AUSTRALIAN FISH FARMS ACCUSED OF SPREADING DISEASE

[jaybee]

Australia's plans to treble aquaculture production by 2010 suffered a setback in July when Sun Aqua's proposals to raise up to three million kingfish and snapper in cages off Moreton Island in Queensland were rejected. According to an article in the Courier Mail (15th July): "the findings, from a world-first study, were released as Premier Peter Beattie hinted that the Sun Aqua sea-cage farm might not proceed because it faced regulatory obstacles." Fish biologist Tim Dempster said his studies on a sea-cage kingfish farm at Port Stephens in New South Wales in the Mediterranean showed they attracted vast numbers of fish which fed off uneaten fish food and faeces. Mr. Dempster, who works for the Queensland Seafood Industry Association but carried out the research while at the University of Sydney, said: "Certainly the number of wild fish immediately under sea cages can be hundreds to thousands of times above normal levels." There are also reports that escapees from Kingfish farms are swimming up to 50km from their pens with locals reporting declines in wild fish stocks. To read the entire story, go to:
http://www.salmonfarmmonitor.org/int...03.shtml#item1

--SOURCE: The Salmon Farm Monitor. International News, August 2003.

[Kerry]

Well some of the other comments and articles in that probably isn't what hopefull fish farming stalwarts really want to hear

Cheers, Kerry.

[jaybee]

Yeh some food for thought there Kerry. With so much negative proven impact on the ecology I cannot understand why they still push. Its okay saying we will get it right one day but at what cost. Its almost like a science fiction movie.
cheers
joe.

[Jewmaster]

I think we need to support sustainable fisheries, and breeding fish to eat rather than catching wild stocks is a good idea, but the risks are too high currently, i don;t think we should ignore the optoin and should continue to test diferent ideas, but only in a small scale.

I also think they need to start breeding fish for use as bait. Pilchards, small prawns, squid, ect. Maybe cages i nthe sea isnlt a good idea,they should try to find a cost effective means of doing it on land in ponds or something,

I hope they work it out,Or I don;t see any future for fishing of any type. We are having too much impact on the fish stock, But this doesn;t stop me from fishing.

[jaybee]

jewmaster Explain small scale, Explain small scale devastation of moreton bay, if you read the reports, there is no such thing as small scale, DAMAGE IS DAMAGE AND CANT BE REPAIRED. mho
joseph.

[Gazza]

Look "attracting 100's of 1000's ??? of "outside fish" to feast on steriod/antibiotic/whatever?? pellets AND concentrated fish-poo , can possibly/probably "taint" the trained-feeders...... ??? ???

p.s. a place not too far away ,is Luggage Pt. (human)sewerage works, you DID catch big bream , but they don't always taste too good !! [smiley=chef.gif] [smiley=bomb.gif]

[jaybee]

OH Pooh Gazza

[Jewmaster]

What would you prefer Jaybee, What other options do you see available, How do we create a sustainabale fishery. What will be left for my children to catch in years to come.

When I reffered to small scale, I was reffering to testing different methods of breeding fish. To ellimate the Terrible side effects of current methods. We should try to be constructive, anyone can sit bacl and fling mouthfulls of rubbish at people, but it achieves nothing.

Surely if we identify the key issues, Steriods, fish waste, the attraction of other fish, we should support efforts to try and change the methods.

If you are truly concerned about waste being deposited in our oceans you would HAVE to accept that all the fish cages in Australia, wouldn;t add up to half the waste one water draingage point puts out, all the sewrage points pumping pooh into our oceans, trawlers and ocean liners dumping oil and waste. The HUGE qaunitys of nutrient that our washed into our oceans due to our farming methods inland, HArd core fertiliser and Pestisicides. The find DDT in penguins and they find PCD poisons from termintie killer in ploar bears, none of these poisons are bio degradeable.

I can accpe that these farms are causing damage, but the pressure needs to head towards changing methods and cleaner output from cages ect, No total removal as this will only see fish stocks go backwards.

We will probably never agree, but I hope things improve. In the NT they farm prawns and have been tesing farming fish, all this is done inland, a ong way from any oceans.

[Gazza]

"What will be left for my children to catch in years to come. "

Jewmaster ,haven't we ALL heard that 'line' a zillion times
If not from greenies or enviros or from the "special interest" lock-it-up-mob

we hear it from the trying-to-feed-us-mob, as well

Mate, IF concentrated fish farms(s's's's) are the go ,all the rage,etc.....

Consider this angle....
IF "baitfish" are h-a-m-m-e-r-e-d to feed the 'farms' at any ratio you would like to read about ,your kids (and childrens children ) won't catch a feed at all ,as the wildfish won't catch a feed either.

p.s. small-scale anything isn't feasible ,in profit terms , and wouldn't feed a suburb ,nor anything larger by a longshot.

mate ,respect your POV(and others) , but some things just should NOT happen to possibly ....... "risk your kids (and chilrens children) future"

note:- issue specific ,not a broad statement

Regards
Gazza

[jaybee]

Future fishing for our kids start with us jewie, teaching them the right things. Plus higher size limits, lower bag limits, Catch and release (properly) Its been seen by stopping the netting in pumistone the fishing has improved. I agree with what you say about run off, devestation of mangroves for canal estates and the list goes on. But if you sit for a few hours and really research fish farms, and look at the damage it has done overseas where it is beyond help. Sweden who invented the farms now has most of its fishing fleet just supplying farms and saying in 10 yrs there wont be and food for the fish farms. So where do they fish next in our waters ?? Most of the stocks they catch of se asia for farms is all but depleted. So what then happens to the wild stocks that cant find food?? Some companies have tried land based rearing and that caused a bigger headache then the sea based cages. I personally believe stop now and practice good fishing and we wont need to worry about the future. It sort of reminds me of the movie Soylent Green eh. But thats mho. btw, what happens to the populations health over the years of eating farm raised fish full of steroids and antibiotics?? more questions ???
cheers

[Jewmaster]

Whether you have heard the line a zillion times or not, you should have listened the first time. Currently my children will never expereince the fishing and the amazing sites I have seen, whether it is a catch phrase or not, its TRUE.

Simple point, I DONT EAT FISH. I love fishing and most of my catch goes straight back, I give some fish to my parents and grandparents.

I don;t beleive we can reach a sustainable level of fishing becuase our population continues to increase every year, and our in take of sea food is also increasing.

Have to accept, that Im not well imformed about fish cages, But I have noticed a huge decrease in fish populations here in Darwin, For gods sake in Darwin, we have a tiny population and ours beaches and resorts are heavily impacted, the deap water and off shore fishing is still okay, but alot of the costa fishing is screwed unless you drive 3 hours out of town.

Maybe we need to focus on returning twice as many bread juveniles to the ocean for every one we take out, than we might start to head back towards where it was, but this isn't acievable, maybe more fish stocking is the plan, andnot just target species, restock, pi;chards and mullet and squid and the smaller fry that disappears wihtout us noricing.

[jaybee]

Maybe we need to focus on returning twice as many bread juveniles to the ocean

I believe this is being trialled in sydney with recently quite a few thousand juvenile jew were released into the bay. I believe they are trialling snapper at bribie island, but lucky phil is better to ask then me? Breading fish to a size to be released hasn't the ramafications of breeding in the ocean to commercial size. So i am lead to beleive.
cheers.

[Kerry]

but alot of the costal fishing is screwed unless you drive 3 hours out of town.

That probably applies to just about every coastal town in the country and obviously the common thread is people, people and more people and some bloody ignorant minded people at that who generally have the hide to sit on their hill side retreats, hoseing the fertilizer into their lawns while complaining about the state of the waterways and rivers and blaming the bloody fisherman 'cause there's no fish in close anymore.

This is a common basic problem as where there are people, the country the waterways and rivers simply won't be the same at where there's none.

Cheers, Kerry.

[jaybee]

Kerry whilst in Brisbane a few weeks ago i noticed around the botanic city garden and the goodwill bridge that sand is starting to reappear where once was mud. still a bit dirty but in some places the colour of sand. Lets hope its not too little too late, but then there is still major buiding going further up the river, where once there were farms, so which is worst, run off from suburbia or farms. aarrgghhhh

there is some interesting reading here, i don't agree with all of it tho but you get that
http://www.mccn.org.au/qld/default.asp?page=projects

Some photos of building a new suburbia

http://www.rag.org.au/pollution/july99.htm

Some interesting reading here

http://www.rag.org.au/default.htm

oh by the way i am not a greenie, just a concerned citizen, once while in the army we were called into a protest site to clean up after the greenies, they left more mess then the contractors, emty food cans, and all the other rubbish that is associated with camping.
cheers
joe.

[PinHead]

I don't have a problem catching a feed when I go fishing. I stick to tried and proven methods..I use bait..never use plastics or lures...have been fishing the same places for 35 years. As for the greenie view...everyone of us helps pollute the waterways everytime we put an outboard in the water and run it. Therein is a lot of the problem..so many more boats now..easier access to the waterways for more people. If you try and catch fish with a million boats zooming around there is no chance. Too much activity for a lot of species..especially bream. I never fish during the day for that reason. There are plenty of fish for our kids to catch..just gotta go to the right place with the right conditions.