Farming Fish

[sam-cox]

the best fish farmer is mother nature, and the best fish farm would be to manage our sea fisheries, the trouble is the sea is looked after by a bunch of gready beggers.

[Norm B]

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.

:cool: I don't have a problem with the fishermen being paid the market rate for discards if they come off their quota, we can't expect them to lose both ways.

[sam-cox]

Norm, why not, us anglers have lost the best of our sports fishery.

[Bob Jerunkel]

I think wursels idea is a good un.If they were paid they could target undersize fish when there wasn't anything else to catch.As the man said,if it came off their quota and they didn't get paid for it,it would soon put a stop to discards.

[sam-cox]

Fair point Bob, I get the feeling that many of the discards get disgarded through the fish merchants back door any how, so they may as well make it leagal.

[Bob Jerunkel]

Being slippery they would probably still throw it back dead.

[JB]

Fishing News, 5th August this year, front page article headlines: “Stocks ‘best for a decade’ says skipper after bumper trip”; second page article headlines: “1720 boxes in 9 days’ fishing!” Many comments were made on this forum about these two headlines. To my knowledge, no-one commented on the tiny article on page 5: “Organic cod farming gets off the ground in Shetland”. Briefly, a company hopes to achieve organic status for its farmed cod later this summer, and wants to produce 15,000 tonnes of the product annually by 2010. It is also planning to establish other cod farms in the Shetlands.

 

In my view, cod farming is far more damaging to angling and commercial fishing than what was reported on the front two pages of the Fishing News. Unless another source is found, farmed cod will be fed on pellets produced from fishmeal and fish oil. Fish meal and fish oil at present predominately comes from industrial fishing - or ‘feed fishing’, as it is known.

 

I am, and always have been, against industrial fishing. They say it takes 5 tons of feed fish to raise 1 ton of farmed fish. If that is true, would it be a reasonable assumption to say that the same 5 tons of feed fish would also raise 1 ton of wild fish?

 

Industrial feed fishing and food/recreational fishing under the present conditions of our seas are not compatible. Whether they ever were is debateable. A farmer cannot cut and remove grass for hay, and keep cows in the same field. I know it’s not as simple as that, but you will get my drift. If the EU wants cod farming, and consequently a great increase in industrial fishing, then they should let us know, help the commercial fishermen to get out of the job, and encourage anglers to take up golf. If, on the other hand, they want recreational and food fishing they must stop or greatly reduce feed fishing, and discourage cod farming until another food source for the farmed cod can be found.

 

John Brennan

Edited October 26, 2005 by John and Michele

[loch awe pike]

Well i would just like to give a fish farmers point of veiw on the subject of feed.

I hear all the time of quotes that it takes between 3 and five ton of fish meal to produce 1 ton of salmon. in my experiance as a fish farmer (which is 15 years)i think that it would be impossible to feed salmon 5 ton of feed and receive only one ton growth. we have a system that monitors how much feed we use, and it involves a simple calculation which is Total feed fed divided by total weight gained this gives you a feed conversion ratio. In my line of work the target of this feed coversion ratio is 1.1 to 1 now that spelled out is 1.1 ton of fish feed to produce 1 ton of salmon. now i dont think that is unreasonable do any of you?

 

Now i am also a very keen angler i also have an interest in wild fish stocks also.and the reason i belive that nothing is done about replenishing wild stocks is MONEY! who is going to pay for it? and who is supposed to pay for it?

The technology is available today its just no one will foot the bill to get it going. The answer is that fish reared for the wild are returned to the wild before they reach the stage that they require an artificial diet and allowed to fend for them selves. It then is just a case of numbers which is why fish lay down so many eggs in the wild. But hatchery techniques today can improve survival rates of eggs by first of all improving the fertilization at stripping then by good husbandry while they are incubating.

Once the fish hatch they should be returned to their natural environment to fend for themselves let instinct take its course. this needs to be continued until the fish stocks are healthy enough to sustaine them selves while still under commercial pressure.

I could keep going but i wont but i will say that its nice to know that people are thinking about and that every comment made shows that thought has gone into this subject.

they say that fishermen are the worst fish farmers because they expect perfection every time.

[Jaffa]

John,

 

They say it takes 5 tons of feed fish to raise 1 ton of farmed fish. If that is true, would it be a reasonable assumption to say that the same 5 tons of feed fish would also raise 1 ton of wild fish?

As I understand it no; for wild fish it would be more like 10 to 12 tonnes. Farmed fish don't have to expend energy on foraging for food, avoiding predators, breeding etc.

 

That said, the diet of eg a wild cod will consist of a lot more variety than just "industrial fish".

 

Loch Awe Pike,

 

i think that it would be impossible to feed salmon 5 ton of feed and receive only one ton growth. we have a system that monitors how much feed we use, and it involves a simple calculation which is Total feed fed divided by total weight gained this gives you a feed conversion ratio. In my line of work the target of this feed coversion ratio is 1.1 to 1 now that spelled out is 1.1 ton of fish feed to produce 1 ton of salmon. now i dont think that is unreasonable do any of you?

 

This ratio (which is at the end of a fishmeal process that removes most the moisture and then other things are added in) is different to where people are talking about tonnes of wet fish. The ratios that fishfarming gets are indeed fantastic, and way ahead of any land farming but I think your wrong to make this particular comparison.

 

 

Chris

[Sandison]

Well i would just like to give a fish farmers point of veiw on the subject of feed.

I hear all the time of quotes that it takes between 3 and five ton of fish meal to produce 1 ton of salmon. in my experiance as a fish farmer (which is 15 years)i think that it would be impossible to feed salmon 5 ton of feed and receive only one ton growth. we have a system that monitors how much feed we use, and it involves a simple calculation which is Total feed fed divided by total weight gained this gives you a feed conversion ratio. In my line of work the target of this feed coversion ratio is 1.1 to 1 now that spelled out is 1.1 ton of fish feed to produce 1 ton of salmon. now i dont think that is unreasonable do any of you?

 

Now i am also a very keen angler i also have an interest in wild fish stocks also.and the reason i belive that nothing is done about replenishing wild stocks is MONEY! who is going to pay for it? and who is supposed to pay for it?

The technology is available today its just no one will foot the bill to get it going. The answer is that fish reared for the wild are returned to the wild before they reach the stage that they require an artificial diet and allowed to fend for them selves. It then is just a case of numbers which is why fish lay down so many eggs in the wild. But hatchery techniques today can improve survival rates of eggs by first of all improving the fertilization at stripping then by good husbandry while they are incubating.

Once the fish hatch they should be returned to their natural environment to fend for themselves let instinct take its course. this needs to be continued until the fish stocks are healthy enough to sustaine them selves while still under commercial pressure.

I could keep going but i wont but i will say that its nice to know that people are thinking about and that every comment made shows that thought has gone into this subject.

they say that fishermen are the worst fish farmers because they expect perfection every time.