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TODAY Tuesday 3 March 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
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TODAY Tuesday 3 March 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
TODAY IN THE WORLD: Salmon Farming
Fish will constitute a significant fraction of the food supply for 9 billion people or most fish will still be netted in the open seas, but not both. Just as animal husbandry and agriculture were needed to support denser populations than were affordable under terrestrial hunting and gathering, humanity will have to rely less on ocean hunting and more on fish breeding and aquaculture.
And just as agriculture inflicts ecological damage ("Wes Jackson's Problem With Agriculture"), aquaculture is already causing headaches for naturalists and other species. If you go to the Website of our friends at SeaWeb, you can read a report that tallies some of the ecological damage occasioned by the astonishing growth in farmed salmon production (a 4,600% increase between 1980 and 1991).
The report is by Mike Weber, undertaken for a consortium of foundations called the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. Weber identifies a number of key problems. Among them:
- Hurting the Natives. When salmon raised in pens manage to wiggle their way to freedom, they compete with their natural cousins for food and habitat, interbreed and introduce weakling traits, and often spread diseases for which the natives have no resistance.
- Fouling the Water. Concentrated populations of salmon (like concentrated populations of anything) produce wastes that can't be handled by natural flushing.
- Chemicalizing the Ecosystem. Just like cows in big confinement facilities, penned salmon are fed a broad spectrum of vaccines and antibiotics; the effects on local marine habitats aren't yet known, but it's a big worry.
Until these and other problems are addressed, Weber says, there should be a moratorium on new salmon-raising facilities. Desirable, perhaps, but most unlikely. Too much money is at stake, and too many coastal villagers now depend on salmon farming to replace some of the income lost by the depletion of wild fish stocks. You travel the west coast of Ireland, for example, and you see that salmon and oyster farms have kept alive marine-based local economies that otherwise would have nothing to trade on but their charm. As with dry-land farming, there will probably be a race between the expansion of production and the ability of science and government to render that expansion relatively benign. Maybe we can do a better job this time around.
TODAY ON THE SITE
Lucky for you, the person and the organization that supplied us with the salmon story -- Vikki Spruill of SeaWeb -- appears twice on this Website. In an op-ed, Vikki laments the passing of Jacques Cousteau; in her Ocean High Five, she names the best Websites for more info on the briny realms.
Recent "Today" columns:
3/2: Our Friends the Duck Killers
2/27: Trust El Nino
2/26: That Darn Triple-A
2/25: Cutting a Deal on Endangered Species
2/24: Fire? Again?
2/23: Garbage
2/20: Population Rebellion in the Sierra Club
2/19: The Trouble With Cattle
2/18: Optimistic Feds and the Future of Kyoto
2/17: The New Great Game
2/13: Windmills
2/12: Stuart Eizenstat's Smart Bomb
2/11: Alligator in the Coal Mine
2/10: Inconvenient Public Opinion
2/9: Remember Penn Station
2/6: Adam Smith and Automobile Efficiency
2/5: Clean Water, Naturally
2/4: Roll, Storms, Roll
2/3: Land Purchase Fever
2/2: Groundhog Day in the Persian Gulf
1/30: Trees and Hormones
1/29: Things To Come (2)
1/28: Things To Come
1/27: 'Bye, 'Bye Brazil
1/26: Jaywalking and Jaydriving
1/23: Good Biotech, Bad Biotech
1/22: No More Roads
1/21: Swordfish
To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.