Extinction threat to wild salmon

Wild salmon on Canada's west coast are being driven to extinction by parasites from nearby fish farms, a study claims.

Wild pink salmon around the Broughton Archipelago are declining rapidly and will die out within 10 years if no action is taken, say researchers.

They say the data, published in Science, raises serious concerns about the global expansion of aquaculture.

Scientists say commercial open-net salmon farms are a "haven" for sea lice - naturally occurring parasites that attach to the skin and muscle of salmon.

"Salmon farming breaks a natural law," explained study co-author Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station, located in the Broughton Archipelago.

"The most obvious thing to do is to move the farm out of the way of the wild fish," Dr Krkosek told BBC News.

"Don't put them on the migration route, and don't put them near the spawning rivers. Another option is to move to closed containment technology where the net pen is replaced with a physical barrier that prevents the exchange of parasites - that would solve the problem too."

By the way, animals like bears rely on the pink salmon for food...so the extinction of salmon because a huge issue when considering it is one part of an inter-connected ecosystem.

You know, I have been deciding about whether or not to continue eating fish in my new vegan lifestyle (vegans by definition don't eat fish...so I would be somewhere between a vegan and a pescatarian)

I feel like I could and would kill a fish to eat it, and that fish are not animals and do not have the same sensory perceptions as, say, a pig. But fisheries are generally sooo unsustainable, that for environmental reasons, I am compelled to stop eating fish.

I don't have the source, but approximately 75% of fisheries over-fish. Let's not forget bottom trawling, which scraps the ocean floor, removing EVERYTHING--including coral that is 100s of years old--for some fucking fish. It's like cutting down the forest to catch rabbits.

On top of that, we now learn the way that fish farms severely disrupt and endanger the surrounding environment.

gnjrsngjksngjkgnjksd

Vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, and legumes, my friends...