrounding environment and leave residues in farmed fish. Hundreds of thousands of escapee fish compete with wild stocks and threaten the genetic purity of wild salmon stocks. Meanwhile for every one tonne of salmon produced a minimum of three tonnes of wild fish, mostly sand eels and whiting, are hoovered from the seas to produce fish meal and oil. The scarcity of these fish at the bottom of the food chain is now thought to be affecting sea bird populations.
For the rod fisherman there is one more even worse impact than these. Salmon farms also create huge concentrations of sea lice: parasites that live in particular on salmon and sea trout. In the past finding a few sea lice on a river caught salmon or sea trout was something to be welcomed. Sea lice only survive a day or two in fresh water so they are a sign that fish are running a river fresh from the sea. Now, however, on the West coast of Scotland especially, they are a reminder of the devastation that fish farming has wrought on migratory species. As salmon and sea trout return from the sea to the rivers of their birth they have been forced to run a gauntlet of salmon farms producing clouds of sea lice which quite simply eat them alive.
Salmon numbers have dropped dramatically and, in contrast to the East coast where there are no salmon farms, there is little sign of recovery. It is the sea trout, however, that has fared worst. The beautiful sea run brown trout has been absolutely devastated. In some rivers they have all but disappeared and great sea trout lochs like Loch Maree, which produced hundreds and hundreds of sea trout to the rod every year, have been destroyed. The fishermen who headed religiously to Scotland to famous west coast lochs and rivers now travel to Russia, Canada and Alaska. The ghillies and boatmen have been laid off. The famous fishing hotels stand quiet. The only argument for salmon farming is economic and even that comes at huge cost to other parts of the rural economy. Realistically, in the short term at least, salmon farming will continue to protect salmon and sea trout, and the jobs in the industry, it needs to change. Salmon farming will never be good for the environment, but it can be less bad.
That is why we are supporting the Salmon and Trout Association's internet petition calling on the Scottish Government to take action to save our wild salmon and sea trout. The petition reads:
"We the undersigned, call on the Scottish Government to take immediate action in recognition of its international responsibilities and overwhelming scientific evidence, from both the UK (including some of its own leading fisheries scientists) and abroad, with regard to the massive damage that is being caused to wild salmon and sea trout stocks from inappropriate fish farm activities. Wild salmon and sea trout stocks in the west Highlands and Islands have been decimated by sea lice infestations from salmon farms. Furthermore the positioning of salmon smolt farms within salmon river and loch systems has potentially disastrous implications for wild salmon populations; this practice is already banned in Norway. We therefore call on Scottish Government to ensure that:
* All sea-based fish farms are moved away from the estuaries of major wild salmon rivers to reduce the impact of sea lice.
* Salmon smolt farms are banned from operating within any wild salmon river system."
I believe that everyone with an interest in conservation and the countryside should send a strong message to the Scottish Government by signing the Salmon and Trout Association's petition. You can lend your support here http://www.salmon-trout.org/save_petition.asp
