Aquaculture
Aquaculture is the production of fish and other marine products on fish farms. Aquaculture is an additional challenge to the west coast fishery and is a threat to the fishery in British Columbia for many reasons: salmon that is farm raised is able to be sold cheaper than wild salmon and fish farms are producing more salmon than salmon in the wild. Atlantic salmon are raised on fish farms because they grow faster in pens used for fish farming. Scientists worry that the population of wild salmon will decrease if the more aggressive Atlantic salmon escape from their pens into the sea. These pens are also being criticized for starting a spread of salmon lice to wild salmon. Tiny baby salmon, called smolts, swim from where they are hatched into the ocean and pass by aquiculture pens, where the salmon and salmon lice density is very high. This is where they catch salmon lice and are often unable to survive the infestation. This causes a decrease in the population of smolt that could have eventually been caught or reproduced.
To give an idea on the production of aquaculture, here is a video from the university of Maine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBWZpZIkQhQ
Aquaculture is the production of fish and other marine products on fish farms. Aquaculture is an additional challenge to the west coast fishery and is a threat to the fishery in British Columbia for many reasons: salmon that is farm raised is able to be sold cheaper than wild salmon and fish farms are producing more salmon than salmon in the wild. Atlantic salmon are raised on fish farms because they grow faster in pens used for fish farming. Scientists worry that the population of wild salmon will decrease if the more aggressive Atlantic salmon escape from their pens into the sea. These pens are also being criticized for starting a spread of salmon lice to wild salmon. Tiny baby salmon, called smolts, swim from where they are hatched into the ocean and pass by aquiculture pens, where the salmon and salmon lice density is very high. This is where they catch salmon lice and are often unable to survive the infestation. This causes a decrease in the population of smolt that could have eventually been caught or reproduced.
To give an idea on the production of aquaculture, here is a video from the university of Maine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBWZpZIkQhQ