Thursday, November 22, 2007
Jellyfish Invasion Of Salmon Farm Is Todays Good news
The widely reported invasion of a Northern Ireland salmon farm by billions of small jellyfish known as stingers may be bad news for the twelve workers who may lose their jobs as a result of the deaths of the 100,000 fish involved, but it's good news as far as I'm concerned, and I cordially invite the wee stinging creatures to Visit Scotland, especially the West Coast, where 100,000 victims would be, pun intended, just a drop in the ocean.
The farm salmon is an artificial fish, and the salmon farming industry is a disaster for the marine environment, with diseases and parasites such as sea-lice and escapes of farmed salmon damaging wild salmon and sea-trout populations in the West Highlands and Islands.
Hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon escape from their cages every year, and compete with wild salmon for finite food and spawning resources. In a few generations escaped farm salmon out compete and replace wild salmon.
While sea-lice occur naturally in the sea, they are not a problem when they attach themselves to wild salmon, and die when the host fish enters fresh water. Farmed salmon never enter fresh water, and after smolting are confined in the sea for the whole of their lives.
Farm cages are a magnet for sea lice, and they breed there in their billions. They are free-swimming and move on tidal currents. As wild fish pass the cages they are confronted with clouds of lice which attach themselves. Twenty sea lice can kill a wild fish.
It is the Sea-trout which is at greater risk because they do not migrate far, and tend to stay close to shore and near the rivers they were born in. They experience constant sea lice attack from cages in the vicinity.
Farmed salmon are fed a colorant in their food to make their flesh pink like 'real' salmon, and are treated throughout their lives with a cocktail of chemicals to protect them against disease. Small salmon are fed mashed up fish procured by industrial fishing, and it takes some three tonnes of small fish to feed one tonne of farm salmon.
Hardly surprising then that sea birds are failing to breed due to a shortage of food.
Apart from the environmental concerns, farm salmon taste awful compared to the real thing, and heaven knows what chemicals are mixed in there but one thing certain is they can't be good for you.
I would rather the jellyfish got the lot.
The wild salmon below were in a tank as part of a breeding programme before being released back into the wild.
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The farm salmon is an artificial fish, and the salmon farming industry is a disaster for the marine environment, with diseases and parasites such as sea-lice and escapes of farmed salmon damaging wild salmon and sea-trout populations in the West Highlands and Islands.
Hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon escape from their cages every year, and compete with wild salmon for finite food and spawning resources. In a few generations escaped farm salmon out compete and replace wild salmon.
While sea-lice occur naturally in the sea, they are not a problem when they attach themselves to wild salmon, and die when the host fish enters fresh water. Farmed salmon never enter fresh water, and after smolting are confined in the sea for the whole of their lives.
Farm cages are a magnet for sea lice, and they breed there in their billions. They are free-swimming and move on tidal currents. As wild fish pass the cages they are confronted with clouds of lice which attach themselves. Twenty sea lice can kill a wild fish.
It is the Sea-trout which is at greater risk because they do not migrate far, and tend to stay close to shore and near the rivers they were born in. They experience constant sea lice attack from cages in the vicinity.
Farmed salmon are fed a colorant in their food to make their flesh pink like 'real' salmon, and are treated throughout their lives with a cocktail of chemicals to protect them against disease. Small salmon are fed mashed up fish procured by industrial fishing, and it takes some three tonnes of small fish to feed one tonne of farm salmon.
Hardly surprising then that sea birds are failing to breed due to a shortage of food.
Apart from the environmental concerns, farm salmon taste awful compared to the real thing, and heaven knows what chemicals are mixed in there but one thing certain is they can't be good for you.
I would rather the jellyfish got the lot.
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The wild salmon below were in a tank as part of a breeding programme before being released back into the wild.
Colcam.Image
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Labels: Environment, Scotland
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