In British Columbia and Washington, legislators are simultaneously weighing whether to allow this controversial farming practice to persist. This year could see the end of open-net-pen salmon aquaculture on the US and Canadian west coasts. This approach to salmon farming is already banned in California, Oregon, and Alaska, leaving British Columbia and Washington State as […]
aquaculture
How Might Fish Farms Be Affecting Lobsters?
Open-net pen Atlantic salmon aquaculture is big business on Canada’s east coast. Given the industry’s size, much has been studied and written about its effects on wild salmon. But how might fish farms be affecting other species in their vicinity—such as lobster? Lobster is one of the most economically valuable wild species, and the bulk […]
How Aquaculture Is Spreading a Salmon Virus
A genetic analysis of Piscine orthoreovirus shows how it was repeatedly transported from Norwegian salmon farms to aquaculture operations around the world—and on to wild Pacific salmon. Farmed salmon, like any farmed animals that live in close quarters, are highly vulnerable to infectious diseases. On Atlantic salmon farms in the Pacific Ocean, one virus—Piscine orthoreovirus […]
Overlooked Sea Louse May Be a Big Problem for Salmon
Most scientific research has focused on one species of sea louse—failing to account for the other, far more common, species. Sea lice attach to the skin of fish, and feed on their mucus, tissues, and blood. These parasites are one of the major threats to both wild and farmed salmon. To date, however, most research […]
Hatchery Fish Are Less Successful at Reproducing in the Wild
Genetic experiments show hatchery escapees that breed with wild fish have fewer offspring. Every spring, hatcheries in Alaska release more than a billion year-old pink and chum salmon. The fish spend a year out at sea growing up, before they return to be caught by the state’s fishing fleet. At least, that’s how it’s supposed […]
Aquaculture Doesn’t Reduce Pressure on Wild Fish
If anything, the rise of farm-raised fish has increased our desire for seafood. Aquaculture is often promoted as a sustainable alternative to catching wild fish—a way to reduce pressure on overexploited stocks while providing affordable and necessary protein for people’s diets. It’s an argument put forward by major international organizations like the World Bank and […]
Near Fish Farms, Lobster Catches Plummet
Lobster fishers catch fewer market-sized lobsters, and see fewer fertile females, in areas close to fish farms in Nova Scotia, according to new research led by Inka Milewski, a research associate at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Lobster fishers working in Port Mouton Bay, Nova Scotia, keep detailed records of when and where they fish and how many […]
Unmasking a Salmon Virus
The previously unknown cause of a common chinook salmon disease has turned out to be a familiar foe. A common virus that plagues Atlantic salmon in fish farms around the world also causes disease in farmed Pacific chinook salmon, a new finding that reignites the debate about infectious disease migrating from farmed fish to wild […]
Fish Farms Can Be Disease Accelerators
Much like terrestrial animal farms, fish farms are incubators for disease. Last summer, more than half a million farmed salmon died from a sea lice outbreak in New Brunswick’s Passamaquoddy Bay. More than 250,000 died directly from the parasites, which attach themselves to the fish and feed on their skin, blood, and mucus, while another […]
A creepy-crawly food revolution
Long considered pests, insects are now on the menu for farmed fish and poultry in Kenya and Uganda, where scientists are looking for cheaper, healthier ways to boost animal growth and develop the local economy. Raising chickens or fish in Africa can be an expensive proposition. Most of the money goes into just keeping them […]