The Rural Voice, 2002-08, Page 10COSH +WEHRMANN
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
Salmon, sewage and sink rates...quite a talk
Robert
Mercer was
editor of the
Broadwater
Market Letter
and
commentator
for 25 years.
Fish farming is set to expand on
the Canadian west coast and Dr. John
Noakes, head of the Pacific region's
Aquaculture Science Program of
DFO in Nanaimo, gave a fact -filled,
global and economic presentation to a
meeting I attended at the end of June.
He told the well -attended meeting
that the world harvest of salt water
fish had virtually been stable at 120
million metric tonnes for the last 15
years. The only growth in the fish
harvest has been in aquaculture,
which now accounts for 30 million
metric tonnes compared to the
worldwide wild catch of 90 million
metric tonnes.
Growth rate of the aquaculture
industry worldwide has been at about
15 per cent per year with China now
the largest contributor, much of its
production based on marine plants
rather than fish stocks. In terms of
salmon production Norway leads the
world with Chile second. Canada's
total salmon production only
represents two per cern of the world
and is not an economic factor in
woild pricing, according to Noakes.
Canada's production of farmed -
salmon started to exceed the wild
salmon catch back in 1998, and
according to Dr. Noakes is now
nearly double the value of the wild
catch. Farm salmon production is
estimated at $550 million and wild
salmon $259 million.. The major
change in B.C. is that the five-year
moratorium on expansion in the
industry has been lifted by the new
provincial government.
In the highly competitive global
market for fish products, Dr. Noakes
said that at the retail level the
competition for salmon is not from
other fish products, but rather from
chicken, another efficient converter
of feed to flesh.
Dr. Noakes explained in a lively
discussion and answer session that
the choice of growing Atlantic
salmon on the B.C. coast over Pacific
salmon, is based on the more efficient
feed conversation ratio, as well as the
general consumer preference and
knowledge (especially in Europe) of
the Atlantic over the Pacific species.
Atlantic salmon converts feed at a
rate of growth of one pound gained
for every 1.1 pound of feed delivered
to the fish cages. The Pacific salmon
on the other hand, requires 1.5
pounds to produce the same weight
gain.
To another question Dr. Noakes
said that the pigmental colouring of
the salmon flesh can be altered by the
fish farmer by changing certain levels
of feed ingredients such as marine
plant and algae materials. This is
similar to the ability to change the
colour of egg yolks in chicken layer
operations. He noted that in different
market areas consumers demand
salmon of different colour intensities.
Of interest also was the question
about feed, and the ability of the
manufacturers to incorporate into the
fish food pellets a "binding" of the
ingredients that lets the pellets move
down through the water at different
"sink rates".
A question at the end of the
evening posed a query about the
difference in environmental harm
from fish farming effluent and that of
raw sewage released into the Strait of
Georgia by the City of Victoria.
Dr. Noakes noted that although
both posed a possible problem from
organic disposal, municipal treated or
untreated raw sewage also posed a
risk by pumping into the oceans
unknown levels and varieties of
minerals and industrial chemicals
which were not treated or monitored
at the municipal levei.0
Deadline for the
September 2002 issue
is August 21, 2002