Todd et al.

In the early 90s Ecology designated that net pens were point sources. As such, under the Clean Water Act, those that exceed minimum sizes must have Discharge Permits. There is monitoring that is required. Still, as others noted, they still use the water flow to keep the pens clean. It is cheaper to let nature and the tides move the water. Raising fish in the upland facilities can be done in a more controlled manner. It just costs more money.

You know "if cheap" was the main concern....we'd "bag" the gill net fisheries World wide and go back to the days of the "fish wheels". That way maybe "wild fish" could make it to the sprawning grounds.

The politics of "gill net fishing", just don't hold water.........the fish wheels of the "old days" were much more effective. Take the hatchery fish....allow the wild fish to continue "up the rivers" to do their thing.


Bottom line......soon the "general public" won't be able to afford the price of "wild fish"....many of them can't right now.....so either "fresh fish" is eliminated from thier diets or they buy the "less spendie" farm raised fish.

Mercury content of many of the wild fish is higher than thought.....tuna, and wild salmon have had articles written on that.......just the commerical industry wants that "kept quiet".

An aside:

Drifter,

The fish wheels were effective, but not that effective. At their peak, the fish wheels on the Columbia River accounted for only 3% of the total chinook harvest. Still the gillnetters thought that was too much competition and got initiatives passed in both WA and OR banning fish wheels.

Not to detract that fish wheels are a good fishing device for sites they are suited to.

Sg

i don't think fish farms are going to be the answer...you're just stealing from peter to pay paul....why use 10 pounds of food to get one pound of fish...not very efficient....and costs just to treat sea lice are up to 20 cents a pound or so...plus cost of feed rising ... farmed fish isn't going to be that great a deal either...

here are 2 fish farming video's worth watching. Makes you love them even more than before

http://youtube.com:80/watch?v=8Dt3sNpaX0E

http://youtube.com:80/watch?v=KbHfX9SEcDI

Like someone mentioned before, much of the negative attitude towards salmon farming comes directly from the commercial fishing industry, which is very powerful as you might know if you're a sport fisherperson. Granted, there are some biases coming from the other side of the spectrum as well.

Yes, it's a fact, wild fish contain higher amounts of certain chemicals, including PCBs which are highly carcinogenic.

Feed is NOT wasted. Feed costs $18-$25 dollars for a 50lbs. bag. When you're feeding hundreds or thousands of pounds a day, you're not going to want to waste any. Feed is the largest expense in any aquaculture setting.

Farmed salmon are rarely fed antibiotics. Again, cost is an issue. I'm sure some of you have had to get antibiotics from the pharmacy before. Was it cheap? Farmed fish use the same types of antibiotics that we do in some cases. Farmed fish don't generally get viral or bacterial infections because they're healthy, and in many cases, in better shape than wild fish.

Yes, waste from net pen operations can be large, but let's look at this on the broad scale: How much nitrogen and phosphorus is leaching into Lake Washington from beachfront McMansions? How many of you live alongside a river? If you do, you're polluting... a lot. All W. Washington towns pump treated sewage directly into the Sound. The treatment plants can only do so good of a job...

My 2 cents.