With soaring prices for just about everything needed to raise their fish — fuel to feed — catfish farmers are anxious. Some are shutting down altogether.
Anywhere else in the country, the situation might not seem so dire. But there are only a handful of industries generating jobs in the poverty-stricken Delta, which also has some of the nation’s highest illiteracy rates.

continue reading

The casinos that had been bustling along the Mississippi River in the northern part of the Delta have started to see layoffs. That’s one less option for former workers at catfish farms in the nearly dozen counties in the Delta, where unemployment runs in double digits in some areas.

“The real problem I see is that after the decline of the catfish industry, these displaced workers, they have no place to go,” said state Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville. “These are nontransferable skills to other jobs in the Delta.”

Agriculture creates more than 257,000 jobs in Mississippi, most of them in the Delta, said David Waide, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau. Cotton and catfish harvesting, processing and the building of equipment for those industries are all done in the Delta, which isn’t the case for soybeans, corn, wheat or milo.

Thanks to a couple of government loans, a fish farm near Windsor will be growing Mediterranean Sea bass. Sustainable Fish Farming Canada will soon bring in hundreds of thousands of baby fish, said Kirk Havercroft. Restaurants and seafood lovers can have locally-grown Mediterranean Sea bass on the menu in about a year.

These new immigrants grow quickly, but require extra care since they’re used to warmer waters. “The water temperature in the farm will have to be between 20 and 22 degrees (Celsius) throughout the year,” he said. “The conditions for European sea bass are warm, and very clear water of excellent quality.”

So they’ll have to be kept in tanks in-land with recirculated water instead of pens in the Atlantic Ocean. This is something that gets a nod of approval from the Ecology Action Centre.

Anna Magera said closed-containment aquaculture set-ups deal with some of the environmental issues with aquaculture farming. Open-net pens can spread disease and release waste and nutrients into open waters.

“We’ve heard this new farm is taking steps to explore renewable energy options and we feel this is a very positive, and progressive step,” she said.

continue reading

The Minister also held a formal meeting with the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) to discuss further the immediate issues facing the Irish fishing fleet and the next steps, which will take place at European level to address the immediate challenges for the Irish industry.

The ‘BIM/Fish Ireland 2008 Conference on Innovation and Sustainability in the Seafood Industry’ involved national and
international speakers who drew on their expertise and experience to give very informative talks on driving innovation and engineering sustainability in the Irish Seafood Industry.

Minister Killeen said: ‘I believe that the current very difficult situation the industry is facing makes it even more critical to identify the key steps necessary to lift the industry out of its vulnerable position where it is dependent on inflexible commodity prices and thus unable to pass on its full costs. It is of the utmost importance that we take steps and work together to maximise the value and in particular the prices fishermen get at the quayside. The Cawley Strategy sets out the road-map and today’s conference served to both review progress and identify opportunities in the market for both wild and farmed fish.’

Under its Coordinated Area Management Plan (CAMP), Marine Harvest will create migratory corridors in the Broughton Archipelago during the outmigration season from March 1st to June 30th each year. Beginning in 2010 the company’s four farms in Lower Knight Inlet will be emptied of fish during this time period. In odd-numbered years beginning in 2011 Marine Harvest’s five farms in Tribune-Fife will be empty during the out-migration. At no time during the out-migration will any Marine Harvest Broughton-area farms contain adult fish.

During the out-migration season in 2009 only one farm at the western end of the Tribune-Fife corridor will have fish present. This site will be closely monitored to ensure the wellbeing of out migrating juvenile wild salmon.

The plan is intended to continue for six years while monitoring the effectiveness of the migration corridors.

“We are ready to move forward with CAMP pending the required government approvals,” says Clare Backman, Director of Environmental Compliance and Community Relations at Marine Harvest. “We briefed the government, First Nations and environmental groups on this Plan in March. We took this step as a precautionary measure. We certainly intend to meet with the new minister, Hon. Stan Hagen, as soon as possible to ensure he is fully knowledgeable about our plan and its benefits.

“The amendments we require have already been applied for and do not increase our overall production in the Broughton,” says Backman. “The amendments, which have gone through the required technical review will provide for the operational flexibility needed to implement CAMP, but we need government to make a decision quickly.

“We developed this plan to bring forward a real and practical measure that responds to the government’s request that industry come up with solutions to public concerns about the impacts of sea lice on wild fish,” says Backman. He also notes that some First Nations in the area have not yet lent support for the Plan.

Marine Harvest is the world largest aquaculture company with operations in Norway, Scotland, Chile, and in British Columbia. Here Marine Harvest Canada produces about 42,000 tonnes of high quality farmed Atlantic salmon every year for sale to export markets. The Company employs about 500 people on Vancouver Island and the central coast. For more information please visit us at www.MarineHarvestCanada.com.

The value of aquaculture products passed the $1 million mark in 2006, and 2007’s growth marks the 10th double-digit increase in values during the past 12 years.

“That kind of growth is rather astounding, and this is largely organic growth,” said Bob Rheault, an oyster farmer. “It’s not like we’re getting grants or outside investment. These are individuals investing in their small enterprises.”

The local aquaculture industry is dominated by small farms leased in public waters, such as Point Judith Pond and Ninigret Pond. Two additional farms established leases, raising the total to 30. Total acreage under cultivation rose to 123 acres from 99 acres, a jump of 24 percent.

continue reading

Continue reading

Aquaculture, in this case the growing and harvesting of shellfish such as oysters and clams in controlled environments, is big business in neighboring states, but the industry is relatively untapped in the coastal areas of Maryland. With traditional harvests of shellfish at historic lows and increasing natural and man-made threats to oysters and clams in the wild, exploring the possibility of expanding an aquaculture presence in the coastal bays appears to be a logical progression.

To that end, the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently formed a 10-member task force of sorts to study the possibility of an expanded aquaculture industry in the coastal bays. The panel includes a cross-section of local and state politicians, environmental group leaders, scientists and researchers, and other stakeholders including watermen, hunters and property rights advocates.

The group’s objectives include identifying the major obstacles to aquaculture operations in the coastal bays, identifying opportunities to support aquaculture and developing strategies to minimize user-conflicts. It’s a complicated issue to be sure, but the potential economic and ecological benefits cannot be ignored, according to DNR Secretary John R. Griffin.

“Across the state, we have seen a renewed interest in shellfish aquaculture,” he said this week. “We now have a timely opportunity to develop new local businesses that can utilize renewable natural resources to create sustainable economic benefits. Aquaculture has the potential to provide ecological advantages to the bays, while also seeking to minimize other user conflicts.”

Continue Reading

Huon Aquaculture’s co-owner, Peter Bender, plans to start farming Atlantic salmon in Macquarie Harbour and wants to grow an extra 300,000 tonnes of fish a year.

“That’ll eventually give us a 20 per cent boost in our turnover and sales”, Mr Bender said.

“It’s deep, brackish water layer is suited to growing fish for the March, April and May period,” he explained. “This means fish normally harvested in the South-East in May can now be left until June, giving our customers access to consistently sized fish every week of the year”.

Huon Aquaculture was established in the Huon Estuary in 1988 and now employs more than 380 staff.

The bacteria Vibrio campbellii are antibiotic resistant and cause significant loss in the fish farming industry (aquaculture) as an outbreak cannot be treated with antibiotics. Adding PHB to the culture water significantly decreased the number of brine shrimp which were killed by Vibrio campbellii. The shrimp had ‘eaten’ the PHB and become protected from infection.

PHB is a naturally-occurring compound which is produced and used by microbes as a form of energy storage. It is metabolised when other common energy sources are not available. It is also a source of butyrate which keeps the gut healthy.

“We recently found that PHB-containing bacteria can also be used to protect the shrimp from the vibrios (without extracting the compound from the bacteria) and we are currently testing the potential of such microbes in other animal models. Given the fact that PHB can be produced on an industrial scale for a reasonable price, PHB addition to animal diets would be an alternative to antibiotics that is not only effective, but also economically attractive. In this respect, our findings might contribute to a more sustainable animal production.” said Professor Verstraete and his collaborator Tom Defoirdt.

This finding has important implications for infection reduction, not only in fish farming, as we may be able to reduce, or even replace the use of antibiotics. The ecological and health benefits in avoiding the use of antibiotics are many-fold. It may even be possible to protect other organisms from pathogenic bacteria using a dietary supplement based on this microbial storage product.

Reference: The bacterial storage compound poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate protects Artemis franciscana from pathogenic Vibrio campbellii, by Willy Verstraete et al. Volume 9, Issue 2, February 2007.