Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[alwaysfishn]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/30/146083919/pacific-mackerel-stocks-that-feed-farmed-salmon-in-decline

Pacific Mackerel Stocks That Feed Farmed Salmon In Decline

Farmed salmon, that ubiquitous pink fish decorated with ribbons of fat, can thank the forage fish of the southern Pacific ocean – like anchovy and jack mackerel – for their calorie-rich diet. Indeed, more than 5 pounds of jack mackerel typically can go towards raising one pound of farmed salmon.

But that food supply – and the ocean ecosystem that supports it — may be in peril, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. According to scientists the ICIJ spoke to, "supertrawler" fishing vessels from Asia, Europe and Latin America have contributed to a 63 percent decline in jack mackerel stocks since 2006. At the current rate of overfishing, the world's stock of jack mackerel, which is largely located off the coast of Chile, could collapse soon.

"This is the last of the buffaloes," Daniel Pauly, an oceanographer at the University of British Columbia, told ICIJ. "When they're gone, everything will be gone ... This is the closing of the frontier."

Concerns about the environmental impacts of feeding and raising farmed salmon are one reason Target has eliminated the product from its stores. Instead, the big-box chain sells wild-caught salmon in all its stores nationwide.

ICIJ says that the Southern Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, the organization responsible for managing jack mackerel stocks, has been unable to stop overfishing. Only six countries have ratified an agreement it formulated to protect the fish. The group is holding its annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, this week.

Two Chilean fishing companies are some of the most powerful players in the jack mackerel trade — they control 29.3 percent of the jack mackerel quota set by the Chilean government, ICIF says. And they supply 5.5 percent of the world's fishmeal.

As NPR's Kristofor Husted has reported, some scientists are exploring ways to make new fish feed using renewable sources, such as biofuel co-products, poultry by-products, soybeans and so on.

The investigation is the third in ICFJ's series "Looting the Seas," which has also looked at the black market in bluefin tuna, and how fishing subsidies in Spain have built up a bloated fleet that is partly responsible for the depletion of Europe's fish stocks.

[alwaysfishn]

Local herring population at risk
But DFO officials insist new quota allotment is well below recommended take

December 23, 2011

Goodbye herring, goodbye salmon, goodbye dolphins.

With the Department of Fisheries (DFO) increasing the winter food and bait fishing on herring populations, Howe Sound can wave goodbye to the resurgence of marine life it has seen in recent years, warns Jonn Matsen, co-ordinator of the Howe Sound Herring Recovery Project.

Matsen and the Squamish Streamkeepers have been trying revitalize the local herring population since the discovery of dead herring eggs on the Squamish Terminal’s creosote pilings in 2006. Chemicals in creosote kill herring eggs, so volunteers are wrapping the pilings with protective material to ensure their survival.

Their work has proved fruitful. Early this year, an estimated 600 tonnes of herring returned to Squamish to spawn. It’s a good start, Matsen said, but nowhere near the 2,000 tonnes of the silver-coloured fish that used to breed on Squamish’s shoreline in the 1960s.

“[Fisheries] are saying all runs are in good shape, but that’s simply not true,” Matsen said.

From February until the end of April, DFO officials are allowing fishing boats to haul up to 6,000 tonnes of herring out of southwestern B.C. waters, approximately 5,700 more tonnes than last year.

DFO categorizes the herring population as migratory, overlooking resident populations — such as Howe Sound’s school — that communities have been fighting to rehabilitate, Matsen said. Only one of the Strait of Georgia’s resident schools is in good shape, he said, and it’s around Denman Island. Matsen is concerned resident populations could be wiped out in the 6,000-tonne take.

“The Squamish run could easily get mixed up,” he said. “They are going to do a massacre out in the Strait.”

The new herring food and bait fisheries number is a re-allocation rather than an increase, said Lisa Mijacika, DFO’s pelagics coordinator. In the 1980s and ’90s the sale of herring roe was the fish’s primary commercial use. With the Japanese yen down and demographic in the country changing, the demand for herring roe isn’t as great as it once was. The commercial fisheries want to try and develop more of a food-based market for the fish, Mijacika said.

This year 23,000 tonnes of herring has been allocated for commercial purposes. Of that, 11,500 tonnes will come from the roe fishery — down 2,000 tonnes from last year — and 6,000 tonnes will come from food and bait fisheries, Mijacika said, noting the total sum is still below the allotment.

“From a management point of view we are staying well below that maximum yield that science has recommended to us,” she said.

DFO officials estimate 150,000 tonnes of herring make up the Strait of Georgia stock. So far 1,400 tonnes have been caught, Mijacika said.

“The resident stocks that people are concerned about are generally the smaller fish, which they are not trying to catch,” she added.

In old literature, local or resident herring stocks are referred to as “stay behinds” and “homesteaders,” said Jake Schweigert, DFO herring biologist at Nanaimo’s Pacific Biological Station.

“There is a thought that some of these fish may not have enough energy to migrate out to the West Coast,” he said.

It’s difficult to say whether resident schools exist or not, Schweigert continued. The herring in Howe Sound may be a more local population, as it’s his understanding that the runs spawns at a different time than the migratory group. This would allow for genetic differences because the school is not interbreeding, Schweigert said.

That also boosts their rate of survival, as they likely won’t be with the migratory group during the fishing-season opening, he noted.

Every year, DFO officials estimate the herring population size by sending a team of divers into the water to survey herring egg beds. They estimate the density, width and length and then estimate the number of female herring needed to produce those eggs. That number is doubled to give scientists the minimum population size. Fishers is allowed to harvest 20 per cent of that quota.

“Twenty per cent is a recommended maximum, but in the last few years we haven’t fished the 20 per cent,” Schweigert said.

http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20111223/SQUAMISH0101/312239960/-1/SQUAMISH/local-herring-population-at-risk-matsen

[Dave]

Local herring population at risk
But DFO officials insist new quota allotment is well below recommended take

December 23, 2011

Goodbye herring, goodbye salmon, goodbye dolphins.

With the Department of Fisheries (DFO) increasing the winter food and bait fishing on herring populations, Howe Sound can wave goodbye to the resurgence of marine life it has seen in recent years, warns Jonn Matsen, co-ordinator of the Howe Sound Herring Recovery Project.

Matsen and the Squamish Streamkeepers have been trying revitalize the local herring population since the discovery of dead herring eggs on the Squamish Terminal’s creosote pilings in 2006. Chemicals in creosote kill herring eggs, so volunteers are wrapping the pilings with protective material to ensure their survival.

Their work has proved fruitful. Early this year, an estimated 600 tonnes of herring returned to Squamish to spawn. It’s a good start, Matsen said, but nowhere near the 2,000 tonnes of the silver-coloured fish that used to breed on Squamish’s shoreline in the 1960s.

“[Fisheries] are saying all runs are in good shape, but that’s simply not true,” Matsen said.

From February until the end of April, DFO officials are allowing fishing boats to haul up to 6,000 tonnes of herring out of southwestern B.C. waters, approximately 5,700 more tonnes than last year.

DFO categorizes the herring population as migratory, overlooking resident populations — such as Howe Sound’s school — that communities have been fighting to rehabilitate, Matsen said. Only one of the Strait of Georgia’s resident schools is in good shape, he said, and it’s around Denman Island. Matsen is concerned resident populations could be wiped out in the 6,000-tonne take.

“The Squamish run could easily get mixed up,” he said. “They are going to do a massacre out in the Strait.”

The new herring food and bait fisheries number is a re-allocation rather than an increase, said Lisa Mijacika, DFO’s pelagics coordinator. In the 1980s and ’90s the sale of herring roe was the fish’s primary commercial use. With the Japanese yen down and demographic in the country changing, the demand for herring roe isn’t as great as it once was. The commercial fisheries want to try and develop more of a food-based market for the fish, Mijacika said.

This year 23,000 tonnes of herring has been allocated for commercial purposes. Of that, 11,500 tonnes will come from the roe fishery — down 2,000 tonnes from last year — and 6,000 tonnes will come from food and bait fisheries, Mijacika said, noting the total sum is still below the allotment.

“From a management point of view we are staying well below that maximum yield that science has recommended to us,” she said.

DFO officials estimate 150,000 tonnes of herring make up the Strait of Georgia stock. So far 1,400 tonnes have been caught, Mijacika said.

“The resident stocks that people are concerned about are generally the smaller fish, which they are not trying to catch,” she added.

In old literature, local or resident herring stocks are referred to as “stay behinds” and “homesteaders,” said Jake Schweigert, DFO herring biologist at Nanaimo’s Pacific Biological Station.

“There is a thought that some of these fish may not have enough energy to migrate out to the West Coast,” he said.

It’s difficult to say whether resident schools exist or not, Schweigert continued. The herring in Howe Sound may be a more local population, as it’s his understanding that the runs spawns at a different time than the migratory group. This would allow for genetic differences because the school is not interbreeding, Schweigert said.

That also boosts their rate of survival, as they likely won’t be with the migratory group during the fishing-season opening, he noted.

Every year, DFO officials estimate the herring population size by sending a team of divers into the water to survey herring egg beds. They estimate the density, width and length and then estimate the number of female herring needed to produce those eggs. That number is doubled to give scientists the minimum population size. Fishers is allowed to harvest 20 per cent of that quota.

“Twenty per cent is a recommended maximum, but in the last few years we haven’t fished the 20 per cent,” Schweigert said.

http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20111223/SQUAMISH0101/312239960/-1/SQUAMISH/local-herring-population-at-risk-matsen

This topic has been discussed at length on Flybc.  The concensus there is this is another poor decision by DFO. 

[VAGAbond]

This debate over local vs ocean Herring is an old one.    DFO has for many years managed Georgia Strait Herring as a single stock.   It is my understanding that at the south end of this Salish Sea our American cousins manage the Puget Sound Herring stocks as many individual stocks.   Somebody is doing it wrong.

[chris gadsden]

This topic has been discussed at length on Flybc.  The concensus there is this is another poor decision by DFO. 

Yes another and you know what one of the others is as well.

[absolon]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/30/146083919/pacific-mackerel-stocks-that-feed-farmed-salmon-in-decline

Pacific Mackerel Stocks That Feed Farmed Salmon In Decline

Farmed salmon, that ubiquitous pink fish decorated with ribbons of fat, can thank the forage fish of the southern Pacific ocean – like anchovy and jack mackerel – for their calorie-rich diet. Indeed, more than 5 pounds of jack mackerel typically can go towards raising one pound of farmed salmon.

But that food supply – and the ocean ecosystem that supports it — may be in peril, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. According to scientists the ICIJ spoke to, "supertrawler" fishing vessels from Asia, Europe and Latin America have contributed to a 63 percent decline in jack mackerel stocks since 2006. At the current rate of overfishing, the world's stock of jack mackerel, which is largely located off the coast of Chile, could collapse soon.

"This is the last of the buffaloes," Daniel Pauly, an oceanographer at the University of British Columbia, told ICIJ. "When they're gone, everything will be gone ... This is the closing of the frontier."

Concerns about the environmental impacts of feeding and raising farmed salmon are one reason Target has eliminated the product from its stores. Instead, the big-box chain sells wild-caught salmon in all its stores nationwide.

ICIJ says that the Southern Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, the organization responsible for managing jack mackerel stocks, has been unable to stop overfishing. Only six countries have ratified an agreement it formulated to protect the fish. The group is holding its annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, this week.

Two Chilean fishing companies are some of the most powerful players in the jack mackerel trade — they control 29.3 percent of the jack mackerel quota set by the Chilean government, ICIF says. And they supply 5.5 percent of the world's fishmeal.

As NPR's Kristofor Husted has reported, some scientists are exploring ways to make new fish feed using renewable sources, such as biofuel co-products, poultry by-products, soybeans and so on.

The investigation is the third in ICFJ's series "Looting the Seas," which has also looked at the black market in bluefin tuna, and how fishing subsidies in Spain have built up a bloated fleet that is partly responsible for the depletion of Europe's fish stocks.

I suspect that you haven't bothered even reading the investigation behind that news report you're quoting just as you didn't bother reading the information on fish meal production and use I provided for you in post 644 of the ISA thread the last time you made specious comments about salmon farming's use of fish meal. http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=28342.msg278681#msg278681

If you had gone back to the source, you would have realized the investigation pointed out that the problem is caused by overfishing by the commercial fishing industry, not by the salmon farming industry that uses about 12% of the world's fish meal production.

[alwaysfishn]

I'm never sure about your comments.....  Are your blinders limiting your view of the big picture, or is everything you post dictated to you by the salmon feedlot business?

Overfishing is a big problem (and getting bigger) with respect to catching fishmeal for the aquaculture industry of which salmon farming is a significant portion. Of course the commercial fishing of these feed fish is a problem. Only about 1% of the world's oceans are regulated....  that leaves 99% of the oceans as a free for all with no limits on the amount of fish that they catch. If the aquaculture industry (including the salmon feedlots) didn't require the fishmeal, there would be no incentive for the commercial fleets to catch increasing numbers of fishmeal stock. As demand grows, the prices rise, creating more pressure on these feed fish.

While the majority of the aquaculture industry raises fish that take less than a 2:1 ratio of wildfish per kg of fish produced, the salmon feedlots are using wild fish on a ratio as high as 7:1. While many forms of aquaculture are using increasing amounts of grains as fish food, the salmon feedlots will always require fishmeal, otherwise their product wouldn't resemble a salmon.

That is a grossly inefficient use of a resource and is having a devastating effect on all ocean's fish.

[absolon]

I'm always sure about your comments. They're always a mile wide and a quarter inch deep.

Fish meal comprises roughly 30% of the diet fed with the balance being not fish meal. Conversion ratios can be as good as 1.2 units of diet fed to weight gained. At 1.2 to 1 conversion, the fish get fed 0.36 units of fish meal for every unit of weight gain. Obviously, your suggestion that fish are fed up to seven units of fish meal for every unit of growth is right out to lunch.

As you would realize if you had followed up on the information I provided you in the first place, terrestrial livestock feeding consumes many times the amount of meal as salmon feeding and yet has no need for the constituent amino acids that are the reason the meal is fed to fish. Other forms of aquaculture also consume many times the  amount of meal fed to salmon and that consumption is growing, not shrinking. The amount of meal produced from the waste from fish processing for human consumption is more than twice the amount of meal fed to salmon.

Instead of complaining about the smallest user of meal, you should be complaining about the largest users, and you should be asking yourself why the pigs and chickens you eat are being fed many times the amount of fish meal that is fed to salmon. You should also ask yourself why commercial fishermen are allowed to destroy the fishery while you, rather than blaming them, blame the salmon farms. Oh wait! That's what you reactionaries are doing in BC. It's what you know how to do; you've had lots of practice and you're pretty good at it even if you aren't very accurate..

[alwaysfishn]

Fish meal comprises roughly 30% of the diet fed with the balance being not fish meal. Conversion ratios can be as good as 1.2 units of diet fed to weight gained. At 1.2 to 1 conversion, the fish get fed 0.36 units of fish meal for every unit of weight gain. Obviously, your suggestion that fish are fed up to seven units of fish meal for every unit of growth is right out to lunch.

I was going to ask you to provide links to your numbers, but I'll spare you the embarrassment. I realize there is a lot of controversy about how inefficient the salmon farming industry is in converting wild fish to feedlot salmon. Because of this the industry seems to use a variety of ways to express the ratios.

It takes 5-6 kg of wild fish to make 1 kg of fishmeal. http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/200/the-benefits-of-fish-meal-in-aquaculture-diets  The Global Aquaculture Alliances certification conversion standards are currently set at 2.5 to 1. They state by 2016 that they would like it lowered to 1.6 to 1. Tacon & Metian’s analysis suggests the global conversion rate is 5 to 1. http://www.iffo.net/downloads/EAS%20FIFO%20September2009%202.pdf  Other sources suggest the ratio is as high as 10 to 1.

And you are stating that the feedlots are attaining a .36 to 1 ratio!?  Are you serious? 

[absolon]

Let me quote your original statement:

While the majority of the aquaculture industry raises fish that take less than a 2:1 ratio of fishmeal per kg of fish produced, the salmon feedlots are using fishmeal on a ratio as high as 7:1.

It certainly looks to me as if you are suggesting that it takes 7 units of fish meal to produce 1 unit of salmon.

Let me repeat my comment:

Your numbers are out to lunch

Edit: It occurs to me that I need to explain some of the basics you obviously haven't grasped. The salmon farms buy the feed they use by weight. They measure the amount of feed they give the fish and compare that to the growth to determine the Feed Conversion Ratio. They don't use many ways of measuring FCR, they use this single one and that is why it is called the Feed Conversion Ratio, not the Fish Meal Conversion Ratio. The feed contains approximately 30% meal as well as other ingredients and the FCR is a measure of the total amount of ingredients fed to the total weight gain resulting from that feed. A feed conversion ratio of 1.2:1 means that the meal component of that measure of feed that produces 1 unit of growth contains .36 units of meal. In short, it means that, given the diet fed, farms can attain 1 unit of weight gain for every .36 units of fish meal fed. The remaining .84 units of other ingredients also contribute to that weight gain and need to be considered if one is to understand the dynamic at work.

It also occurs to me that you haven't explained why pigs and chickens need to be fed more than twice as much fish meal as is fed to salmon, and when they are, what feed conversion ratio they obtain. Why doesn't that also raise your ire?

[alwaysfishn]

I've corrected my original post.

Besides using up to 10 kilograms of wild fish to produce only 1 kilogram of feedlot salmon, salmon feedlots pollute the ocean, spread diseases to wild salmon, and produce an inferior product containing high levels of PCB's.

Your response reflects the feedlot business's attitude towards the environment they are abusing. Instead of admitting the feedlots are very inefficient at converting wild fish to product, you argue that all you know is that the fishmeal comes in little bags which you feed to the salmon and that's how you calculate your ratios. Maybe you should do a little research to learn what they put in those little bags of fish food....

It also occurs to me that you haven't explained why pigs and chickens need to be fed more than twice as much fish meal as is fed to salmon, and when they are, what feed conversion ratio they obtain. Why doesn't that also raise your ire?

The thread title is "Salmon farming depleting the ocean's fish stocks". If you would like to start a thread about pigs and chickens, please be my guest.  

[aquapaloosa]

AF seems to think it is fine to compare BC  salmon farming to cigarets like his buddy stanford, but when comparisons are presented between salmon farms, pork and chicken he simply refuses to look at it.

I see how you role AF.

[alwaysfishn]

AF seems to think it is fine to compare BC  salmon farming to cigarets like his buddy stanford, but when comparisons are presented between salmon farms, pork and chicken he simply refuses to look at it.

I see how you role AF.

There are obviously at least 2 people interested in pigs and chickens. Maybe your post will encourage Absolon to start that pig/chicken thread......   I look forward to reading it. 

[absolon]

I've corrected my original post.

Besides using up to 10 kilograms of wild fish to produce only 1 kilogram of feedlot salmon, salmon feedlots pollute the ocean, spread diseases to wild salmon, and produce an inferior product containing high levels of PCB's.

Your response reflects the feedlot business's attitude towards the environment they are abusing. Instead of admitting the feedlots are very inefficient at converting wild fish to product, you argue that all you know is that the fishmeal comes in little bags which you feed to the salmon and that's how you calculate your ratios. Maybe you should do a little research to learn what they put in those little bags of fish food....

The thread title is "Salmon farming depleting the ocean's fish stocks". If you would like to start a thread about pigs and chickens, please be my guest.  

A far more accurate title for the thread given the article you based it on would be "Overfishing is depleting the ocean's fish stocks".

If you had bothered to read the information I provided, you would be aware that fish meal production has been fairly steady for many years. The increasing use in salmon farming has not meant that more is produced. Instead it has meant that less is used for terrestrial animal feed. A decrease in use in salmon farming would simply mean the meal would be used for terrestrial animal feed again. The fishermen who have depleted the world fish stocks aren't fishing for the salmon feed market and don't care where the catch ends up; they are supplying the protein market and that market will take all they can produce. Blaming the salmon farms is the functional equivalent of blaming you for the environmental pollution and damage caused by the oil sands projects because you use oil in your car.

The only way to preserve the fish stocks is to control the fishermen that are overharvesting. That is what that article you based the thread on states and in spite of your entirely predictable attempt to turn it into an indictment of salmon farms, it is the only rational conclusion that can be arrived at.

[alwaysfishn]

The only way to preserve the fish stocks is to control the fishermen that are overharvesting.

Let me help you connect the dots...   Over harvesting by fishermen is a problem because:
a) there is an increasing demand by the aquaculture industry for fishmeal,
b) with the increased demand the market value keeps rising
c) this provides greater incentive for the fishermen to catch these fish  
d) there are no regulations limiting the amount of fish caught by these fishermen.

Limit the salmon feedlots, or eliminate fishmeal from their diet and the problem will be solved!