Question on Fish Farming

[Bass Babe]

With all the food out there, do we really need to eat certain fish badly enough to farm them? Farming fish for food is unneccessary, and as already well-explained, dangerous, as is supplementing populations unnaturally. I'd eat some tofu instead of a farm-raised fish if I thought it would make a difference -- and I like my steak rare and still mooing.

Don't pee in the gene pool, kids!

[baldwin]

The wild fish we now see have evolved over eons to adapt to their specific habitats, diseases, etc. Hatchery fish are different. You don't want to dilute the original genetic stocks with those altered by artificial selection geared toward hatchery raising. It's much better to protect the wild stocks than to try to substitute for them and mess with the natural process. Plus, the factors that now deplete gamefish, such as water quality problems and lack of suitable forage would still be there. Take better care of what we've got, don't substitute by slapping a band-aid on the problem when the problem may be a cancer.

[zacs]

Originally Posted by Bass Babe

With all the food out there, do we really need to eat certain fish badly enough to farm them? Farming fish for food is unneccessary, and as already well-explained, dangerous, as is supplementing populations unnaturally. I'd eat some tofu instead of a farm-raised fish if I thought it would make a difference -- and I like my steak rare and still mooing.

Don't pee in the gene pool, kids!

That is down right crazy-talk. If I wasn't rushing out the door i would draft a long rebuttal. hopefully i will remember to come back to this thread.

Farming fish takes pressure off wild species. I have a lot more to say than that but I gotta run.

Zac

[goosefish]

Ever seen a street scene of Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, Bombay, and Rio De Janeiro. Me think we need fish farms, and shellfish farms, and more of them. But we need them to be as "green"as they can be. And I think that is where all this becomes very difficult. Welcome world to free enterprise!