White House seeks to boost aquaculture (deep waters fish-farming)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070311/ap_on_sc/fish_farming;_ylt=Al9CPsAA5HPLttquPIzerNvMWM0F
White House seeks to boost aquaculture

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to allow ocean farming for shellfish, salmon and saltwater species in federal waters for the first time, hoping to grab a greater share of the $70 billion aquaculture market.
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Some marine experts, however, say fish farming adds to overfishing because most farms involve carnivorous fish that are fed more fish protein than the farms produce. They say the farms release pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals, and cause genetic contamination of wild fish.

"The growth of aquaculture is questionable, as we are using the wild fish to grind up to feed the farmed fish," said Charles Clover, author of "The End Of The Line," a book on overfishing.

"It promotes overfishing for forage fish, and it's putting the farmed fish out with the wild fish — you don't really want the diseases to get into the wild population," he said.

[tanyev]

1. Oh, gosh.

What's Marvin doing these days? Got himself an aquafarming company?

[Odin2005]

2. There are some issues with aquaculture, but it's better then fishing wild stocks into extinction.

[Barrett808]

3. I've read that negative effects of aquaculture can be mitigated

It's more of a question of whether companies have incentives to employ mitigating measures.

[hatrack]

7. If fish farmers are raising carnivorous fish, i.e. salmon, that's just what they're doing

They're using the wild-caught species to grind up into fish meal to feed to the farmed salmon, trout, etc.

This shell game will continue for as long as there's enough wild-caught (i.e. "free") biomass to feed the farmed stocks, and then it will end.

Farming salmon for meat is like raising tigers for meat.

[fed-up]

4. I won't eat farmed fish-I added (ge free) legumes, tofu, grains, nuts to diet nt

[truthisfreedom]

5. Farmed sushi fish is really not very tasty.

I can always tell when I'm eating farmed fish.

[jpak]

6. More BuchCo stupidity - ugh

They should be creating Marine Sanctuaries - not fish farms - in federal waters...

[pfitz59]

8. Some types of aquaculture a quite progressive...

Catfish and Talipia farming are two. Other fish farms can wreak have on the ecosystem. Sea lice in salmon and whirling disease in trout are just two of the calamities associated with improper aquaculture.