The proposals include reform of the Resource Management Act to make the resource consent process less costly and time-consuming for aquacultural enterprise, including finfish farming; establishing an aquaculture business unit within the Ministry of Fisheries; more effective use of ‘call-in procedures under the RMA (e.g. to enable changes to regional coastal plans that increase the area for acquaculture; and  streamlining the process for assessment of environmental effects on wild catch fishing. 

There are many reasons to feel concerned about the possible impacts of marine fin fish farming in New Zealand, not least because fin fish, as opposed to shell fish, require large amounts on feed to be brought in and create large amounts of effluent.  In addition, it usually involves high stocking rates, problems of disease, use of antibiotics and genetic manipulation of the fish.

In light of the government’s moves to encourage fin-fish farming, I have been reading an interesting book, Four Fish, the story of Fishing and What’s Left to Eat, by Paul Greenberg.  The book is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the future of fish farming.  It provides an extensive overview of the developments in farming of salmon, sea bass, cod and similar deep water fish, and tuna in the last few decades.   

These are some of the points that I picked up from the book:

·         Farming of any carnivorous fish is the sustainability equivalent of domesticating and taming lions for meat.  Carnivorous fish such as salmon, tuna, cod and sea bass are at the top of the food chain and it takes more protein to rear them than they provide as food.  

·         Because of the nature of a ‘commons’ resource, there is probably no species of wild fish that can be sustainably managed and harvested without privatising the oceans.

·         The protein that farmed carnivorous fin fish require removes food fish from wild stocks as well as marine mammals and birds and the ecosystems they inhabit. 

·         Virtually all marine fish are difficult to rear in captivity even though, in the case of salmon and sea bass, breeding and genetic changes have been made to make the domesticates varieties suitable for the high density, enclosed conditions of fish farms.

·         We have no way of being able to predict the consequences for wild fish stocks of interbreeding between domestic and wild fish of the same species (can a salmon bred to survive disease and crowding conditions in a fish tank have the genetic capacity to withstand the rigours and dangers of a 2 to 3-year life in the oceans? )

·         The only fish that make  ecologically sustainable sense for humans to fish are the fish equivalent of goats, chickens and pigs: vegetarians and omnivores that  eat vegetable matter and detritus – such as carp, tilapia and the Vietnamese catfish (tra and basa, Latin: Pangasius bocourti).

·         If the government wants to encourage fish farming as a new industry it would be better to licence the farming of  freshwater fish in contained pond systems.

·         By backing carnivorous fin fish for aquaculture (as opposed to the filter-feeding oysters and mussels), the government is doing what it has said it will not do, namely tilting the economic playing field.

I realise that farming of freshwater fish is not without its problems: for example, water pollution, use of chemicals and antibiotics, food health for consumers, biosecurity and other issues.  But omnivores and herbivores are lower on the food chain and in principle, have a lower ecological impact than carnivores.

References

MFish, 2010. Govt outlines plans for aquaculture reform. Ministry of Fisheries, Wellington. http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Press/Press+Releases+2010/April10/Govt+outlines+plans+for+aquaculture+reform.htm

Paul Greenberg, 2010.  Four Fish, the story of Fishing and What’s Left to Eat, Viking books.

World Wildlife Fund, http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/aquaculture/dialogues-pangasius.html

Sustainable Sushi, Image of Pangasius.  http://www.sustainablesushi.net/tag/pangasius/