Ocean Issues: "Ecological" fish farming

Continuing a long tradition of creative marketing the Pangasius catfish, also called "white ruffy" or "swai", is becoming a popular product of aquaculture in many parts of the world. The Consumerist has more on creative marketing of fish products and "how there's no such thing as white ruffy" here. 

A recent story from Marketplace.org discusses attempts to create a sustainable and environmentally stable aquaculture program for this fish. One of the many beneficial characteristics of pangasius is that, unlike carnivorous fish like salmon, it has a vegetarian diet, which makes for a more efficient energy conversion of the feed into biomass.

Read the full story here.

Ocean Issues: Aquaculture

Pacific wild salmon populations may be at risk for Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), a disease that has caused severe mortality at fish farms in Europe and South America. Researchers from Simon Fraser University have detected the disease in wild populations on the West coast. Here is a link to the story released by Simon Fraser University.


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"Wild sockeye salmon from B.C.’s Rivers Inlet have tested positive for a potentially devastating virus that has never been found before in the North Pacific." - Vancouver Sun

Ocean Issues: Aquaculture

Are we at "the end of the line" of ocean exploitation? Is aquaculture the solution to the problem of overfishing? Here's a link to an article by Bryan Walsh published in Time magazine that discusses the issues.




Other interesting books and articles can be found and linked to at the Suggested Reading page.

Ocean Issues: Aquaculture

Genetically modified salmon can breed with wild salmon | California Watch

"Although transgenic males displayed reduced breeding performance relative to nontransgenics, both male reproductive phenotypes demonstrated the ability to participate in natural spawning events and thus have the potential to contribute genes to subsequent generations."

Darek T. R. Moreau, Corinne Conway, Ian A. Fleming (2011). Reproductive performance of alternative male phenotypes of growth hormone transgenic Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Evolutionary Applications

Article first published online: 4 JUL 2011
DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-4571.2011.00196.x

Photo: E. Kilby / Flickr via