Fly Fishing Forum banner

striper fishermen beware!

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  flytyer 
#1 ·
What are all the striper fishermen going to do if the Cod farms catch hold? What if there are many farms in your New England waters do you think that will have an effect on your fishing?

Just a small scenario here. The farms take hold throughout New England. The food taken from the ocean to feed these cod are anywhere between 5 and 11 times the volume that wild fish would eat over the same time that it took to raise the farmed cod and get them to market. Now economics says the feed would come from close by, most likely from the mid atlantic states where there has been an abundance of pogies and herring in past years. Plus there is no restrictions as far as I know on the commercial harvest of forage fish. These fish are mined, yes mined to record lows and then what? Yes one of the main bait fish in a stripers life in the area where it spends much of it's life is all but gone. By now the Cod farms are doing just great, they have been in operation for about 5 years. The industry is thinking about harvesting local sand eels because Mid Atlantic poggies are almost gone so they start the process of lobby to State and federal pols. But state and federal pols are being told by the biologists that the number of sand ells and other lower food chain creatures are begining to disapear at an alarming rate already. Reason! Because the Cod farms are creating so much pollution in the many bays throughout New England that the low food chain creatures such as plankton do not exist anymore or in just small areas. Take one look at what the Bay of Fundy Salmon farms did up there. The bottom of the bay has become lifeless and remember that Cod can create up to 50% more pollution and most likely be able to have many more fish in each pen than the salmon farms can put in their pens. But millions of dollars have been spent to get these great gifts to the world started. Money is coming into the pol's coffers from the Farmers. They are not going to let these farms just die off. They are going to let harvest what ever fish in the mid food chain they can. But hey your sand eel population is already in trouble because their summer feeding area has little plankton left from the polution. Sand eels are not showing up on your flats and upper food chain fish can not follow something that does not exist can they. But who cares there were not many stripers left anyway because of what was happening in the Mid Atlantic States.

You boys better start doing something about this now not tomorrow. This is going to happen and soon. The Salmon and shrimp industrial farming caught most of us by surprise and now we are in a fine mess. Remember the great gift of the Nuke power plants we were promised in school science class in the late 50's and early 60's? Well gentlemen here we go again. DON'T MESS WITH MOTHER NATURE!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Interesting hypothesis OC. I know the evidence certainly exists as to the impact of aquaculture on both atlantic and pacific salmon
stocks. Does the research point to similar impacts on stripers? If so, I would agree an early grassroots oposition is warranted. Of course, given the political clout and dollars the fiwsh farms wield, it may all be in vane.
 
#3 ·
OC -

Scary thoughts indeed. Cod and haddock have already been depleted, as you know stripers were fished to endangered status just recently. Menhaden are already being harvested in huge quantities for processing into feed and the impact on the gamefish population is tremendous.

Atlantic salmon farms are already on the increase up and down the coast, while american rivers have long been void of their once magnificent salmon runs.

Lucky for us the striper is a crafty and opportunistic predator and will likely adapt where possible, but if the fisheries turn to harvesting the forage species (sand eels, herring, squid, menhaden, mackeral, etc) for fertilizers, animal feed and to meet aquacultural feed demands of the modern fish farming craze our friends with stripes are in big trouble.
 
#4 ·
Juro and all New Englanders,

I only touched the surface of the problems we are about to face.

Many of you are well aware of the anti publicity over the last week of the Salmon Farm industry on national tv news networks.
That is not enough though and I hope all of you who belong to fishing clubs and conservation groups will find the time to read up on exactly what is going on in this industry. Get yours and other groups to unite against this horror show that is about to begin. Once it gets started and a foot in the door it will be impossible to stop as we have found out here in the NW and in BC. I'm sure it is the same for Maine and eastern Canada, the government commits and will not back down. Stop it before they commit to the Cod Farm Industry.

It is so sad that the way we eat food in this day and age. Over the last 20 years things have changed the way food is produced and how it is brought to us. The pollution and waste is many times greater than ever before. One out of season strawberry brought up from Chile holds 5 caleries for you to consume. To get that one strawberry to market in New England takes 497 caleries of energy. In nature that would mean certain death from starvation as one must take in as many calories as one burns to survive. We are killing the earth off with the way we consume food in this world of industrial farming. The world is using more calories than it produces, food has become the major factor in this situation.

I hope you all give this some thought not only for your love of fishing and your fine New England waters but because what is about to happen where you live is in full scale operation throughout the world and I'm not sure many of us realize how serious this is.

Please take the time to think about it and please get involved.
Thanks
OC
 
#5 ·
feed pellets

I see in the news about the farm raised, pellet fed salmon being a health hazzard. Feed being the PCB's and whatever they are fed. What about trout? Just about all the trout that are raised on pellets, at least here in New England. All the more reasons for catch and release.:eyecrazy:
 
#6 ·
Folks,

The striper population crash that happened after the halycon commercial net fishery days of the 60's and early 70's, which took 20 years for the striper population to rebound from is nothing compared to what will happen when the forage fish are gone. When the forage fish are severely depleted, the stipers will have nothing to feed on. Yes, the striper population won't make a dramatic drop in numbers in any given year; however, their numbers will decrease each and every year as the forage fish base is depleted.

Then there is the problems of sea bed pollution that have been documented with the salmon farming operations (of course the salmon farmers claim that they produce "very little pollution"). Every place where salmon farming has been established, the population of native anadromous fish has decreased, some very dramatically. Do you really want to have the combination of losing the forage fish and the pollution or parasite problems (such as the sea lice that the salmon farmers claim is "overblown by the conservationist") to start their insidious work on the east coast stripers?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top