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Quoting John Sollows <nhungjohn@eastlink.ca>:
> Went through your article Chris, and you have concisely covered the
> reservations on salmonid cage culture as well as anyone I've read.
* and corroborate the definitions of economics and some fisheries
terms I've published in the Devil's Addendum -
http://pinicola.ca/devildic.pdf
[economics: stomach pain for biologists; the only science incapable of
modelling equilibrium. "In order to get a Ph.D. in economics, you
have to remove your heart and your brain." Mike, on cross-country
checkup, 7 March 2010.]
> n The food chain bit in your article is why I was never interested in
> salmonid culture of any type. They are all carnivorous. Ya gotta catch
> fish to feed fish, and that doesn't make environmental sense to me. We
> should be eating those trash fish, not salmon. However, that isn't gonna
> change unless we get a lot poorer.
* I'm sure by-catch fish are just as tasty as any other kind.
I've been reading Callum Robert's recent book 'Ocean of Life,' and
have been especially struck by the part about the historic decrease in
the size of fish regarded as legitimate prey, as shown in the pictures
reproduced in the Guardian review -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jun/07/callum-roberts-ocean-of-life - and the vast reduction in the catch-per-unit-effort in most conventional fisheries
-
[catch per unit effort (scalar of exploitation) the fishery statistic
that the invisible hand of the marketplace strives to minimize, until
it reaches such a minimum that the government must be blamed for the
disappearance of the prey.]
We were recently around Lake Erie, and while the touted local Perch
were delicious, it was shocking to see such small fish commercially
taken and sold.
The advantage of Salmon and other anadromous fishes, so long
recognized in aboriginal fisheries, is that they come into shore to be
captured, maximizing catch-per-unit-effort, and minimizing the
complexity of monitoring to maintain the populations at near the
carrying capacity -
[carrying capacity (scalar of exploitation): as many as there would be
for me if you'd stop killing them.]
I've long thought that capitalism is at the root of a lot of these
over-exploitation issues, because it's modeled on industrial projects,
where capacity can be increased by investment to any level that the
market can support, while investment in equipment and technique in a
fishery inevitably reduces yield and increases costs - the market is
effectively infinite, and the resource is always finite. Meanwhile,
the investors continue to demand a constant industrial-style "return"
on their investment, until the exploited stock reaches commercial
extinction.
[maximum sustainable yield (scalar of exploitation): as many fish or
trees as the Minister thinks it will take to get him re-elected.
Notice that the middle term in the expression is placed there as a
jest or mockery.]
Pelagic fishing for anadromous fish, so widely practiced on the west
coast, really seems to be a way of advertising institutionalized
impatience and inefficiency, since you're ranging all over the ocean
to catch fish that would otherwise come to river mouths to be caught.
On the east coast, it would seem most important for People to
demonstrate their understanding of both terrestrial and marine
activities by managing them to maximize populations of Salmon, the
iconic fish of North Atlantic rivers. It's no mistake, on the part of
aboriginal cultures, that anadromous and catadromous fish were so
reverenced.
[resource (Poerksen plastic word): something that ownership, or lack
of it, gives one authority to exploit, without paying for it. Often
used to imply and condone the uncurtailed human appropriation of the
world’s wealth — both of things actually made for human use or simply
there for the taking. “America regards the oilier parts of the world
as her resource.” -- Shrubby Caligula, the Least. “Anything prevalent
enough to be identified as a waste, is in fact a resource.” FWS III
(originally - perhaps over-enthusiastically - of a factory dripping
spaghetti sauce into the Housatonic River).]
fred.
=====================================================
> n The corollary to this is that salmon are expensive to raise, so will
> never be an important food for poor people.
>
> n Personally, the presence of a couple of cages in an embayment doesn't
> bother me, but the apparent ease with which such an operation can expand
> many-fold and fast scares the hell out of me.
>
> n Re. genetic contamination: (a) I always thought the idea of raising
> Atlantic salmon on the west coast was a terrible one, because of the
> potential for escape, reproduction, and competition with native species.
> (b) I have heard the alarms raised about escapes of Atlantic salmon on this
> coast and the potential to contaminate existing stocks, and am more
> ambivalent here. Every species (and every population) evolves, through
> natural selection on a genetically diverse population. If the genes of
> escapees get introduced into a wild Atlantic Salmon stock, I kind of suspect
> natural selection will operate, as usual. I have listened to the arguments,
> but am still not very alarmed. I may be missing something, but personally
> find there are plenty of more convincing arguments to raise cautions against
> large-scale salmonid cage culture.
>
> n To me, the scariest part of your article was the last bit, re. trade
> agreements. I don't know the details, but don't governments have a
> fundamental duty to protect our long-term interests?
>
> From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
> On Behalf Of Eye Mac
> Sent: December-12-12 4:35 PM
> To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
> Subject: [NatureNS] Down our throats: Fed-up with salmon feedlots
>
> Hi folks,
>
> The issue is as tangled as cage netting washed ashore after winter storms.
> Forty years ago salmon aquaculture was seen as a burgeoning industry, a
> salvation for fisherman, and a pathway towards a sustainable fishery that
> would protect wild stocks. Salmon, once a rare treat for anglers and a
> staple for many coastal native groups, was commodified into a mainstream
> supermarket fish. Over time, however, flies began to appear in the ointment.
>
> Those concerned with this topic may be interested in my recent article on the
> topic: Down our throats: Fed-up with salmon feedlots
>
> http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/christophermajka/2012/12/down-our-throats-fe
> d-salmon-feedlots
>
> Resolving the dilemmas posed by open-net salmon farming parallel the
> necessity of resolving corporate exploitation of the environment, human and
> natural. We need to find models of economic activity that are not in phase
> mismatch with either the biological world or the human one. The failure to
> do so will have critical consequences for both.
>
> Best wishes, Christopher Majka
>
> Christopher Majka - writer, Rabble.ca <http://Rabble.ca/>
> Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
> Email: c.majka@ns.sympatico.ca
> http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/christophermajka
>
> The significant problems of our time cannot be solved by the same level of
> thinking that created them. - Albert Einstein
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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