Fish Farming

[Raven]

Aquaculture Research Information Sheet: Nutrition Research
One of the main factors limiting the expansion of aquaculture is the development of nutritionally adequate, cost-effective diets. Feed and feeding can contribute up to 70% of total operating costs for fish and prawn farms. The protein source of choice for most aquaculture diets is fishmeal yet this ingredient is only produced in very small quantities in Australia. Global production of fishmeal is static or declining yet demand, especially for aquaculture, is increasing rapidly. This has led to price escalation.

Replacement of fishmeal is a major international research priority. In Australia we have abundant supplies of agricultural proteins, including vegetable and animal meals, and we have been very successful at utilising these ingredients to produce very cheap, cost-effective diets for pigs and poultry. At NSW Fisheries we have now developed high-performance diets without fishmeal for the freshwater native silver perch. Research with snapper is also underway and low fishmeal diets have been successful at a laboratory scale. Collaborative research with other species, eg. barramundi, prawns and salmon has also been successful.

Research is continuing to evaluate and improve alternative ingredients to fishmeal. Some of the most promising ingredients include high protein, low-ash meatmeals, poultry-offal meal, de-hulled lupins and modified wheat gluten products. Oilseeds and other grains are also valuable ingredients. Further processing of some ingredients such as fine grinding and the removal of husks or cooking can increase the use of Australian agricultural ingredients. Defining nutritional requirements is also an important priority. Research in this area on protein requirements at different energy contents has been successfully completed for silver perch and snapper. Work on defining requirements for essential fatty acids has also been completed for silver perch. Requirements must be met for rapid growth and oversupplying essential nutrients is expensive and can increase problems with water quality.

[RIROCKHOUND]

Flyrod; I think part of the reason for using these spots in the open ocean is to eliminate those problems....

MakoMike hit it on the nose... 8lbs of fishmeal = pogies etc..

Bad Idea, support propperly regulated commercial fishing....

[Fly Rod]

And sick, virus contanminated seafarm raised fish that spread the contamination to wild fish either by there feces or escaping and spreading disease = 0 pogies and other wild fish!!!!!!

Now if they are having this problem in the cold waters of Maine and northern Europe, I would think that the problem would be greater in warmer southern waters!!!!

Let's hope I'm wrong about that!!!!
All the scientific data at the moment shows that ocean farming fish is not working!!!!!

They are also farming Giant Bluefin Tuna and they are feeding these fish tons of bait fish!!!! and scientist are worried about the depletion of the bio-mass of bait fish!!!!

They need to find a better way!!!!!

[scoobe]

Did you know that farm raised salmon are more toxic than the wild ones? That's from all the freakin crap in the feed.

[Fly Rod]

Try eating a farmed raised salmon and then spend the extra couple of bucks a pound and eat wild king salmon!!! BIGGGGGG differance!!!

A wild salmon weighs 1lb. at a year old!!! Farm raised weighs 6lbs. at a year old!!! "WHY"!! "CHEMICALS

[Raven]

i watched a show yesterday on Area 51
that i found extremely scary....
concerning the burning of plutonium waste by dousing it
with jet fuel and setting it ablaze in areas the size of a football field
with president clinton signing into law that they are totally exempt of
epa rules or standards so now
any pollution is possible in my mind.

[Bass Babe]

Nevermind the expense, or the eutrophication of the immediate area. Hatcheries in the open ocean could have escapees, effectively peeing in the gene pool. I would explain, but I think this NMFS memo says it better: http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/publicatio...30/leider.html. We should work on conserving our wild fish stocks instead of relying on technology to fix the results of our misuse of resources.

[outfished]

Originally Posted by Fly Rod

Try eating a farmed raised salmon and then spend the extra couple of bucks a pound and eat wild king salmon!!! BIGGGGGG differance!!!

A wild salmon weighs 1lb. at a year old!!! Farm raised weighs 6lbs. at a year old!!! "WHY"!! "CHEMICALS

Fly Rod, I agree 100%. I used to eat farmed trout and salmon until I had a wild salmon from upstate maine. It blew my mind and I swore I would nerver eat farmed again. I Don't even bother fishing for them any longer. There is some data that farmed fish contain higher doses of mercury, but the farmers will dispute that. Trader Joe's carries wild salmon Made a believer out of my GF!

[zacs]

Originally Posted by outfished

Fly Rod, I agree 100%. I used to eat farmed trout and salmon until I had a wild salmon from upstate maine. It blew my mind and I swore I would nerver eat farmed again. I Don't even bother fishing for them any longer. There is some data that farmed fish contain higher doses of mercury, but the farmers will dispute that. Trader Joe's carries wild salmon Made a believer out of my GF!

I have tried to stay away from this as long as I could, but...

1) I agree, wild salmon is better than farmed salmon. However, outside of The nortwest, good fresh wild salmon is hard to come by, where good fresh farmed is readily available. I thought the wild atlantic salmon was endangered in the North East???

2) Fly Rod, farmed salmon do not grow faster because of chemicals. It is a combination of selective breeding and feed program, combined with inactivity. Immgaine if you just sat on the couch all day with someone constantly throwing fritos at you.

3) There is no data that farmed salmon contian higher levels of mercury. There was a paper that said farmed salmon contained higher levels of PCBs last year, but was later retracted.

4) I agree that there is a problem with fishmeal (ie reduction of wild biomass), but I truly believe that they will be able to use soy protien before the end of the decade.

5) Escapees are a problem that need to be solved

6) Bass babe, they have been farming fish in China for 5000 years, so I don't think that this is a technogical issue. I think that like you said, it should be highly regulated, like comericial fishing.

7) Open ocean fish farming would reduce a lot of the contamination/eutrification issues that are brought up. Unfortunately with current tech, escapees increase.

8) I have been to aquaculture facilities in Maine, Alabama, Missippi, Vancouver, Mexico, Norway, Iceland, Chile, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Spain. Some are world class and some would make you want to puke.

9) There are several other points that have been made that are off base, but I have to go.

FYI, as a bias disclosure, I am a purveyor of both farm raised and wild caught species of fish and shellfood.

-Zac