Alaska has ready supply of feed for farmed fish

This may be confusing, so pay attention…

The United States (U.S.) is spending about $50 million on a fish food stimulus package to help fish farmers that are hit by higher fish feed costs in the last year.

Laine Welch - Fish Talk

So Laine Welch writes about this in her column for the Anchorage Daily News and says, “Let’s hope that the feed purchasers will “go green’ and “buy American” by sourcing some of that fish food from Alaska!”

Interesting thought Laine. For a state that poo-poos “fish farming”, you’re sure quick to get onside when there’s a buck to be made.

Laine continues, “Ironically, Alaska spends $20 million each year on fish feed for its 35 salmon hatcheries”.

Another interesting thought Laine. So, you do admit that you  ‘farm’ salmon – by way of 35 state salmon hatcheries.

Laine, are you thinking what we’re thinking…? You could take the waste from your Alaskan farm-raised salmon (60 million each year by the way) and render it into fish feed and feed it back into the 35 state hatcheries. Now apply for some of that ’stimulus’ money and save yourself about $20 million per year!

That scenario would be a heck of lot better than you’re current practice of dumping fish waste at sea. Yeah, that’s right, dumping fish waste at sea. We’ll talk about that dirty little secret on an upcoming blog. Stay tuned.

Lack of sockeye in Alaska, but we’re still killing ‘em!

It always amazes us that the human population seems satisfied to catch every last salmon out there regardless of sustainability.

In a recent article in the Kodiak Daily Mirror, journalist Derek Clarkston reports on the lack of sockeye salmon in the Buskin River, near Kodiak, Alaska.

So you’d assume that locals and tourists might be using words like ‘conservation’ and ‘restrictive action’. But no, instead, we get quotes like this:

“ Despite a lack of fish, people are still flocking to the river in hopes of reeling in a winner”

“This is just a convenient river to fish…”

“It could be worse, there could be no fish at all.”

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

“The Only True Wild Salmon…” : WWF

The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) was recently quoted as stating, “The only truly wild salmon is one that hatched from an egg in a gravel bed of a river.” Good for WWF to use its “outside voice”!

According to Seafood Intelligence dot com, this belief is echoed by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

MSC

This was in response to a new study published by Oregon State University. The study determined that hatchery raised steelhead that were born from two hatchery raised fish could be significantly less productive than a steelhead born of two wild parents or even one of each.

We wonder if anyone involved in the Alaska salmon industry will bother to read the study? Alaska introduces 1.5 billion salmon into the Pacific Ocean each year – over 40% of the salmon caught in Alaska is a hatchery raised salmon. We’re not going to bother to do the math, but we’re quite sure the odds are that there’s quite a bit of “wife swapping” going on in Alaska (we’re only talking salmon here people) and that will certainly have a serious affect on the gene pool.

“The message should be clear’”, Oregon researchers claim, “Captive breeding for reintroduction or supplementation can have a serious, long-term downside…”

Hmmmm, so the best thing may be to actually keep the farmed salmon captive for their entire lifecycle thus preventing them from intermingling with wild salmon. Maybe it should be called “salmon farming”. What a great idea!

A good reason NOT to listen to Fabien Cousteau

No doubt the man is nice to look at, but does that mean he actually knows what he’s talking about. Well, when it comes to aquaculture, apparently he’s a fish out of water (that will be the last pun, we promise).

In a recent article, called “9 Reasons to Listen to Fabien Cousteau“, he preaches about a number of things from DDT in Orca whales to plastic piles in the ocean. But then, predictably, he veers off into the typical “farm-raised salmon bad, wild salmon good” rant.

He says it takes 12 pounds of forage fish (anchovies etc) to produce one pound of farm-raised salmon. WTF? Even the most slanted estimate has the ratio at about 3:1 – but 12:1? His grandfather must be rolling in his grave. He must know that the same forage fish (which has been fished sustainably for decades by the way) is also fed to chickens, pigs, dogs, cats and other aquaculture species such as trout and shrimp. None of the fore-mentioned consumers are as efficient as salmon. Current diets have salmon converting forage fish to marketable salmon at about 1.7:1. So why does he only pick on one consumer of forage fish?

He then goes on to recommend the Seafood Watch as a good source of what not to eat and what is good to eat. Wouldn’t ya know it, the Seafood Watch recommends staying away from farm-raised salmon and, of course, gives Alaskan “wild” salmon the green light. So, does the fact that 1 in 3 Alaska salmon are cultured by man and consume more (per capita) forage fish than farm-raised salmon factor into this…

Of course it doesn’t, why would facts get in the way of a good, emotional, politically motivated, de-marketing campaign?

Dear Fabien, just a reminder of what your grandaddy said a few years ago;

“We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about – farming replacing hunting”.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997)

Need we say any more?

Fisherman Direct…ly lying to you!

On on-line salmon buying website does it’s best to promote Alaskan salmon. Too bad it feels that it has to attack the competition in order to boost sales. In the “commonly asked questions” page, it veers off from the positive into the slanderous “why you shouldn’t buy farmed salmon” rhetoric that consumers are growing tired of.

Here’s just one example of a flat-out lie taken directly from their site;

Q: Are all Salmon in Alaska Wild? A: YES, All the salmon found in Alaskan waters are wild! In fact it is illegal to farm salmon in Alaska.

We call bullshit on that one:

Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation, Alaska (salmon farm)

For more information on salmon farming in Alaska, click here.