Net Loss
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- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
All over the world, fish are at the heart of people's diet and culture. And in the Pacific Northwest, there is no fish like the legendary salmon. But decades of poor fisheries management and habitat loss have decimated many wild salmon runs. Now there's a new way to produce fish - raising them in giant underwater cages known as 'net pens.' At first, these pens and the salmon farms that use them seem like a good idea, providing more fish for consumption, while taking the pressure off their wild counterparts. But the farms themselves have become a serious new threat to the survival of wild salmon.
Filmed in Chile, Washington, and British Columbia, NET LOSS assesses the risks and benefits of salmon farming through interviews with government and industry spokesmen, who make the case for salmon farming, and the fishermen, native people, and scientists who extol the dangers it poses and the damage it has already done.
'Net Loss probes one of the most important and cautionary tales for the future relationship between humanity and the sea. We need to think long and hard about this film.' Carl Safina, President, Blue Ocean Institute
'An old Chinese proverb, 'The fish sees the bait, not the hook; a person sees the gain, not the danger', warns of the unexpected consequences of new technologies. 'Net Loss: The Storm Over Salmon Farming' introduces many of the consequences of salmon netpens, at the same time as it humanizes their effects for individuals and cultures in regions from Chile to the Pacific Northwest.' Dr. James Karr, Aquatic Sciences and Biology, University of Washington
'An extraordinary and timely film.' Dr. Michael Skladany, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
'Fairly portrays the positions of salmon farmers, conservationists, First Nations, traditional fishermen and government officials. It is a thorough examination of the growth of the industry in British Columbia and Chile, and the effects of the industry on the environment and other economic sectors.' Jim Fulton, Executive Director, The David Suzuki Foundation
'A fantastic job of telling the entire industrial salmon farming story - from one end of the planet to the other, and from the producer all the way to the consumer. This is the film to show your friends and colleagues who still think that buying farmed fish is the best way to protect wild salmon or to feed the world. NET LOSS is a myth buster par excellence!' Mark Ritchie, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
'A wonderfully relevant film...Net Loss provides an emotional and meaningful perspective on the noble fish - salmon - and our relationship to this being.' Eric Wynkoop, Western Culinary Institute
'Shines a much-needed light on the fact that not all salmon are created equal. The well-balanced film clearly shows that there are major issues associated with farming salmon. The film basically asks, what price, in terms of environmental and social costs, are we as consumers willing to pay for the flood of cheap farmed salmon?' Bill Mott, Director, The Ocean Project
'This documentary states the case against farming salmon in large underwater cages or 'net pens', and looks at the widespread economic and evironmental repercussions, which stretch all the way from Alaska to Chile. Net Loss is an indictment of mass consumption, powerfully illustrated by the destruction of a great Northwestern symbol - the wild Salmon.' Matt McNally, Willamette Week, Portland, Oregon
'Compelling...the evidence presented by those who have lived and loved salmon all their lives, when seen next to the trite reassurances of aquaculture advocates, speak volumes...The film's clarity and detail in coverage of such complex subject matter makes it ideal for a range of audiences...[Net Loss] adds a human face and context for understanding the global environmental, social, cultural and scientific dynamics that have led to 'the storm over salmon farming'.' Ben Bolton and Mike Skladany, Alternatives Journal
'The makers of [Net Loss] were careful to include the varying perspectives of salmon farmers, scientists, native North Americans and advocacy groups. The result is an objective documentary that should have broad appeal. One can frequently find farmed salmon in grocery stores selling for four or five dollars per pound. Net Loss makes one realize that the true cost of farmed salmon is much higher. This documentary is highly recommended for adult and high school audiences.' Todd Hannon, Stream Net Library, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Portland, OR for Educational Media Reviews Online
'This timely film, combining lush photography, lively music, and an engaging narrative, lays out the issues in a way that is understandable and highly watchable.' APO's Observer and Fisheries
'True to its intent of presenting the issues of salmon farming and...objective in its representation of both sides, not telling me what to think, but rather what to think about...strong, well organized, pressing and passionate... covering more than the economic/environmental issues but cultural/social issues as well.' International Wildlife Film Festival
'[Net Loss] offers a visual and narrative cost/benefit analysis useful for those whose interests range from aquaculture to zoology...The facts, theories and processes of science are well illustrated, with examples of field investigation, data collection, analysis and synthesis presented with a view toward purposeful investigation: observations and data help make a case for the need to address the dangers that salmon farming poses to the marine environment and local coastal communities...a newcomer to the issue may be...drawn in by the film creators' ability to present the complexity of the controversy in a palatable way, inviting viewers to seek more information and draw their own conclusions. Recommended.' Science Books and Films
Citation
Main credits
Young, Melissa (Producer)
Young, Melissa (Screenwriter)
Young, Melissa (Director)
Dworkin, Mark (Screenwriter)
Dworkin, Mark (Director)
Hartle, Shelley (Narrator)
Other credits
Photographer/editor, Mark Dworkin.
Distributor subjects
Agriculture; Biology; Canadian Studies; Consumerism; Endangered Species; Environment; Fisheries; Food And Nutrition; Geography; Habitat; Humanities; Latin American Studies; Life Science; Native Americans; Natural Resources; Oceans and Coasts; Pollution; Science, Technology, Society; Sustainable Agriculture; WildlifeKeywords
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(frog ribbiting)
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(seagulls squawking)
(mid tempo acoustic music)
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♪ I betcha' goin' fishin' all o' the time ♪
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♪ Baby goin' fishin' too ♪
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♪ Bet your life, your sweet wife ♪
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♪ Catch more fish than you ♪
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All over the world
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fish are at the heart of people's diet and culture
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and in the Pacific Northwest,
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there's no fish like the legendary salmon.
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♪ I'm a goin' fishin', yes I'm goin' fishin' ♪
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But it's not just a food,
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it's an icon in almost religious proportions.
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You know, it's that spirit of the wild, you know,
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the courageous salmon going out to the ocean
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and then making its way back to its natal stream.
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It's the magic of British Columbia and our wild coast.
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And there's a relationship
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that's existed for thousands of years
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between the people of this place
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and the salmon that come back every year to feed them.
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Our part of that relationship
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is to take care of these streams and these watersheds,
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to make it possible for them to continue to thrive
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and to keep that relationship going.
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We're the salmon people, it's what we are.
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You know, there was a time where we used to fish
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four or five days a week,
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you know, and the fish always came back every year,
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year after year.
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♪ Many fish bites if you got good bait ♪
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♪ I'm a goin' fishin', yes I'm goin' fishin' ♪
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♪ And my baby goin' fishin' too ♪
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But destruction of salmon habitat
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and poor fisheries management
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wiped out many wild salmon runs.
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Just as efforts began to help these fish recover,
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a new industry appeared
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where salmon are raised in giant underwater net pens.
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How do you feed an increasing population in the world?
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About 90% of the major food fisheries in the world
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are either at capacity or overfished.
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You've got a fixed supply
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that we're already overfishing today
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in order to just meet the current demand.
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If there's gonna be any growth at all,
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you have to turn to agriculture.
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Fish is being used more and more
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to feed people in the world
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and we're interested in supporting economic development
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and fisheries that's done in a sustainable manner,
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that's done in an environmentally sound manner
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and provides benefits to Canadians.
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We're all progressing towards a sort of a positive future,
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I think.
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And, you know, growing fish, we're farmers,
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we're not as much fishermen as somebody in a boat would be
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but, you know, our crop is fish.
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At first, these salmon farms
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seem like a good idea,
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more fish for people to eat and less pressure on wild fish.
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But the farms themselves
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have become a new threat to the survival of wild salmon.
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You know that you have 120,000 fish in one net pen.
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There's a concern for disease and outbreaks.
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I mean, what is it gonna do to our wild fish?
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The waste from fish farms affect the quality of the water,
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which is so important for salmon.
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The parasites that breed on the farm fish
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can infect the wild fish.
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The feed that's used is often laced with antibiotics
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and those also are getting into the marine ecosystem.
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Atlantic salmon escape and they take over a habitat
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that's otherwise occupied by wild native Pacific salmon.
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(mid tempo acoustic music)
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(horn blaring)
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Nobody has a closer relationship with salmon
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than the native people of the Pacific Northwest.
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Their traditional way of life is based upon salmon,
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which has sustained them for thousands of years.
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The tribes that live on Vancouver Island, live close by,
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are right on the rivers that the salmon spawn
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and return every year.
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Salmon was important for all the coastal people.
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It allowed us to live a very good life in the early days
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before the other people came
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and killed off 80 to 90% of us, yeah.
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The tribe that I'm from, the 'Namgis,
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we have a lot of salmon that is in our river.
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Our old people, their whole breakfast, lunch, and dinner
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was all salmon.
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And when we do this dance,
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it is from a spiritual place that we do this dance.
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And I believe that's what's missing
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in this thing called farm fishing.
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There's no spirit there.
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And with the wild fish that we eat, it's connected to us
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and that's who we are.
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(mid tempo drumming)
(faint chanting)
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The strength of our people came from the river.
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The Nimpkish River has all the species of salmon,
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starting off with the sockeye salmon that came in
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in the summertime.
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All the other species that came in
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ending up with the chum or dog salmon in the wintertime.
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When they went up to the river to spawn,
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it provided food for the bears,
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it provided food for the eagles,
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it provided food for everybody.
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Like everything else, it's all interconnected.
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You can't take one and expect it not to hurt the other.
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♪ I betcha' goin' fishin' all o' the time ♪
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♪ Baby goin' fishin' too ♪
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If it wasn't for the salmon, we wouldn't be here.
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Fishing's been our life, most of us, in my age group.
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And this used to be a pretty bustling little town
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from the early '50s.
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I mean, there was nothing to see 2 or 300 sail boats here.
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I mean, there wouldn't be enough room
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on these docks for them,
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they'd have to go and anchor out up there.
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We used to fish five, six, seven days a week
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and made a bit of money, not a lot of money.
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♪ I went on down to my favorite fishin' hole ♪
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♪ Baby grab me a pole an' line ♪
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But after I bought this boat in '75, in the early '80s
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that's when the fishing just started going downhill.
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And about that time,
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that's when the fish farms started showing up.
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♪ I'm a goin' fishin', yes I'm goin' fishin' ♪
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There's fish in all of these, eh?
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It's not natural to have so many fish in one little area
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to be penned up.
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This is how they live in an net.
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They don't swim freely, they swim in circles.
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Help you with anything?
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Yeah, you can move this stuff.
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I can't do that.
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People have found that the clams are turning to mush
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and they have turned a different color.
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They're darker, almost like a black color.
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So you can't eat them when they're like that.
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They are doing something wrong out here.
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They're destroying a way of life for First Nations people
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and not just First Nations, for everybody.
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There was no consultation with our people
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when the fish farms first started coming in in the '80s,
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and there still really isn't any consultation with us yet.
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We've met with ministers over ministers
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stating that, you know,
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we were of zero tolerance,
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we didn't want fish farms in our traditional territories.
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Well, right from very start,
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we were concerned about the introduction of Atlantic salmon,
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which is not, you know, it's from the East Coast
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and how it may affect the wild salmon.
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The location of the pens
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are right in the inward migration routes of the salmon
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and, of course, they're on the outward migration route
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of the small salmon fry.
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They said there'd be no escapes, there'd be no disease,
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we'd never ever find 'em in our rivers,
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it won't harm our clam beaches.
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Everything they said wasn't gonna happen has happened,
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you know,
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happened pretty bad in some places.
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(mid tempo acoustic music)
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John Volpe is monitoring the escape
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of farmed Atlantic salmon
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into streams and rivers of the Pacific Northwest.
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Nature has a funny way of teaching us lessons
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and it's happening all the time everywhere.
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All of the major rivers on Vancouver island
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have adult Atlantic salmon ascending them each year.
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So if we introduce another salmonid species
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into these rivers,
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somebody who's here already has gotta move over
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to make room.
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The salmon populations are already on the brink.
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(mid tempo music)
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The other thing is diseases.
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There's thousands of them dying.
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We've heard numerous stories about the effects in Europe,
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how they've had to kill complete river systems
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to get rid of the disease
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that originated from the fish farms.
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The waste goes through the nets
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down to the bottom of the ocean and smothers all other life.
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It's like putting a hairnet in the bottom of your toilet
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and say that you've got sewage treatment.
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This is nutrients.
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That's what fish do in the water.
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They live in the water, they eat in the water,
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they evacuate in the water.
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That material is basically the food for other organisms.
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The problem arises if it builds up to an extent
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that it smothers the bottom
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and it smothers marine life on the bottom.
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And the solution to that is properly locating your site
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so that you've got good tidal currents.
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And every year the industry has learned more and more.
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And so, as we go,
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we learn things like what happens beneath the fish pens.
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You know, are we giving away feed?
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A lot of this is economically driven as well.
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We want the most outta the water possible,
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we're business people.
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We want to gain income.
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The effects we're seeing here
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are the same as if we had a city adjacent to us
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but we don't, all we have is salmon farms.
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There's no industry in North America
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that's allowed to get away with
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what they're getting away with.
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A lot of industries
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would love to just dump all their raw waste into the ocean.
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I had one farm worker phone me
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and he said, "I can't tell you who I am,
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I can't tell you where I am."
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He said, "You know what?
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When we flush dye down the toilets in our houses,
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it comes up in the pens."
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He said,
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"The regulations require us
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to have a long pipe on our toilets."
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He said, "We put those on, the toilet won't flush."
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They're damaging the clam beds.
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They might be killing off the wild salmon through diseases,
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disease transfers, sea lice problems,
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predators feeding on the salmon fry.
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And the other thing
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is they're not consulting with the First Nations
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in the territory.
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I think that's very important.
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Every other farmer has the right to use their own land,
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as long as they don't damage their neighbor's land.
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Salmon farmers are being constantly challenged
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by other users of the marine resource,
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to even have the right to be out there in that water.
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The ocean is our common resource.
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It's not private property.
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It does not belong to the multinational corporations,
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it belongs to all of us.
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But salmon farming is big business
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and government regulators are reluctant to interfere.
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They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
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They're supposed to be there
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to protect the wild salmon stock,
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and yet they're promoting fish farms.
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The government is really pro-business
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but they also want to be seen as doing the right thing,
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which is important, I think, for everyone.
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We do a lot of work with the fish farmers
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in terms of siting of their operations,
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in terms of any environmental impacts they may have.
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There's also a significant amount of work
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on fish health, fish disease.
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We work actively on protocols with the industry
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and also with the province.
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The level of education required
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is getting higher and higher,
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more technology is brought into things
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and more understanding.
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You need to be a working biologist, really,
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to be a good farmer.
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This is a pink salmon who just came out of the river,
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was born this spring.
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And, on here, are sea lice.
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What I found was these little fellas
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that had just come into the saltwater,
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they came into the saltwater near a fish farm,
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they were covered in lice.
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If they came into the saltwater
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where there was no fish farms, they were fine.
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Normally they come in on the wild fish, on the adults.
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When the adult fish go into freshwater,
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the sea lice die cause they can't take freshwater.
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And so, in the spring,
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when the little babies come out of the rivers,
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there's no sea lice and they go to sea completely clean.
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But in a farm situation your wild fish come in,
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they're carrying females with eggs.
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As they pass the farm,
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some of these eggs come off and infect the farm fish.
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Then the farm fish are there in high density
286
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and so this parasite just explodes.
287
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Its population increases every 21 days exponentially.
288
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So, by springtime, when our little wild fish are coming out,
289
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because these farms
290
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are right on the wild salmon migration routes,
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they're swimming through clouds of larvae sea lice.
292
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(mid tempo music)
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Now, these sea lice get on the fish, they drill into them,
294
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they start sucking out their body juices, and the fish die.
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All the diseases that have occurred here in BC
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are endemic to BC.
297
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So we have no exotic diseases in the fish pens here in BC,
298
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that's one thing.
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Of course, we've recognized
300
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that there's some secondary concerns there
301
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about when you use antiseptics or if you use antibiotics,
302
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or the variety of things you can do to solve those problems.
303
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You can cause another set of problems.
304
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The chemical they use to get rid of sea lice
305
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is a neurotoxin.
306
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It's eaten by prawns and shrimp.
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And the public is trapping these animals
308
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right around the farms,
309
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there's no notice to ship men or fishermen
310
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or postings on the farms to indicate this.
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In order to feed these farmed salmon,
312
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they have to trawl the oceans for fish
313
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that they grind up into fish pellets
314
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and then feed to the salmon
315
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that they're raising in their farm.
316
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And in the process of doing that,
317
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they lose between two thirds and three quarters
318
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of the protein embodied in those fish.
319
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They're also taking fish out of the nets of fishermen
320
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who would otherwise be catching them
321
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and feeding them directly to people.
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My town still represent a little aspect of the comments
323
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that we're connected to.
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This is what it's all about.
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A wild salmon is an emissary from the ocean
326
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and from a larger realm than us.
327
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It's an emissary of a species
328
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that's been coming back to these rivers
329
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here in the Pacific Northwest,
330
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for thousands of years.
331
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And a farmed salmon is just a product.
332
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It's just another product that you get off the shelf
333
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that has a barcode on it,
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same as a Fosters Farm chicken or a piece of feedlot beef.
335
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(jaunty music)
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Salmon evolved in the Northern Hemisphere
337
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and they can't survive warm water.
338
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On their own,
339
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they could never migrate across the equator.
340
00:16:07.890 --> 00:16:10.770
But now these fish have become globalized
341
00:16:10.770 --> 00:16:14.013
and Chile is the leading exporter of salmon in the world.
342
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We calculate that around like 2% of our production
343
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stays in Chile and the other 98% is exported.
344
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And we export around like half of our production to Japan.
345
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The United States is our second market in importance
346
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that it represents around, like, 35% of our total exports.
347
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(speaking in foreign language)
348
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(singing in foreign language)
(jaunty music)
349
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(speaking in foreign language)
350
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Chile has such a good environment conditions
351
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for the development of salmon production,
352
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that almost anybody that's in the business of farming salmon
353
00:17:21.870 --> 00:17:24.262
would look at Chile as a good opportunity
354
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because of the temperatures of the water.
355
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That means that the fish
356
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are always in the range of temperatures
357
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where they are growing all year round.
358
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(singing in foreign language)
(jaunty music)
359
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(speaking in foreign language)
360
00:18:06.193 --> 00:18:08.776
(jaunty music)
361
00:18:14.318 --> 00:18:18.235
(speaking in foreign language)
362
00:18:32.785 --> 00:18:36.660
(singing in foreign language)
(jaunty music)
363
00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:39.749
The main assets that the company have are its fish.
364
00:18:39.749 --> 00:18:42.960
If you lose your cows or the animals that you're raising,
365
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:46.080
obviously you're losing, well, what you're doing.
366
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So obviously in the interest of the companies
367
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is that those kind of things do not happen.
368
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You have to be diving constantly in all the cages
369
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in order to check the nets,
370
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all escapees have to be reported,
371
00:18:57.716 --> 00:19:02.280
and the producer must do at least all the efforts possible
372
00:19:02.280 --> 00:19:03.633
to retrieve those animals.
373
00:19:04.623 --> 00:19:08.540
(speaking in foreign language)
374
00:19:51.965 --> 00:19:56.965
(singing in foreign language)
(mid tempo music)
375
00:20:01.415 --> 00:20:05.748
(Eric speaking in foreign language)
376
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This has been a very important issue
377
00:20:22.809 --> 00:20:26.533
for all the communities in the south especially,
378
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because of all the work and all the development
379
00:20:29.520 --> 00:20:33.780
for those regions that are around like 25,000 people,
380
00:20:33.780 --> 00:20:36.690
that work directly in the industry.
381
00:20:36.690 --> 00:20:40.987
Plus other 12,000 jobs that are undirect.
382
00:20:42.059 --> 00:20:47.059
(singing in foreign language)
(mid tempo music)
383
00:20:49.500 --> 00:20:50.670
When you talk to the workers
384
00:20:50.670 --> 00:20:52.200
who are taking these jobs,
385
00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:53.673
you get a different picture.
386
00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:55.920
And some have been fired
387
00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:57.893
when they tried to organize a union.
388
00:20:58.730 --> 00:21:02.647
(speaking in foreign language)
389
00:21:23.347 --> 00:21:28.347
(singing in foreign language)
(mid tempo music)
390
00:21:30.038 --> 00:21:33.955
(speaking in foreign language)
391
00:22:26.280 --> 00:22:30.660
It's an intensive animal husbandry operation.
392
00:22:30.660 --> 00:22:32.822
So is that the same as a feed lot
393
00:22:32.822 --> 00:22:36.570
that will be in with other kinds of species
394
00:22:36.570 --> 00:22:37.770
or cattle or whatever?
395
00:22:37.770 --> 00:22:41.280
The main impact is just beneath the cages.
396
00:22:41.280 --> 00:22:43.470
So you have to be checking that, in fact,
397
00:22:43.470 --> 00:22:45.330
you don't have, at any time,
398
00:22:45.330 --> 00:22:48.330
any anerobic conditions beneath the cages,
399
00:22:48.330 --> 00:22:49.653
then you have to move on.
400
00:22:51.590 --> 00:22:55.507
(speaking in foreign language)
401
00:24:41.498 --> 00:24:44.665
(soft acoustic music)
402
00:24:56.250 --> 00:24:57.630
Farmed Chilean salmon
403
00:24:57.630 --> 00:24:59.970
not only leaves a wake of low paid workers
404
00:24:59.970 --> 00:25:02.100
and environmental pollution,
405
00:25:02.100 --> 00:25:04.800
but the flood of Chilean exports affects fishermen
406
00:25:04.800 --> 00:25:06.303
thousands of miles away.
407
00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:10.434
My operation is just me, sometimes my son on the boat.
408
00:25:10.434 --> 00:25:15.240
And, you know, you can kind of call your own shots
409
00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:16.590
and fish where you want to.
410
00:25:17.762 --> 00:25:20.580
So I haven't really noticed a decreased number of fish,
411
00:25:20.580 --> 00:25:23.418
but really noticing is a drop in the price.
412
00:25:23.418 --> 00:25:24.668
968 sockeye.
413
00:25:26.255 --> 00:25:28.108
You know, there's not near as many processes
414
00:25:28.108 --> 00:25:29.490
as there used to be
415
00:25:29.490 --> 00:25:32.571
and it's the competition's gone.
416
00:25:32.571 --> 00:25:33.886
You don't have a whole lot of choices
417
00:25:33.886 --> 00:25:35.550
of who to sell your fish to,
418
00:25:35.550 --> 00:25:38.130
so the price is really controlled.
419
00:25:38.130 --> 00:25:39.720
I went up there and I started fishing kings
420
00:25:39.720 --> 00:25:41.130
up in Bellingham Bay
421
00:25:41.130 --> 00:25:43.350
and the prices were so bad, 40 cents a pound.
422
00:25:43.350 --> 00:25:46.200
I can't even pay for my fuel insurance on that price.
423
00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:47.310
I look in the supermarkets
424
00:25:47.310 --> 00:25:49.751
and see the prices of the salmon filet for 9.99 a pound
425
00:25:49.751 --> 00:25:51.128
for the fresh kings.
426
00:25:51.128 --> 00:25:51.990
You know, I thought,
427
00:25:51.990 --> 00:25:53.520
well, something's wrong here with this picture.
428
00:25:53.520 --> 00:25:55.420
So we started icing 'em and bringing 'em down here.
429
00:25:55.420 --> 00:25:57.840
Fresh silvers, fresh silvers!
430
00:25:57.840 --> 00:26:00.510
Small family fishing businesses are impacted
431
00:26:00.510 --> 00:26:03.244
like small family farm businesses are
432
00:26:03.244 --> 00:26:06.150
with this globalization of foods,
433
00:26:06.150 --> 00:26:08.520
with corporatization.
434
00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:10.650
In the middle of the country it's soybeans and corn
435
00:26:10.650 --> 00:26:12.453
and here it's salmon.
436
00:26:14.280 --> 00:26:16.050
Some say we need aquaculture
437
00:26:16.050 --> 00:26:18.750
because wild salmon are disappearing
438
00:26:18.750 --> 00:26:21.840
but Alaska, which outlawed salmon farms,
439
00:26:21.840 --> 00:26:24.840
has rebuilt its wild salmon runs so well
440
00:26:24.840 --> 00:26:26.853
that millions return each year.
441
00:26:27.709 --> 00:26:30.540
There are abundant wild salmon
442
00:26:30.540 --> 00:26:33.270
and many millions are not harvested now
443
00:26:33.270 --> 00:26:36.120
because the cheap imports of farm fish
444
00:26:36.120 --> 00:26:39.510
have basically taken the market space.
445
00:26:39.510 --> 00:26:43.320
Take a fork or a knife, open it up a little bit
446
00:26:43.320 --> 00:26:44.403
in the thickest part.
447
00:26:45.330 --> 00:26:47.280
At an annual salmon festival,
448
00:26:47.280 --> 00:26:49.770
people have a chance to compare the taste of wild
449
00:26:49.770 --> 00:26:51.183
and farmed salmon.
450
00:26:52.560 --> 00:26:55.455
There's a real reason why we focus on all wild fish
451
00:26:55.455 --> 00:26:57.510
in our restaurant,
452
00:26:57.510 --> 00:26:59.420
that's because the flavors are there.
453
00:26:59.420 --> 00:27:01.830
If you're a true fish lover,
454
00:27:01.830 --> 00:27:04.367
white king salmon is just the most delightful fish
455
00:27:04.367 --> 00:27:06.409
'cause it's got so much oil in it.
456
00:27:06.409 --> 00:27:07.242
Yeah.
457
00:27:07.242 --> 00:27:09.333
And then the wild red one.
458
00:27:10.230 --> 00:27:11.160
Here in Seattle,
459
00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:13.470
we have some real concerns about the farms
460
00:27:13.470 --> 00:27:15.990
that are right across Puget Sound.
461
00:27:15.990 --> 00:27:20.990
And those four pens put more solid waste into Puget Sound
462
00:27:22.470 --> 00:27:24.573
than the population of this city.
463
00:27:28.080 --> 00:27:30.180
My concern started half a dozen years ago
464
00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:32.970
when I was looking at the pesticides and the antibiotics
465
00:27:32.970 --> 00:27:35.580
that were used in the production of farm fish.
466
00:27:35.580 --> 00:27:39.780
It requires chemicals to keep it alive
467
00:27:39.780 --> 00:27:43.680
while it's confined in a concentrated animal feed lot.
468
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:47.910
Operation's very similar to hog farms and chicken farms,
469
00:27:47.910 --> 00:27:49.760
where millions of animals are raised.
470
00:27:51.270 --> 00:27:54.570
All farm fish contain artificial colorants,
471
00:27:54.570 --> 00:27:57.210
so chemically sensitive people can become ill
472
00:27:57.210 --> 00:27:59.370
if they eat the salmon and they don't realize
473
00:27:59.370 --> 00:28:03.363
that it's containing astaxanthin and canthaxanthin.
474
00:28:04.950 --> 00:28:06.690
Consumers are not gonna buy something
475
00:28:06.690 --> 00:28:09.480
that's this color to eat that's called fish,
476
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:12.540
so they have to color it.
477
00:28:12.540 --> 00:28:15.932
Those colorants have been found to cause vision problems
478
00:28:15.932 --> 00:28:17.490
in fish
479
00:28:17.490 --> 00:28:20.910
and then the scientists that were looking at that
480
00:28:20.910 --> 00:28:21.780
followed it through
481
00:28:21.780 --> 00:28:22.650
and they also found
482
00:28:22.650 --> 00:28:25.469
that it also causes vision problems in humans.
483
00:28:25.469 --> 00:28:28.302
(mid tempo music)
484
00:28:30.300 --> 00:28:31.890
Salmon is heart healthy
485
00:28:31.890 --> 00:28:35.910
because of its goodly stores of omega-3 fatty acids,
486
00:28:35.910 --> 00:28:38.400
which have been shown, convincingly,
487
00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:42.479
to help prevent various forms of heart problems
488
00:28:42.479 --> 00:28:43.830
and so forth.
489
00:28:43.830 --> 00:28:45.277
And it's one of the main reasons,
490
00:28:45.277 --> 00:28:49.080
other than taste, of course, why people want salmon.
491
00:28:49.080 --> 00:28:52.530
And, ironically, it appears that the farmed salmon
492
00:28:52.530 --> 00:28:54.030
is not delivering.
493
00:28:54.030 --> 00:28:56.040
There are questions as to whether or not
494
00:28:56.040 --> 00:28:59.430
the actual omega-3 form of fatty acid
495
00:28:59.430 --> 00:29:02.400
is as high in the farmed salmon.
496
00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:04.890
We know that wild-caught salmon
497
00:29:04.890 --> 00:29:08.943
delivers tried and true omega-3 fatty acid.
498
00:29:09.930 --> 00:29:11.880
Most of the customers that shop at PCC
499
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:12.713
are more than willing
500
00:29:12.713 --> 00:29:14.520
to pay a little bit more money per pound
501
00:29:14.520 --> 00:29:16.980
for something that is gonna be better for the environment,
502
00:29:16.980 --> 00:29:18.242
better for their health
503
00:29:18.242 --> 00:29:21.690
and they don't go back to the farm-raised afterwards.
504
00:29:21.690 --> 00:29:25.290
By our environmentally-appropriate seafood program,
505
00:29:25.290 --> 00:29:28.080
we're fulfilling a very big part of our commitment
506
00:29:28.080 --> 00:29:32.670
to bring the highest quality, most sustainable type of food,
507
00:29:32.670 --> 00:29:36.300
which is an extension of our commitment to organic produce
508
00:29:36.300 --> 00:29:38.763
and sustainable and regional farming.
509
00:29:41.370 --> 00:29:43.742
Farm salmon is available every single day
510
00:29:43.742 --> 00:29:45.780
at a consistent quality
511
00:29:45.780 --> 00:29:48.840
and it makes it possible for seafood restaurants
512
00:29:48.840 --> 00:29:50.279
like Red Lobster or Landry's
513
00:29:50.279 --> 00:29:52.805
and for large grocery chains
514
00:29:52.805 --> 00:29:55.860
to plan on having this product available.
515
00:29:55.860 --> 00:29:57.660
They know they can buy it every day,
516
00:29:57.660 --> 00:29:58.710
they know they can get it fresh,
517
00:29:58.710 --> 00:30:00.480
they know it's gonna be consistent quality.
518
00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:03.990
So there's an economic competition that's going on here
519
00:30:03.990 --> 00:30:04.890
and it's, to some extent,
520
00:30:04.890 --> 00:30:07.540
to the detriment of the traditional salmon fishermen.
521
00:30:09.697 --> 00:30:11.820
You're just not buying a product
522
00:30:11.820 --> 00:30:13.593
that is of nearly the same quality.
523
00:30:14.838 --> 00:30:17.640
You know, there's no God-given right
524
00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:20.010
to eat salmon 12 months out of the year.
525
00:30:20.010 --> 00:30:22.080
Salmon are a seasonal food,
526
00:30:22.080 --> 00:30:25.620
just like asparagus or artichokes or strawberries.
527
00:30:25.620 --> 00:30:27.360
And there's no particular reason
528
00:30:27.360 --> 00:30:30.148
that it has to be available to us and inexpensive
529
00:30:30.148 --> 00:30:33.003
in, say, January or February.
530
00:30:34.710 --> 00:30:37.170
We do not serve any farm consignment at all here.
531
00:30:37.170 --> 00:30:39.275
We always made a commitment to the consumer
532
00:30:39.275 --> 00:30:41.250
and the fishermen
533
00:30:41.250 --> 00:30:43.770
that we never will serve any farm-raised fish
534
00:30:43.770 --> 00:30:45.224
in this restaurant.
535
00:30:45.224 --> 00:30:47.760
Well, I wanna be in the business for a long time.
536
00:30:47.760 --> 00:30:49.440
I believe in the seafood industry
537
00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:50.730
and I believe in the fishermen,
538
00:30:50.730 --> 00:30:53.959
and I want to protect the salmon runs out there.
539
00:30:53.959 --> 00:30:57.573
Every one has different flavors and different textures.
540
00:30:58.920 --> 00:31:03.030
Copper River salmon is a high oil fat content,
541
00:31:03.030 --> 00:31:04.890
it's such a wonderful piece of fish.
542
00:31:04.890 --> 00:31:08.640
The Columbia River salmon that's been almost extinct
543
00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:09.745
and is coming back now,
544
00:31:09.745 --> 00:31:12.120
used to be one of the best salmon runs
545
00:31:12.120 --> 00:31:13.740
here in the Northwest.
546
00:31:13.740 --> 00:31:15.420
And I think what we do here
547
00:31:15.420 --> 00:31:17.040
is what a lot of other Western ones
548
00:31:17.040 --> 00:31:17.877
need to do,
549
00:31:17.877 --> 00:31:19.530
not to sell any farm-raised fish
550
00:31:19.530 --> 00:31:23.252
so we can protect our salmon runs here in the Northwest.
551
00:31:23.252 --> 00:31:25.669
(soft music)
552
00:31:36.660 --> 00:31:38.800
When I started, all I saw was whales
553
00:31:40.350 --> 00:31:42.750
but now it's this one living organism.
554
00:31:42.750 --> 00:31:44.550
I can see it breathing with the tide,
555
00:31:44.550 --> 00:31:46.680
I can see the fish coming and going.
556
00:31:46.680 --> 00:31:50.760
And that's the beauty of staying in one place for 20 years
557
00:31:50.760 --> 00:31:52.503
and getting a little older.
558
00:31:56.580 --> 00:31:59.730
For the first few years it was perfect.
559
00:31:59.730 --> 00:32:02.130
It was so quiet
560
00:32:02.130 --> 00:32:06.000
and their calls would just echo five, seven times,
561
00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:07.880
you know, wee, wee, wee.
562
00:32:11.259 --> 00:32:14.176
(orcas vocalizing)
563
00:32:15.840 --> 00:32:17.640
Whales love to do stuff together,
564
00:32:17.640 --> 00:32:19.110
they love to spy hop together,
565
00:32:19.110 --> 00:32:22.680
they love to do perfectly synchronized behaviors.
566
00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:25.113
And this comes from the moment they're born.
567
00:32:26.460 --> 00:32:29.100
Alexandra welcomed the salmon farms,
568
00:32:29.100 --> 00:32:31.470
thinking there would be jobs for her neighbors
569
00:32:31.470 --> 00:32:34.380
and more people on the water in case she needed help.
570
00:32:34.380 --> 00:32:36.720
Date is July 23rd, 2002.
571
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:38.610
But then the farms had to ward off seals
572
00:32:38.610 --> 00:32:41.580
that tore the nets and ate the caged fish.
573
00:32:41.580 --> 00:32:43.500
At first, the seals were shot,
574
00:32:43.500 --> 00:32:46.219
but that turned more people against the farms.
575
00:32:46.219 --> 00:32:50.430
And they began playing sound that was 198 decibels
576
00:32:50.430 --> 00:32:55.430
and the sound was designed to hurt the seals' ears.
577
00:32:55.710 --> 00:32:59.130
Killer whales depend, predominantly, on sound
578
00:32:59.130 --> 00:33:00.750
to be able to see.
579
00:33:00.750 --> 00:33:04.350
They use echolocation to find fish, to find each other,
580
00:33:04.350 --> 00:33:05.370
to find the shoreline.
581
00:33:05.370 --> 00:33:06.630
The water here is too murky
582
00:33:06.630 --> 00:33:09.210
to be able to see through very well.
583
00:33:09.210 --> 00:33:12.090
And they came in here and, one pod after the next,
584
00:33:12.090 --> 00:33:15.180
heard this sound and never came back.
585
00:33:15.180 --> 00:33:17.793
The seals appeared to simply go deaf.
586
00:33:19.710 --> 00:33:21.720
Soon, a whole range of diseases
587
00:33:21.720 --> 00:33:24.333
began to increase among wild salmon.
588
00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:27.000
In '91 we had our first epidemic,
589
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:30.660
in 1993 one company spread the disease
590
00:33:30.660 --> 00:33:31.950
to the other company,
591
00:33:31.950 --> 00:33:33.896
and they had no doubt that this disease
592
00:33:33.896 --> 00:33:35.435
had come from the farm
593
00:33:35.435 --> 00:33:37.440
because it was resistant
594
00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:40.263
to every antibiotic approved for use in fish farming.
595
00:33:41.640 --> 00:33:43.136
I begged and I pleaded
596
00:33:43.136 --> 00:33:45.870
with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
597
00:33:45.870 --> 00:33:47.956
and the provincial ministries,
598
00:33:47.956 --> 00:33:50.580
to start testing the wild fish
599
00:33:50.580 --> 00:33:53.370
because this was a bacteria that had a neon sign on it
600
00:33:53.370 --> 00:33:55.170
saying farmed, farmed, farmed
601
00:33:55.170 --> 00:33:57.020
because of the antibiotic resistance,
602
00:33:57.930 --> 00:34:00.240
but they refused.
603
00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:01.980
So this has been very alarming for me
604
00:34:01.980 --> 00:34:04.860
because when I started looking at this problem,
605
00:34:04.860 --> 00:34:06.270
I believed in government,
606
00:34:06.270 --> 00:34:09.420
I believed in the regulatory agencies looking after us.
607
00:34:09.420 --> 00:34:13.654
And I realized that if I was going to make a difference,
608
00:34:13.654 --> 00:34:15.869
I was gonna have to do the work myself,
609
00:34:15.869 --> 00:34:18.150
the actual basic research.
610
00:34:18.150 --> 00:34:23.150
So I went from happily studying the Orca
611
00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:27.360
to researching things like sea lice and bacteria and virus.
612
00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:31.860
And the sad thing is that the farms displaced the whales.
613
00:34:31.860 --> 00:34:34.620
There's very few whales come through here anymore.
614
00:34:34.620 --> 00:34:38.163
I would never, today, move to Echo Bay to study whales.
615
00:34:44.370 --> 00:34:47.460
Now we have 28 farms within the territory.
616
00:34:47.460 --> 00:34:51.330
We believe that it's affecting the wild stock, the fin fish,
617
00:34:51.330 --> 00:34:53.013
and now the shellfish.
618
00:34:54.180 --> 00:34:55.320
Atlantic.
619
00:34:55.320 --> 00:34:58.410
So how could you tell that it was Atlantic?
620
00:34:58.410 --> 00:35:00.663
Atlantic, the spots.
621
00:35:03.180 --> 00:35:05.771
The first time that we ever caught a farmed fish,
622
00:35:05.771 --> 00:35:08.097
we didn't even know what the heck it was.
623
00:35:08.097 --> 00:35:10.320
And it wasn't on deck more than five minutes
624
00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:12.330
before it just went soft.
625
00:35:12.330 --> 00:35:15.630
We cut it open, the meat was gray.
626
00:35:15.630 --> 00:35:16.463
You know, we couldn't figure out
627
00:35:16.463 --> 00:35:18.210
how the hell people could eat it.
628
00:35:18.210 --> 00:35:21.120
But nowadays they're all nice, red,
629
00:35:21.120 --> 00:35:23.310
who the hell knows what goes into those things now,
630
00:35:23.310 --> 00:35:24.143
you know.
631
00:35:26.190 --> 00:35:29.310
We've looked at the incidents of escapes from farms,
632
00:35:29.310 --> 00:35:31.380
it's gone in the last few years down
633
00:35:31.380 --> 00:35:36.090
from somewhere around 3% to .3% or less.
634
00:35:36.090 --> 00:35:38.820
There are actually programs where people swim streams
635
00:35:38.820 --> 00:35:40.739
and count Atlantic salmon.
636
00:35:40.739 --> 00:35:43.950
There's downstream trapping where Atlantic salmon,
637
00:35:43.950 --> 00:35:46.725
should they turn up, are monitored.
638
00:35:46.725 --> 00:35:49.050
And of course, when they first came out,
639
00:35:49.050 --> 00:35:50.610
the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
640
00:35:50.610 --> 00:35:52.920
assured us that, first of all, the fish couldn't escape.
641
00:35:52.920 --> 00:35:55.020
Secondly, if they did escape, they couldn't survive.
642
00:35:55.020 --> 00:35:56.280
Thirdly, if they did survive,
643
00:35:56.280 --> 00:35:57.960
they would never get into the rivers.
644
00:35:57.960 --> 00:35:59.340
Fourthly, if they got into the rivers,
645
00:35:59.340 --> 00:36:00.480
they would never spawn.
646
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:03.028
And if they did spawn that nothing would ever come back.
647
00:36:03.028 --> 00:36:05.280
And if something did come back, they'd kill 'em.
648
00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:07.290
So this was sort of the progression of BS
649
00:36:07.290 --> 00:36:08.620
that we got out of the government.
650
00:36:08.620 --> 00:36:10.410
And a very pleasant Friday.
651
00:36:10.410 --> 00:36:11.243
Rafe Mair
652
00:36:11.243 --> 00:36:14.220
is a veteran talk radio host in Vancouver.
653
00:36:14.220 --> 00:36:17.586
He has taken up the cause of wild salmon with a passion.
654
00:36:17.586 --> 00:36:19.320
The Ottawa government
655
00:36:19.320 --> 00:36:22.500
wants to see the last of the Pacific salmon.
656
00:36:22.500 --> 00:36:25.800
The Pacific salmon is one of the biggest political pains
657
00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:26.633
in the ass
658
00:36:26.633 --> 00:36:28.320
the liberal government has to deal with.
659
00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:30.480
They get no thanks for anything they do
660
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:33.090
and they get nothing but crap when things go wrong.
661
00:36:33.090 --> 00:36:34.230
The state of Alaska
662
00:36:34.230 --> 00:36:36.270
is justifiably setting its hair on fire
663
00:36:36.270 --> 00:36:39.030
because of these escaping Atlantic salmon
664
00:36:39.030 --> 00:36:40.135
are now getting into their rivers.
665
00:36:40.135 --> 00:36:42.635
(eerie music)
666
00:36:44.822 --> 00:36:46.140
The fish farmers don't even know
667
00:36:46.140 --> 00:36:48.840
how many escape at any one particular time.
668
00:36:48.840 --> 00:36:50.580
So then we began doing this
669
00:36:50.580 --> 00:36:54.240
and documented adults ascending all the major drainages
670
00:36:54.240 --> 00:36:55.230
on Vancouver Island.
671
00:36:55.230 --> 00:36:57.813
In some cases, over 100 individuals in one pool.
672
00:36:58.950 --> 00:37:01.890
But with wild Pacific salmon runs in decline,
673
00:37:01.890 --> 00:37:04.110
why not welcome these escaped Atlantic salmon
674
00:37:04.110 --> 00:37:05.940
to take their place?
675
00:37:05.940 --> 00:37:09.630
Atlantic salmon exist naturally in very low numbers
676
00:37:09.630 --> 00:37:12.000
or relative to Pacific salmon.
677
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:13.920
They live in the stream for a couple of years,
678
00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:17.070
they extract a lot of resources from the stream.
679
00:37:17.070 --> 00:37:18.990
Our Pacific salmon don't do that,
680
00:37:18.990 --> 00:37:19.920
at least some of the species,
681
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:22.590
they emerge from the gravel and they leave.
682
00:37:22.590 --> 00:37:25.665
30% of the nutrients that this forest ecosystem
683
00:37:25.665 --> 00:37:27.150
relies on
684
00:37:27.150 --> 00:37:28.813
come in the form of bodies of salmon
685
00:37:28.813 --> 00:37:30.603
that wash up on the shore.
686
00:37:32.670 --> 00:37:36.540
If we replace Pacific salmon with Atlantic salmon,
687
00:37:36.540 --> 00:37:37.710
this forest ecosystem
688
00:37:37.710 --> 00:37:41.553
immediately loses almost 30% of its nutrient input.
689
00:37:43.140 --> 00:37:45.300
You can't take one cog
690
00:37:45.300 --> 00:37:47.676
out of this incredibly complex machine
691
00:37:47.676 --> 00:37:50.370
and put in a completely different cog,
692
00:37:50.370 --> 00:37:52.923
and expect the machine to operate as it did before.
693
00:37:55.560 --> 00:37:57.630
The industry is developing new ways
694
00:37:57.630 --> 00:37:59.100
to raise fish
695
00:37:59.100 --> 00:38:01.860
and new kinds of fish to raise.
696
00:38:01.860 --> 00:38:03.993
Some are using genetic engineering.
697
00:38:05.850 --> 00:38:08.970
We take a piece of the gene from the salmon
698
00:38:08.970 --> 00:38:10.410
which makes growth hormone,
699
00:38:10.410 --> 00:38:13.230
then we attach to that another piece of a gene
700
00:38:13.230 --> 00:38:14.940
that turns it on and off.
701
00:38:14.940 --> 00:38:17.340
The other piece comes from an ocean pout.
702
00:38:17.340 --> 00:38:20.850
And that allows that gene to be turned on
703
00:38:20.850 --> 00:38:21.930
in the wintertime,
704
00:38:21.930 --> 00:38:23.400
when normally it would be turned off
705
00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:26.362
and the result is that it grows twice as quickly
706
00:38:26.362 --> 00:38:27.693
to full size.
707
00:38:29.910 --> 00:38:32.010
Thousands of consumers and restaurants
708
00:38:32.010 --> 00:38:35.146
have pledged not to buy these transgenic fish,
709
00:38:35.146 --> 00:38:37.200
but AquaBounty says their fish
710
00:38:37.200 --> 00:38:39.243
are actually better for the environment.
711
00:38:41.100 --> 00:38:44.730
By cycling through the production process more quickly,
712
00:38:44.730 --> 00:38:46.045
you reduce the amount of resources
713
00:38:46.045 --> 00:38:48.060
that are needed to put into it
714
00:38:48.060 --> 00:38:51.120
and you reduce the impact on the environment.
715
00:38:51.120 --> 00:38:53.910
This just demonstrates the concept,
716
00:38:53.910 --> 00:38:55.770
it demonstrates that the technique works.
717
00:38:55.770 --> 00:38:58.740
And we have a pipeline that includes a number of other fish,
718
00:38:58.740 --> 00:39:00.333
including tilapia and carp.
719
00:39:02.910 --> 00:39:04.890
If we can't predict what's gonna happen
720
00:39:04.890 --> 00:39:07.110
with, you know, plain old Atlantic salmon
721
00:39:07.110 --> 00:39:08.370
being introduced in these rivers,
722
00:39:08.370 --> 00:39:10.260
now we've got, you know,
723
00:39:10.260 --> 00:39:12.231
the potential for introducing fish
724
00:39:12.231 --> 00:39:15.120
that are genetically modified to be much more aggressive
725
00:39:15.120 --> 00:39:16.590
and grow much more rapidly,
726
00:39:16.590 --> 00:39:20.100
and extract that much more resource from the river.
727
00:39:20.100 --> 00:39:23.253
That is definitely a recipe for disaster.
728
00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:28.770
The only reliable way to prevent escapes
729
00:39:28.770 --> 00:39:32.940
is to isolate farmed fish from the ocean environment.
730
00:39:32.940 --> 00:39:33.927
The fish across here are Atlantic salmon,
731
00:39:33.927 --> 00:39:37.380
there are 25,000 smolts in there.
732
00:39:37.380 --> 00:39:39.625
Rob Walker works at a research facility
733
00:39:39.625 --> 00:39:43.770
where salmon are raised in concrete tanks on shore.
734
00:39:43.770 --> 00:39:46.650
The technology is not really advanced enough
735
00:39:46.650 --> 00:39:49.320
that anyone knows whether it's going to work or not.
736
00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:51.390
So what we'd like to prove here is that, yes,
737
00:39:51.390 --> 00:39:52.410
we can make it work
738
00:39:52.410 --> 00:39:55.500
and, yes, we can make it economically viable.
739
00:39:55.500 --> 00:39:58.390
So we're learning a lot about animal husbandry right now
740
00:39:59.340 --> 00:40:00.913
and we wanna transfer that knowledge
741
00:40:00.913 --> 00:40:03.360
to a commercial facility.
742
00:40:03.360 --> 00:40:05.521
The water flow is really important,
743
00:40:05.521 --> 00:40:07.617
the water moving, the fresh water coming in
744
00:40:07.617 --> 00:40:09.030
and going out,
745
00:40:09.030 --> 00:40:10.980
also the oxygen levels in here.
746
00:40:10.980 --> 00:40:12.810
We just keep pumping oxygen in here
747
00:40:12.810 --> 00:40:14.790
to keep the levels really high.
748
00:40:14.790 --> 00:40:17.190
So the fish thrive, they seem to really like it.
749
00:40:18.639 --> 00:40:20.820
But we also use cameras
750
00:40:20.820 --> 00:40:22.770
so that we know when the fish have stopped feeding.
751
00:40:22.770 --> 00:40:23.880
They'll feed at a certain level
752
00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:25.200
and we have the cameras below that level,
753
00:40:25.200 --> 00:40:26.998
so if the feed is dropping below the level of the fish
754
00:40:26.998 --> 00:40:29.340
we know immediately to stop feeding.
755
00:40:29.340 --> 00:40:31.860
Feed is very expensive so we don't wanna waste it.
756
00:40:31.860 --> 00:40:34.020
But yeah, fish feces, without a doubt,
757
00:40:34.020 --> 00:40:35.820
we haven't got a poop-less fish yet.
758
00:40:37.423 --> 00:40:38.370
Currently,
759
00:40:38.370 --> 00:40:40.350
they pump water directly from the sea
760
00:40:40.350 --> 00:40:42.174
and return it untreated.
761
00:40:42.174 --> 00:40:45.930
But, in the long run, they could do a lot better.
762
00:40:45.930 --> 00:40:49.740
If we can capture all the waste through Salsnes filtration
763
00:40:49.740 --> 00:40:52.260
and then treatment of some kind of the water,
764
00:40:52.260 --> 00:40:53.652
we'll have an advantage, I think,
765
00:40:53.652 --> 00:40:55.260
over some of the net cage farms,
766
00:40:55.260 --> 00:40:58.470
because they will feed and their feces will flow out
767
00:40:58.470 --> 00:41:00.570
into the marine environment.
768
00:41:00.570 --> 00:41:02.430
Most net cages grow their fish
769
00:41:02.430 --> 00:41:05.820
into a density of about eight to 10 kilograms
770
00:41:05.820 --> 00:41:07.440
per cubic meter.
771
00:41:07.440 --> 00:41:09.780
In order to make this place economically viable,
772
00:41:09.780 --> 00:41:11.460
we've had to increase that density.
773
00:41:11.460 --> 00:41:13.669
And we weren't sure how high we could go.
774
00:41:13.669 --> 00:41:16.110
There've been some reports of experimental farms
775
00:41:16.110 --> 00:41:19.890
that have gone as high as 90 kilos per cubic meter.
776
00:41:19.890 --> 00:41:21.099
At the peak of density,
777
00:41:21.099 --> 00:41:23.987
we were at around 40 kilos per cubic meter.
778
00:41:23.987 --> 00:41:26.508
There were a lot of concerns when you reach that density.
779
00:41:26.508 --> 00:41:28.410
We didn't know how the fish would react.
780
00:41:28.410 --> 00:41:29.640
We didn't know whether they would
781
00:41:29.640 --> 00:41:30.895
start rubbing along the walls,
782
00:41:30.895 --> 00:41:31.860
which is not good,
783
00:41:31.860 --> 00:41:33.510
you remove the slime covering
784
00:41:33.510 --> 00:41:36.060
which opens them up to infection.
785
00:41:36.060 --> 00:41:37.033
Stress, for instance,
786
00:41:37.033 --> 00:41:39.633
gets much higher in crowded fish.
787
00:41:40.906 --> 00:41:42.385
Is a round tank best?
788
00:41:42.385 --> 00:41:44.250
Is a rectangular tank best?
789
00:41:44.250 --> 00:41:45.710
Are the materials we're using correct?
790
00:41:45.710 --> 00:41:46.950
Pumping systems?
791
00:41:46.950 --> 00:41:48.540
All those other things we need to look at
792
00:41:48.540 --> 00:41:50.450
to make sure that the economics are there
793
00:41:50.450 --> 00:41:52.473
to make a commercial facility viable.
794
00:41:53.904 --> 00:41:56.321
(soft music)
795
00:42:02.850 --> 00:42:05.130
At a research station in Chile,
796
00:42:05.130 --> 00:42:06.900
scientists are using shellfish
797
00:42:06.900 --> 00:42:09.483
to reduce the pollution from fish farms.
798
00:42:10.681 --> 00:42:14.598
(speaking in foreign language)
799
00:44:23.070 --> 00:44:24.750
Fishing farms are dumping
800
00:44:24.750 --> 00:44:27.870
millions and millions tons of waste on a yearly basis
801
00:44:27.870 --> 00:44:29.190
into the ocean.
802
00:44:29.190 --> 00:44:31.410
Untreated, unchecked, unregulated.
803
00:44:31.410 --> 00:44:35.310
Our own people are going hungry because of this.
804
00:44:35.310 --> 00:44:37.200
Look at it, smell it.
805
00:44:37.200 --> 00:44:39.210
You never ever document the outrage
806
00:44:39.210 --> 00:44:41.387
that has been happening in these public meetings
807
00:44:41.387 --> 00:44:43.380
and you're still not listening.
808
00:44:43.380 --> 00:44:46.473
We are told on a constant basis you're too late,
809
00:44:46.473 --> 00:44:48.483
it's already been decided on.
810
00:44:49.338 --> 00:44:52.470
'Cause when people find out what fish farms do,
811
00:44:52.470 --> 00:44:55.110
they don't want them anywhere near where they're living.
812
00:44:55.110 --> 00:44:57.019
They don't wanna be associated with them
813
00:44:57.019 --> 00:44:59.910
and they don't want their product.
814
00:44:59.910 --> 00:45:01.950
So what the fish farmers are wanting to do
815
00:45:01.950 --> 00:45:04.410
is to get away from that public scrutiny.
816
00:45:04.410 --> 00:45:05.880
They wanna go offshore,
817
00:45:05.880 --> 00:45:08.557
or they wanna have special legislation.
818
00:45:08.557 --> 00:45:10.980
Think about the history of this industry.
819
00:45:10.980 --> 00:45:13.920
First of all, it's young, it's really young,
820
00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:16.380
20, 30 years at most on this coast.
821
00:45:16.380 --> 00:45:18.660
You know, farmers are devising, in terms of net cages,
822
00:45:18.660 --> 00:45:21.803
things like predator nets and better feeding systems
823
00:45:21.803 --> 00:45:23.880
so that feed doesn't drift through the nets
824
00:45:23.880 --> 00:45:25.080
and into the bottom.
825
00:45:25.080 --> 00:45:26.850
I think that we're getting better and better
826
00:45:26.850 --> 00:45:28.794
and our impact is lessening.
827
00:45:28.794 --> 00:45:31.440
The problem we have is that the federal government
828
00:45:31.440 --> 00:45:32.880
is backing the fish farms,
829
00:45:32.880 --> 00:45:35.640
yet they're supposed to be preserving the wild fish.
830
00:45:35.640 --> 00:45:37.140
And you hear that it's an industry
831
00:45:37.140 --> 00:45:39.270
who's monitoring themselves, not the government.
832
00:45:39.270 --> 00:45:40.803
So what good is that gonna do?
833
00:45:41.649 --> 00:45:44.493
You know, it's just a joke.
834
00:45:45.510 --> 00:45:48.630
Last year we had a sea lice outbreak.
835
00:45:48.630 --> 00:45:53.630
DFO just said it didn't happen within our territory.
836
00:45:55.350 --> 00:46:00.240
People say, even our own people say, but it provides jobs,
837
00:46:00.240 --> 00:46:03.660
but what's gonna happen when my daughter becomes my age?
838
00:46:03.660 --> 00:46:05.550
What's she gonna be eating?
839
00:46:05.550 --> 00:46:07.560
Or how many people are gonna be sick
840
00:46:07.560 --> 00:46:09.960
from the outcome of what the fish farms have done
841
00:46:09.960 --> 00:46:11.340
to our people?
842
00:46:11.340 --> 00:46:15.960
So we can't replace something we're connected to
843
00:46:15.960 --> 00:46:17.013
like the real salmon.
844
00:46:20.040 --> 00:46:23.774
I think if you ask the community members,
845
00:46:23.774 --> 00:46:25.890
they would be against fish farms
846
00:46:25.890 --> 00:46:30.123
because of their concerns for the wild salmon stock.
847
00:46:30.990 --> 00:46:32.370
I think the people
848
00:46:32.370 --> 00:46:34.069
that are agreeing to work with the fish farmers
849
00:46:34.069 --> 00:46:37.870
are doing that, as they say, for economic reasons.
850
00:46:37.870 --> 00:46:42.093
We have to look at the long term effects of fish farms.
851
00:46:43.800 --> 00:46:45.504
Our position is zero tolerance
852
00:46:45.504 --> 00:46:49.200
and I suppose if we're not successful
853
00:46:49.200 --> 00:46:53.160
in getting them moved through negotiations,
854
00:46:53.160 --> 00:46:55.659
we'll have to take other action.
855
00:46:55.659 --> 00:46:58.076
(soft music)
856
00:47:00.990 --> 00:47:01.980
The wild salmon
857
00:47:01.980 --> 00:47:04.350
is such a pesky creature to the politician
858
00:47:04.350 --> 00:47:08.520
because it requires habitat from the headwaters of rivers,
859
00:47:08.520 --> 00:47:10.238
through the coastal environment,
860
00:47:10.238 --> 00:47:11.760
out into the open ocean
861
00:47:11.760 --> 00:47:14.460
where they have to negotiate internationally.
862
00:47:14.460 --> 00:47:18.390
And so I hear politicians say all the time,
863
00:47:18.390 --> 00:47:21.330
you know, "Alex, the wild salmon are on their way out
864
00:47:21.330 --> 00:47:23.160
and you're just gonna have to get used to that."
865
00:47:23.160 --> 00:47:24.690
Well, they're not on the way out.
866
00:47:24.690 --> 00:47:26.790
They're an incredibly vigorous species
867
00:47:26.790 --> 00:47:29.253
and they're doing everything they can to survive.
868
00:47:30.359 --> 00:47:33.990
If you can't deal with this on a fiscal basis,
869
00:47:33.990 --> 00:47:35.100
if you start arguing
870
00:47:35.100 --> 00:47:37.320
about how much the commercial fishery brings in
871
00:47:37.320 --> 00:47:39.000
and how much the sport fishery brings in
872
00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:40.800
and how much tourism brings in,
873
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:42.450
those dollars are minuscule
874
00:47:42.450 --> 00:47:44.820
compared to what a couple of dams on the Fraser River
875
00:47:44.820 --> 00:47:46.230
would bring in.
876
00:47:46.230 --> 00:47:50.070
So you've got to start talking about this on a moral basis,
877
00:47:50.070 --> 00:47:52.170
on the basis of a cultural basis,
878
00:47:52.170 --> 00:47:54.270
a basis that the salmon
879
00:47:54.270 --> 00:47:56.220
is what identifies British Colombians
880
00:47:56.220 --> 00:47:58.563
and British Columbia as a place.
881
00:47:59.460 --> 00:48:01.149
We're killing off our heritage
882
00:48:01.149 --> 00:48:03.123
so that we can make some money.
883
00:48:04.920 --> 00:48:08.790
It's scary to think that not only myself
884
00:48:08.790 --> 00:48:11.019
may not be able to eat wild fish,
885
00:48:11.019 --> 00:48:14.850
but the kids, my god kids, my nieces, my nephews,
886
00:48:14.850 --> 00:48:15.683
you know.
887
00:48:15.683 --> 00:48:18.093
Maybe they won't even be able to do that.
888
00:48:20.605 --> 00:48:23.400
It's pretty sad when you think about it.
889
00:48:23.400 --> 00:48:24.550
I think about it a lot.
890
00:48:25.860 --> 00:48:27.660
It's just something kind of missing
891
00:48:27.660 --> 00:48:29.663
when you can't get out there to fish, so.
892
00:48:34.620 --> 00:48:37.161
I think there are ways in which a salmon farm
893
00:48:37.161 --> 00:48:40.260
can improve its ecological performance
894
00:48:40.260 --> 00:48:42.878
and the move towards closed containment systems
895
00:48:42.878 --> 00:48:45.230
offers some promise of that.
896
00:48:45.230 --> 00:48:46.800
At the same time,
897
00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:48.450
there are things that are inherent
898
00:48:48.450 --> 00:48:50.135
in the system of farming salmon
899
00:48:50.135 --> 00:48:53.340
that are not fixable.
900
00:48:53.340 --> 00:48:55.980
You scoop all of these sardines and anchovies
901
00:48:55.980 --> 00:48:56.813
out of the water,
902
00:48:56.813 --> 00:48:58.091
which are perfectly good human food,
903
00:48:58.091 --> 00:49:01.350
and you grind them up and feed them to farmed salmon.
904
00:49:01.350 --> 00:49:03.111
In the process, you lose somewhere,
905
00:49:03.111 --> 00:49:05.281
something like two thirds or three quarters
906
00:49:05.281 --> 00:49:08.370
of the protein content.
907
00:49:08.370 --> 00:49:09.203
And it really is
908
00:49:09.203 --> 00:49:12.990
literally taking the food out of the mouths of the poor,
909
00:49:12.990 --> 00:49:17.990
converting it to a white tablecloth product
910
00:49:18.840 --> 00:49:21.240
for the overfed in North America.
911
00:49:21.240 --> 00:49:22.500
I don't really understand
912
00:49:22.500 --> 00:49:24.450
why they don't take that first fish product
913
00:49:24.450 --> 00:49:26.370
and make food out of that.
914
00:49:26.370 --> 00:49:30.003
It's truly about feeding the world, but it's not.
915
00:49:30.990 --> 00:49:33.630
Farmed salmon don't need rivers.
916
00:49:33.630 --> 00:49:36.720
So if you can produce and sell salmon
917
00:49:36.720 --> 00:49:38.730
that doesn't need a river,
918
00:49:38.730 --> 00:49:42.870
you can mine, log, divert, pollute,
919
00:49:42.870 --> 00:49:45.960
destroy the watersheds of this coast.
920
00:49:45.960 --> 00:49:50.960
And so for a politician who wants to say yes to industry,
921
00:49:51.090 --> 00:49:53.220
the farm salmon is a gift.
922
00:49:53.220 --> 00:49:56.020
There you can have your salmon product
923
00:49:56.880 --> 00:49:58.443
and wreck your rivers too.
924
00:49:59.697 --> 00:50:03.280
(mid tempo acoustic music)
925
00:50:04.560 --> 00:50:07.043
Salmon farming does produce a lot of salmon
926
00:50:07.043 --> 00:50:09.570
at a cheap market price,
927
00:50:09.570 --> 00:50:12.690
but the industry is also doing a lot of damage
928
00:50:12.690 --> 00:50:15.720
and poses a long term risk to human health,
929
00:50:15.720 --> 00:50:17.430
coastal communities,
930
00:50:17.430 --> 00:50:19.380
and the fragile marine environment
931
00:50:19.380 --> 00:50:22.923
that have brought us wild fish for thousands of years.
932
00:50:25.350 --> 00:50:27.420
Seemed like DDT was a great idea
933
00:50:27.420 --> 00:50:29.876
until we realized the effect it was having on birds
934
00:50:29.876 --> 00:50:31.740
and beneficial insects.
935
00:50:31.740 --> 00:50:35.310
It seemed like chlorofluorocarbons were a great idea
936
00:50:35.310 --> 00:50:36.660
until we found out that the Freon
937
00:50:36.660 --> 00:50:38.040
we were putting in our refrigerators,
938
00:50:38.040 --> 00:50:39.660
was destroying our ozone layer
939
00:50:39.660 --> 00:50:41.820
and causing us to have worse sunburn.
940
00:50:41.820 --> 00:50:43.440
And farmed salmon
941
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:45.690
might have seemed like a good idea at the time,
942
00:50:45.690 --> 00:50:47.967
but as we see the consequences mounting up
943
00:50:47.967 --> 00:50:50.100
and the bill is coming due.
944
00:50:50.100 --> 00:50:53.039
And it's one of those experiments that we undertook
945
00:50:53.039 --> 00:50:55.320
as part of the industrial economy,
946
00:50:55.320 --> 00:50:56.850
that maybe we just need to back away from
947
00:50:56.850 --> 00:50:57.960
and realize, you know,
948
00:50:57.960 --> 00:51:00.780
we tried that, we saw where that path was going.
949
00:51:00.780 --> 00:51:03.366
Now it's time to turn down a different path.
950
00:51:03.366 --> 00:51:06.949
(mid tempo acoustic music)
951
00:51:29.911 --> 00:51:33.000
♪ I betcha' goin' fishin' all o' the time ♪
952
00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:36.084
♪ Baby goin' fishin' too ♪
953
00:51:36.084 --> 00:51:38.607
♪ Bet your life, your sweet wife ♪
954
00:51:38.607 --> 00:51:42.076
♪ She gonna catch more fish than you ♪
955
00:51:42.076 --> 00:51:44.736
♪ Many fish bites if you got good bait ♪
956
00:51:44.736 --> 00:51:48.143
♪ Oh, here's a little tip that I would like to relate ♪
957
00:51:48.143 --> 00:51:51.258
♪ Many fish bites if you got good bait ♪
958
00:51:51.258 --> 00:51:53.899
♪ I'm a goin' fishin', mamma's goin' fishin' ♪
959
00:51:53.899 --> 00:51:57.982
♪ And the baby goin' fishin' too ♪
