Chile’s Salmon Farms: On the Verge of Collapse

[marmar]

from CivilEats:



Chile’s Salmon Farms: On the Verge of Collapse
July 15th, 2009

By Dan Imhoff


It seems like not a week goes by without industrial animal food production somehow making headlines–the H1N1 flu pandemic, astounding meat recalls, high levels of arsenic in chicken feed, or any of a dozen other concerns. One recent story that should have generated some rather large waves, however, has made only a minor splash. Chile’s salmon farming industry, second only to Norway’s, is on the verge of collapse.

Salmon are not indigenous to Chile, but grown in crowded cages installed in the bays and estuaries of the country’s otherwise beautiful southern fjord region. These “farmed” Atlantic salmon are fed a steady diet of wild fish–perfectly edible for humans, but more profitable when converted into “value-added” finfish. The approximately three pounds of wild fish needed to produce each pound of farmed salmon has caused some people to refer to finfish aquaculture operations as “reverse protein factories.” Equally alarming, salmon farms have become excessively dependent upon toxic pesticides to combat sea lice and antibiotic medicines to thwart viruses that can run rampant among the high concentrations of rapidly growing, penned fish–not unlike industrial-scale hog, poultry, and cattle CAFOs on land.

But the drugs are no longer working. According to industry source Intrafish, Chile’s 2009 salmon output could decline by as much as 87 percent from last year–a drop from 279,000 metric tons in 2008 to between 37,000 metric tons and 67,000 metric tons. The cause is the widespread outbreak of a virus known as infectious salmon anemia (ISA). When the virus first appeared in 2008, many offshore aquaculture companies moved their production farms further south in Chile, into waters still unaffected by ISA. Instead of lessening the problem, the industry actually spread the virus into the southern waters.

The Chilean government and regulatory agency are now implementing measures to address the crisis, but their efforts, for the time being, have been too little, too late. Chilean salmon stocks have been devastated, and this is expected to send ripple effects throughout the world’s food supply. A 20 percent shortfall in the global supply of farmed Atlantic salmon is predicted for this year and perhaps 2010 as well. The human toll in this saga is also significant, as the salmon industry has become a primary employer in the southern region of the country, and could lead to the unemployment of as many as 15,000 people. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2009/07/15/chiles-salmon-farms-on-the-verge-of-collapse/#more-4323

[RC]

1. If we don't get our own numbers under control, Nature is going to do it for us.

This is another warning of the coming apocalypse. By ignoring all the warnings, we will & are be doing it to ourselves.
The last humans will starve to death, naked in their caves for want of edible food.
The Earth will then recover and go on.
Future archaeologists of some other species, several hundreds of thousands of years from now will be studying us, wondering why we went extinct.
Survival of the fittest. That ain't us humans. We, with our arrogant ignorance are proving we are not fit to survive.

[Strelnikov_]

3. Baby Jay-sus will save us

Correction, Baby Jay-sus will save me and mine, because we are the moral and righteous and follow the true path.

All the rest, meh . . .

[GliderGuider]

2. Tick, tick, tick...

Psst... Malthus was right...

So were William Catton and Dennis Meadows and Jay Forrester and Albert Bartlett and Jim Kunstler and Richard Heinberg and Carolyn Baker.

People tend to forget that Cassandra was right as well...