Much has been said about salmon fisheries. There's a lot fo negativity regarding them which is bad for te industry and fish lovers. Yet there's an alternative that may be helpful. Salmon farms on land. Can thos work? The answer is yes.
Regular contributor Melissa CLark wrote about this new revolution in today's New York Times Food Wednesday section. Salmon farming may be next to any other farm.In the past most ave been located on the coast whic comes with its' own host of problems.One, these have bigger carbon footprints than a farm with sheep or cows. They create overcrowding of the nearby ecosystems as the fish are allowed to grow in open net areas.It means waters polluted with fish waste along wit other pollution and also promotes the growth of diesases and sea llice. These in turn bring on the need for more pollutants such as antibiotics and pesticides. Then there is the problem of the salmon escaping and breeding with other kinds of salmon which can wreak havoc on the local population. The end result is a new hybrid spawn that can't sustain itse;f and can't make it past the spawn stage.Of course the biggest problem to salmon fisheries is the ocean itself. Warming waters are making it impossible to find a decent site to breed.
This is where land farms come in. Ms. Clark visited one in Auburn, new York in the Finger Lakes area. A former factory is home to thousands of coho slamon. Theyglide throuh a safe ecosystem of fresh water that recirculates through biofilters every thirty minutes. It mimics a deep seas environment with the lights dimmed to a deep aqau glow, almost giving the fish a glowing look. More farms like this are being built. Atlantic Sappbire is out of Florida and despite setbacks and will break even in the next year 2024. More farms will be built . According to Brian Vinci, the director of the Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute,a nionprofit conservation program, land based fisheries are the way to go especially for an American public that wants high quality protein without increasing dependence on imported seafood. Farms like Atlantic Sapphure will be able to increase its volume to 220,000 metric tons of salmon. America is only twenty five to thirty years away of replacing all foreign fish coming from Poland ,Scandinavia and Japan with US bred fish.THis means more affordable fis on the table.
Salmon is America's favorite fish. Thanks to theis new type of fishery , more and more Americans will be able to enjoy it.Land farming not only benefits the environment but the people too.
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