Scottish activist Don Staniford had been forbidden to approach Scottish farming sites of Mowi, the world’s biggest salmon farming company; we reported on it in November 2023 [1]. To be able to continue his investigations on what really happens in industrial salmon farming, Staniford had appealed to the local court which recently followed Mowi’s claim that Staniford has no right to “board, enter onto, physically occupy, attach himself or vessels to all structures, docks, walkways, buildings, floats or pens of Mowi sites” or to “instruct others to act in his place”. Staniford is not known to give in. Currently he is considering to appeal to the next instance. More… [1] What are salmon industry leaders trying to hide?
Instead of following a sensible lifestyle, some people who can afford the price and the thoughtlessness are buying shark liver oil products as a dietary supplement to “treat multiple ailments, including wounds, cancer, heart disease, and infertility“. Research is said to have shown ‚health benefits [thanks] to its high alkylglycerol (AKG), squalene, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA, among which Omega-3) content‘ [1].
Squalene plays a role in topical skin lubrication and protection [2] and was first extracted from the liver of sharks (Squalus), hence its name, but is produced by most living organisms. However, the highest squalene content is found in the liver of sharks, especially deepwater sharks and rays whose stocks are therefore overfished, with half of the target species threatened with extinction, according to a recent study [3]. The authors call for ‚immediate trade and fishing regulations‘ to prevent irreversible damage to deepwater species which are especially sensitive to overexploitation due to their late and slow reproduction.
What you can do
If you are looking for a product that contains squalene, make sure it does not contain shark liver oil from.
And since we’re already talking about it, prefer Omega-3 products made from algae over those made from fish or krill.
Title picture: The enigmatic Greenland shark (credit: Hemming1952 / Wikimedia Commons) Find the review of a book on this species, in German: http://billo.ch/blog/?p=2313
Seagrass meadows are an important part of the vulnerable ecosystem between water and land, a habitat for many species and especially for their offspring. But seagrass meadows have become increasingly endangered along many shores which in turn lose the protection against erosion provided by seagrass roots.
A 30-year-study [1] reveals poor prospects for seagrass meadows. With sea levels rising everywhere, seagrass meadows which grow in shallow water only get increasingly drowned, and many of the new shallow areas along the beaches where seagrass could move to are already occupied by human activities like beach tourism, settlements, harbours, industry, etc.
While seagrass meadows are vanishing at a rate of 7% per year, scientists and conservationists are trying to restore seagrass [2]. Human ingenuity seems to be almost unlimited. However, as sea levels continue to rise, what we need first of all is the allocation of an almost unlimited share of the newly formed shallow areas—where else would we want to restore seagrass?
A million salmons killed due to a jellyfish attack
In a SalMar farming site in Norway, 1.2 million young salmons had to be killed “for fish welfare reasons” after string jellyfishes (Apolemia uvaria) had invaded the net cages and began to damage or kill the fishes. More about it…
The Mackerel war continues
After the Scottish fishermen, it’s now up to their Irish colleagues to pretend that Iceland, Faroese and Norway are catching too high share after mackerel stock in the north east Atlantic. It’s kind of a dead end debate between the ones who tried to protect their long ago acquired rights and the ones who profit from the fact that meanwhile the mackerels are swimming higher up north, due to global warming. More about it… Background information (in German)
Thailand plans to withdraw some of its fisheries reforms
The Thai fisheries industry has long been accused for several harmful practices, like a illegal fishing (IUU), violation of the labour rights, lack in quality, etc. Negative press and phase-out of big retailers in the west urged the Thai government to implement reforms some years ago. The government’s planed roll-back is driven by complaints of fishermen that strict IUU rules were threatening their livelihoods. A broad coalition of international and Thai NGOs urge the government to stick to the reforms. More about it…
As a rule of thumb, the more a fishery respects the environment, the more it reduces the suffering of the animals concerned, and vice versa. However, for one of the most sustainable fishing methods, this rule often does not apply yet: fishing by pole and line. Its impact on non-target species and on the aquatic environment is generally as low as neglectable, and its energy demand per ton of catch is much lower than in most other commercial fishing methods. But…
They are all nice people with nice ideas how to feed the world and save the planet and their own business. No greedy capitalists, they believe to be part of the solution. Persons whom you might like to meet to learn more about their mindset.But…
A Seawater Cube unit and its founders (photo: Seawater Cube)
The German based ‚Seawater Cubes‘ developed a tiny recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) unit consisting of four shipping containers, able to produce nearly 8 tonnes of fish per year. ‚We thought about how to do RAS better and developed the idea of a decentralised, small-scale approach for on-land fish farming and built a prototype of the idea,‘ the CEO says. ‚We’ve achieved a 98 percent survival rate because of the water quality.‘ [2] Fine so—but are the fishes in these narrow tanks eager to survive?
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Good for the fishes?
Seawater Cubes claims that their system helps to keep the stocking density considerably below industry standards, e.g. for Sea bream ’30 percent below the 100 kilo per cubic metres that some scientific papers suggest is possible.‘ Really? This is way beyond usual standards, let alone the species’ natural aggregation habits [3] and its spatial needs for moving horizontally and vertically [4]. At least two of the three founders of Seawater Cubes should know better, having worked for the big RAS plant in Völklingen (Saarland) where Sea breams swim in a huge pool.
Sea breams near Malta (photo: Snorkelling Malta/Wikimedia).
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Good for the farmers?
A second question arises: Who is this system designed for? Seawater Cubes claims that its automated unit can be operated as a business alongside, ‚perfect for farmers who are looking to diversify. The daily operation requires about eight hours a week.‘
C’mon, we’ve been there already, farmers in Switzerland, for example, were promised the moon with RAS modules installed in barns that were no longer in use, a flop. The investment for a Seawater Cube system is about 300,000 euros, an amount that can hardly be amortised by a part-time job.
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What can I do as a consumer?
Should I hope that this business idea fails before many farmers have to realise their own failure? Or at least for the sake of millions of innocent fishes?
I could stop from thinking that I need fish once or twice a week to have a healthy live.
Die Tierschutzkommission der britischen Regierung verlangt einen besseren gesetzlichen Schutz von Fischen während des Schlachtprozesses, dem jährlich 77 Millionen Fische in der Aquakultur zugeführt werden, vor allem Lachse in schottischen Zuchten. Nur Hühner müssen in Grossbritannien in noch grössere Zahl dran glauben.
In the post ‚Is there animal welfare for shrimps?‘ of 05.08.2023 [1] I mentioned that there are a few ’shrimp farmers who really try hard to do the best, also for the animals‘. I have known the company SwissShrimp.ch since its beginnings; if farming shrimps at all, then like this, I have already been quoted as saying.
A study [1] published in 2022 concludes that ’still little is known about some key parameters related to the five welfare dimensions, as they might be applied to penaeid shrimp‘ — in stark contrast to the knowledge on nutritional needs, stress physiology, immunology and disease control in shrimp farming.
In his recent newsletter [1], Lewis Bollard, farm animal welfare programme officer at Open Philanthropy, makes a very interesting point. Starting with the question of why humans love some animals while disregarding or mistreating others, Lewis cites several studies that show an astonishingly small difference in the importance people place on the welfare of farm or companion animals — in world regions as diverse as North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Europe. In countries such as Sudan or Bangladesh, people even place slightly more importance on the welfare of farm animals.
