Re: NANFA-- How soon is now?

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Mon, 08 Jul 2002 17:41:50 -0400

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Your apprehension is well-taken, Todd. I saw a scary presentation this past
weekend at the Ichthyologists' meeting in Kansas City. A Canadian biologist
presented what he's found about the escape of non-native Atlantic salmon
from aquaculture operations in British Columbia over the past 15 years. The
government and industry don't want to talk about it, of course, but Atlantic
salmon have now become well-established in many rivers on Vancouver Island
and probably the BC mainland. They can do this because the native Pacific
species have had their populations hammered by overfishing, opening up a
niche for the Atlantics. Once established, the Atlantics can further stress
the native salmons in their natal rivers. Interestingly, the way this works
is that the Atlantics take over the riverbottoms and force the native
competitors to spend more time in the less food-rich water column.

It's all about money, of course, since the aquaculture industry has about 10
times the cash value of wild-caught fishes. Atlantic salmon is now a fad in
Japan, apparently (Ed Venn?), and the Japanese are willing to bid up the
price for farm-raised Atlantics from BC, Canada. I would urge everyone on
this list to avoid aquacultured Atlantic salmon, especially that produced in
BC. This biz is badly twisting the original ecosystem.

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>Not sure if anyone posted anything about this... I usually can't remember
>what
>I had for lunch, let alone 2 months ago, so sorry if this is redundant ;)
>
>I'd always wondered how long it would take for pacific marine piscovores to
>"escape" out of the Marine hobby. Apparently, they've found them up to the
>Carolinas, but the link I followed was 404.
>
>http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/051402/LOClionfish.shtml
>
>And how'd you like that guy's final quote?
>
>Todd "put it on his chair when he's not looking" Crail
>http://www.farmertodd.com
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