Quality Farmed Fish, Wild Caught Fish…Some Issues
Toyota, GM, Hyundai…Hydrogen Fuel Cells Update
October 8, 2007Sustainability Streets…The Village Is Growing
October 10, 2007A year ago PWF asked if fish farming was the way of the future, so we were interested to see, in the latest FisheNews Aquaculture Newsletter, reports on Barramundi farms taking greater market share and on farmed fish winning aquaculture experts’ approval at the Sydney Fine Food Show’s Aquaculture Competition, 2007.
Times are changing…
A combination of changes is allowing some Barramundi farms to expand. Closure of other farms, government restrictions with respect to fishing zones, and bag limits have boosted opportunities, and the Sydney Fish Market price has increased. Taking advantage of the situation, the Sundown Fish Farm at Mareeba will increase production from 25 tonnes to 50 to 55 tonnes in the next 12 months. Two issues fish farmers still face are competition from cheap imports, and the commonly-held view that farmed fish is inferior to wild-caught product.
Barramundi and oysters winners…
The NSW Royal Agricultural Society’s (RAS) Aquaculture Competition has reported that leading aquaculture experts were impressed with the very high standard of entries, indicating that producers are taking care with their product and that the Barramundi Farmers Association has worked hard to assist growers with feedback from the RAS competitions, benefiting the product and market development of the industry, and subsequently, the results.
The Chairman of Judges said,
“Quality Assurance Standards have improved which brings confidence to the market place and in turn, consumers will be the beneficiaries.”
For the first time since the Competition was introduced in 2001, a gold medal was awarded to Central Queensland Barra for the excellent appearance, quality, condition, taste and freshness of their Barramundi entry. Daintree Saltwater Barramundi took silver, while Good Fortune Bay Fisheries won bronze.
Pacific and Angasi Oysters (an Australian flat native oyster) were also judged as part of the Aquaculture Competition, with a good regional representation from NSW, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.
Coming out on top of the oyster judging was AQA Oysters Ltd – Coffin Bay, South Australia, winning 2 awards; 1 silver and 1 bronze medal for their high quality Pacific Oyster entries.
Some issues – globally
Today we see fish farming offering an alternative solution to the increasing market demand for fish and fish protein as increasing demands on wild fisheries by commercial fishing operations have caused widespread overfishing.
In a nutshell
Rebecca Goldberg and Rosamond Taylor state:
- “Fish farming appears to be supplementing, not substituting, capture fishing
- The growth of marine fish farming may lead to increased competition for small fish which serve as inputs for farmed fish and as prey for commercially valuable predatory wild fish
- Farming of a new marine species may lead to increased impacts from marine fish farming, including increased numbers of escaped farmed fish that interact with wild fish, and significant cumulative impacts from farm wastes
- Policies governing marine ecosystems must incorporate ecological perspectives and integrate fishing, aquaculture and conservation perspectives.”
What are your experiences?
4 Comments
Just read your article about farmed fish. Not sure if your are promoting it, but the mere fact you have mentioned some companies winning some medals for corralling fish and killing them for money, sounds similar to what the soldiers get fighting in another country. They corral people, kill them and get medals!Fish farming is a disaster, barramundi, salmon and trout are fed tons of smaller fish and worms on these factory farms, where the cramped conditions these farmed fish live without enough space to swim freely. These fish live in such cramped conditions just like how the battery hens are reared for food. Fish also are fed antibiotics,other drugs, pesticides, and fungicides as they are proned to get diseases and lice. Because these factory farmed fish are unable to do their poo, their faeces also pollute the waters which also destroys the marine ecosystem where other marine life live especially phytoplankton which provides the oxygen for the marine life. The chemicals that are given to the factory farmed fish is the same chemicals made by Dow and Monsanto the creators of Agent Orange, Dioxine,DDT and Napalm.
Hi Vegan Virtues, good to receive your comments. In a world where fish farming is on the increase, those of us not in the industry, or informed as you appear to be, need to know what’s going on. That’s what PWF is all about – information, with a view to long term sustainable development. If you care to send us your views on fish farming – in the context of the existing demand for the product – we’d be happy to publish them.
Vegan Virtues comments reminds me of what it was like with Pink protesting about Australian sheep farming- based on information provided by PETA- she was forced to apologise as she didn’t know the facts.
I am not involved in fish farming but have a lot of interest as I do believe it is the way of the future. Like any industry in it’s infancy- sometimes mistakes are made- which are immediately rectified but this is why the need for trials and the industry is growing in leaps and bounds.
Illogical arguments don’t work- why would a fish farmer grow fish that were lice infested, filled with toxic chemicals- pesticides and fungicides??….how they going to sell fish like that and make a profit- this is just pointless scaremongering .
In the very beginning when the industry first started- indeed lice were present- reason being due to lack of water running past the gills of the fish and too many fish in a pen…..immediately this was fixed. This whole business about fish being feed hormones is rubbish- its exactly the same as chickens- no one feeds hormones to chickens…this practise when out with the dark ages. The majority…and I seriously mean majority of fish farmers use organic feeds- simply because the end result sells for more at the market…..it would be illogical for fish farmers to do this any other way.
“Because these factory farmed fish are unable to do their poo, their faeces also pollute the waters which also destroys the marine ecosystem where other marine life live especially phytoplankton which provides the oxygen for the marine life.”
…this statement makes no sense at all….what do you mean a farmed fish cannot past faeces yet their faeces pollute? If they cannot do anything how are they polluting? Irregardless of these comments- if you mean that when fish pass faeces they pollute…well wild farmed fish are only farmed in their natural environment- the point of wild fish farming and breeding is to protect the natural ecosystem….it helps not hinders…these fish are fed a natural diet and if you mean fish farms on the land…there filtration system beats the pants of filtration system used by towns to deal with sewerage….most of the time then the nutrient riche water is actually used to fertilize crops and reduce the amount of chemicals used to grow commercial crops which is a good thing.
Am all for having a discussion about the pros and cons of a subject- but you need to have current facts and know what you are talking about.
I’m really pleased to hear this point of view and would love to hear from others?? Any articles we’ve published on fish farming/fishing are always well read – people are definitely interested, so let’s get the info ‘out there’!