Farming Fish

[Nobby Ford]

How viable is it it to farm bass/cod to lighten the pressure on fish stocks? What sort of levels would need to be produced for it to work? Other than the dangers of mixing farmed with wild fish, why is not done on any kind of scale inthis country?

Bit of an open question really, but would be really interested to hear opinions.

 

Cheers,

 

Nobby

[Guest jay_con]

Bass is already farmed and in big quantaties. Trouble is its trendy to eat wild sea bass. Blame it on the posh restaurents down south.

[jabee]

Did I read that there is about about a 5:1 ratio between the volume of fishfeed used compared to the volume of edible fish produced.

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

Yup you are correct jabee, but there is a solution to that problem. Rather than the commercials dumping bycatch over the side, if they were forced to land it as part of their quota, then it could be used towards the feed for farmed fish.

There aint a solution to the enviromental impact of the cages though

[stan4massey]

Much as I hate to do it I have to admit that Davys` idea is damned sound. I dont get involved too much in the political side, i.e government papers, statistics etc, the`re usually a load of excrement compiled to suit whomsoever commissioned the particular study, (is the bottle half empty or half full???) I just move further afield and catch fish (now and then). Anyway that is a sound idea, landing the by-catch as, say offal, and having it turned into food for farmed fish

 

Is there any mileage in that sort of thing. Is it yet another point that could be put to the MP`s showing that anglers are thinking along responsible lines??? Surely there must be factories already on line that could handle such by-catches and process them.

 

Only food for thought.(no pun intended)

 

Dont like to agree with you too much Davy, what environmenatl impact?? A few tons of steel, mesh and nets and the **** from some farmed salmon or whatever is probably less of an impact than the "rubby dubby" used in the 70`s from the cornwall / devon shark boats.

[Ian Burrett]

Fish farming has it's own set of problems that i believe needs a public enquiry to find fact or fiction.

 

I can read a report from either side and believe both arguments.

 

From what I can gather, it is the placing of the farm that is the important issue. It is easier for the farms to be placed in sheltered lochs with no tide but this means the waste doesn't get flushed away.

 

There is also problems with farmed fish lice geting into the wild stock.

 

If farming can be proven to be enviromentally friendly then they are the obvious way forward.

 

Davy

Would there be enough oils/proteins in the discards? It's only a guess but don't they use sandeel etc for its high oil/protein content.

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

thud!!! that was me falling off my chair Stan

 

Re the Oils/ proteins, I'm not sure Ian however given that they do land a lot of Blue Whiting and other so called trash fish for fishmeal, I would suspect that there must be enough.

[stan4massey]

thud!!! that was me falling off my chair Stan

 

Do`nt get complacent Davy, it wont last! Anyway its a fairly good idea and I dont see that there can`t be mileage in it. I aint no scientist, marine biologist or anything close but I can only assume that over a year in the UK there must be thousands if not tens of thousands of by-catch dumped. That must run into thousands of gallons of oil of some sort that could be processed and of course the actual fish meal itself. (put it into fish cakes and sell it to the chinese or french, they eat any old s##t) Aside point on that. About three years ago "she who must be obeyed" went to see her brother in Sydney, Oz. She stopped off in Singapore on the way back and brought me goodies from the airport. Being a trusting soul I assumed they were crisps or similar and chucked a handfull into the mouth, yeeouch! It was a mixture of insects, tiny fish about an inch long, crisps of some sort and general gunge. With that in mind why sell them the fishcakes, sell them the oil as tea.

[wurzel]

Then there's the fact that farmed fish taste like salmon pellets.

 

I like the idea of landing the discards for fish meal and deducting them from the boats quota, so long as the fishermen don't get paid for them, it would soon eliminate discards.

[stan4massey]

Davy, told you it would`nt last. That we bit you put on your messages " skate anglers have bigger tackle" ! Putting wishfull thinking aside on your part (go on Orca, stick your tuppence worth in), is this bigger tackle in relation to marlin, swordfish, shark, tarpon, grouper anglers or just pout and sewer sniffers.?????