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Fish Farms: Underwater Factories
Raising Farmed Fish
When they are only 4 to 7 inches long, young fish (called
“fingerlings”) are transported from the hatchery
where they were born to the fish farm. This is the first of
many moves that they will make before their final trip to
the slaughterhouse.
Fecal Stew (And That’s Not the Worst of It)
Contaminants from ocean-based aquafarms (fish excrement, uneaten
chemical-laden food, and swarms of parasites) spread to the
surrounding ocean, and the rampant disease inside the cages
is passed on to ocean fish in the area, in some cases increasing
the incidence of sea lice 1,000-fold.
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“Grading” fish
by size is a stressful and sometimes-deadly process.
Each fish is graded as many as five times during his
or her life, sucked up or netted and then spit back
out into a different cage. |
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Unassuming on the surface,
each of these aquafarm cages is stuffed with as many
as 50,000 individuals who will never be able to swim
without constantly bumping into other fish and the sides
of the cage. |
Sea lice are a regular occurrence on salmon farms. These parasites
eat at the fish, causing their scales to fall off and creating
large sores. In severely crowded conditions, lice often eat
down to the bone on fish’s faces. This is so common
that fish farmers have taken to calling it the “death
crown.”
Injuries and Death From Fighting and Rough Treatment
In intensely crowded fish farms, small fish are bullied and
killed by larger fish, so fish are continually sorted to make
sure that faster-growing individuals are moved to the appropriate
size grouping. At each sorting, they are netted or pumped
out of their tanks and dumped onto a series of bars and grates
with varying space gaps to divide them by size and redistribute
them into different netted cages or tanks; small fish slip
through the small grates, while larger fish fall through the
larger gaps. This practice, called “grading,”
is very stressful and results in painful scrapes and loss
of scales.
High-tech, high-volume systems control food, light (on indoor
farms), and growth stimulation. Drugs, hormones, and genetic
engineering are used to accelerate growth and change reproductive
behaviors. High mortality rates, disease, and parasite infestations
are common. Deformities and stress-related injuries are also
a regular occurrence; on some farms, as many as 40 percent
of the fish are blind—which is not addressed because
it is not a problem for fish farmers.
Crowding
Since they are designed to navigate vast oceans and use all
their senses to do so, many fish go insane from the cramped
conditions and lack of space in fish farms. The tight enclosures
inhibit their ability to navigate properly and cause them
to knock against each other and the sides of the enclosure—this
jostling causes sores and damage to their fins, as well.
Stocking densities (the number of fish per cubic foot of water)
are not a function of fish welfare and are raised until the
death losses outweigh the benefits of cramming more fish into
a smaller space. Salmon farms are so overcrowded—with
as many as 50,000 individuals in each enclosure—that
a 2.5 foot fish spends his or her entire life in a space the
size of a bathtub; trout farms are even more crowded, with
as many as 27 full-grown fish in a bathtub-sized space.
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Sea lice are a regular
occurrence on salmon farms. These parasites eat at the
fish and cause their scales to fall off, creating large
sores. In severely crowded conditions, lice often eat
down to the bone on fish’s faces. This is so common
that fish farmers have taken to calling it the “death
crown.” |
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Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Salmon
Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Tuna
Fish Flakes Trading Cards
"Take a Closer Look at Fish " Leaflet
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