Sunday, March 25, 2007
In his book, "Swimming in Circles, Aquaculture and the End of Wild Oceans," Paul Molyneaux criticizes aquaculture corporations and investors for painting a too-rosy picture about the benefit of raising fish and shrimp in captivity.
Instead of providing abundant seafood and employment for displaced fishermen, fish farming in Molyneaux's opinion pollutes ocean waters. And, he warns, the genetic make-up of wild salmon and shrimp is already compromised by inter-breeding with hybrid escapees from pens.
Molyneaux doesn't oppose all acquaculture. If it's small-scale and has the ocean environment in mind -- and is managed in ways that minimize disease and pollution -- he thinks it may be sustainable.
But according to the author, good management doesn't generally prevail in the industry.
Disease is rampant among captive salmon and shrimp, Molyneaux contends, while medications used to cure disease make bacteria disease-resistant.
Are shrimp and pen-raised salmon safe to eat? Don't count on it, according to "Swimming In Circles." The book cites studies that find high levels of PCBs in farmed salmon, plus organic pollutants "10 times higher" than levels in the wild fish.
Molyneaux is well-versed in his subject. A resident of East Machias, he holds a degree in marine biology from the University of Rhode Island. He was a commercial fisherman for 25 years before leaving the profession to earn a degree in writing and literature from Goddard College.
These days Molyneaux writes freelance articles about fisheries and related subjects for The New York Times, Yankee, and National Fisherman. His first book, "The Doryman's Reflection," was published in 2005.
To research "Swimming In Circles," Molyneaux visited salmon and shrimp farms in Maine, Mexico and the United Kingdom. He interviewed corporate officials in aquaculture, and fishermen displaced by aquaculture conglomerates.
Tireless in his endeavors, the author occasionally ditched his car and bicycled to out-of-the-way fish farms. A knowledge of Spanish helped in interviews south of the border. Some aquaculture problems described in the book affect Maine.
In 2005, for instance, Molyneaux contends that angry scuba divers laid off by a New Brunswick company swam out to salmon pens and slashed nets. About 200,000 hatchery salmon escaped, he says, then mingled with native salmon to spawn in Maine's Dennys River.
There have been other large escapes, Molyneaux said. He also believes that small salmon kept in crowded pens routinely escape through netting.
"The escape events represented just a few among many," writes Molyneaux, "and since the industry began in earnest in the 1980s, an estimated 10 million salmon have escaped into the wild."
Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998, also result in native and non-native species interbreeding.
During Hurricane Mitch, the author alleges, 50,000 acres of shore-based shrimp farms in Honduras were flooded and washed into the Gulf of Fonseca, where wild varieties of the same shrimp live.
My one criticism of "Swimming In Circles" is its lack of objectivity. Molyneaux is a writer with a mission, and the mission of his 2007 book is poking holes in lobbyist and investor claims that aquaculture is safe and beneficial in general.
Still, his is a minority voice amid pro-industry and pro-government officials clamoring to expand aquaculture despite unsolved problems.
In the March 12 issue of the Portland Press Herald, for instance, an Associated Press story reported a Bush administration initiative to permit fish farming up to 200 miles off shore.
"We believe we can do it in a way that is environmentally sound, that makes sense for our economy," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez was quoted as saying.
Such expansion is precisely what Molyneaux campaigns against in his book.
"While trawling promised to feed the world cheaply, he writes, "it did irremediable damage to ecosystems -- the future of the ocean envisioned by aquaculture pioneers claiming it as their Manifest Destiny will look far worse."
"Swimming in Circles" is no chicken soup comfort book. But if its author is to be believed, aquaculture as practiced today may compromise future productivity of the ocean. For those concerned about the environment, this readable book lays out dangers and hints at solutions.
Lloyd Ferriss is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Richmond.
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