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What is Pool 32 Mag all about ?

Pool 32 Mag is a new fly fishing e-magazine for everyone who loves fly fishing, and wish to follow environmental issues as well.

The best part is that it's a totally FREE e-mag and it can be downloaded by anyone, anywhere on the planet.

Check it out, sign up or send it on to a friend who is just as crazy about fly fishing as we are.


If you chose to scroll further down you will find the Pool 32 Blog

"our cyber world of fishy stuff".


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handle your mail info's according to our very strict privacy policy.


Copyright © Mark Wengler

No photo reproduction of any kind without prior written


"Fly fishing isn't just a sport - it's a state of mind!!"

Check out earlier issues of Pol 32 mag


February 29, 2012

The true cost of oil by

I don't understand anything anymore - what is happening in Canada, they have one of the largest nature resources on the planet, yet they somehow don't care about the gift they have and are apparently only focusing on short time "$oultion$" it makes me so extremely sad to se how much we humans are prepared to do for money - I don't like this world anymore, I don't like the human race - we have no emphatic feelings for all other spices on this beautiful blue planet........


What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project -- and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat.

For almost twenty years, Garth's photography of threatened wilderness regions, devastation, and the impacts on indigenous peoples, has appeared in the world's leading publications. His recent images from the boreal region of Canada have helped lead to significant victories and large new protected areas in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Ontario. Garth's major touring exhibit on the Tar Sands premiered on Los Angeles in 2011 and recently appeared in New York. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation PhotographersFilmed at TEDxVictoria on November 19 2011





February 24, 2012

Great vid from MidCurrent - absolute beauty

Connect Yellowstone from Marshall Cutchin on Vimeo.

Source to this great produced fly fishing vid - MidCurrent

February 23, 2012

AD Maddox Prints at the Trout Unlimited Annual Benefit and Auction

I really like A.D's paintings, so colorfull and facinating, something every fly fisher "on this planet" should treat themselves with, something which will make you dream about some of the unforgettable day's out there with your rod along the riverbanks of your favorite spot.
But what I also really like about A.D's work is that she supports some really important causes like in this case the important work of Trout Unlimited.

AD Maddox Prints will be available at the Trout Unlimited Annual Benefit & Auction in San Francisco, New York and Washington DC this Spring as well as Cast Hope in CA, WY Fly Casters and Upper Bear River TU. 

Here's the first of the 2012 canvases she is releasing.





PS. All A.D. Madox's available originals can be viewed on her website.
 Here's the quick link to her site : A.D. Madox 


February 15, 2012

Mail from Alex Morton - message from Nova Scotia

Hello

I received a message from Nova Scotia this morning, where they are desperately fighting off ELEVEN salmon farms.  Please consider signing their petition. They say the voices for wild salmon are vanishing as the fish go. They have spent years trying to bring wild salmon back, are just beginning to succeed and now 11 salmon feedlots are circling them, hungry for their waters. I know what that is like. My little community of Echo Bay fought hard to protect Broughton, but we were way too small, they didn't even notice us and we lost everything, there are 8 people left.

 http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-open-pen-fish-farming-on-nova-scotias-eastern-shore



 

I wish I had known what we were in for when salmon farms came banging on our door I would have fought harder, I would never have given them the benefit of our doubts, they looked so reasonable - who knew?  Well we know now.

Also, I have written an open letter to Justice Adair, who presided over the defamation trial Staniford vs Mainstream.  There are things Don Staniford is being accused of that are not true.  I offer her ladyship another view, with pictures, from a person who was there - me.

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2012/02/dear-justice-adair.html

On Friday, Justice Adair refused to rule on Mainstream's draconian proposal to immediately stop Staniford from speaking about fish farms. The terms of the request are so vague as to be nearly impossible to comply with and I believe would affect any who quoted anything related to Staniford. She will make a ruling on this at any moment.  As well, she could rule on the case at anytime - Did Don Staniford defame Mainstream, even though he never mentioned their name in the offending cigarette packs he used to draw parallels between the way Big Tobacco and Big Salmon manage public opinion?  We heard testimony on scientific papers reporting cancer-causing contaminants in farm salmon, then heard about salmon farming advertisements that targeted pregnant women to eat more farm salmon, as well as, an ad used on British Columbians reporting farm salmon are "natural, nutritious and free of contaminants."  Shame.

Most concerning to me was Mainstream's effort to make Staniford a liar for saying that thousands of us gathered in Victoria to tell government to get salmon farms out of the ocean, get away from our fish in the GET OUT Migration. I think it is dangerous when lawyers attempt to undo history, say people were not there. I have posted a slideshow on the link above in defense of all 5,000-7,000 of us who were there. This number came from the security guards at the Parliament Buildings in Victoria.  It would appear our message was not received.

Alex

Check out the new cool Le Mouching interactive web


The new super cool Le Mouching interactive website is online now.
It's filled with really interesting stuff, lots of great vid's like the one below, great articles and heaps of relevant links.
(The only thing I didn't like about it was that they didn't have a link to Pool 32 !!! - just kidding of course :O) 


I really like their approach to the whole fly fishing scene  - always with a fun angle and a big fat grin to it - well done guy's - thumps up from Pool 32.

Check it out using this direct link - Le Mouching




February 14, 2012

It can be done - so no excuses left no to do it right

It can be done - so no excuses left no to do it in a right way, instead of just destroying everything arround these fish farms as we see everywhere.

Salmon Safe. Good For Farmers. Good For Fish. from Howell at the Moon Productions on Vimeo.

February 10, 2012

Dr. Alex Mortons voice is worth listening to....

Dr. Alex Mortons voice is worth listening to and especially in this case - read it, learn something about how the world we live in these day's are changing rapidly - and then TAKE A STAND!!! do you like it or not??? - I my mind I have absolutely no doubt it is a very scary and sad development we are witnessing these days.....somehow I feel sorry for the future generations, because they have to deal with all the problems these huge corporations are creating now.

Norway - has free speech become too expensive?

By Dr. Alexandra Morton
Tomorrow, a judge in a BC court will be asked to make an instantaneous decision on day 20 of a 20-day trial whether to grant an injunction against Don Staniford speaking about the fish farm industry.
Standing in a hurricane we cannot see the pattern - that the storm tearing up the world is circular, that it reaches into the global stratosphere. Similarly, the proceedings in courtroom #52, Vancouver Law Courts would have little significance if you could not see the roles of Norway, China, Premier Christy Clark and shareholders. The defamation hearing Staniford vs. Mainstream is a test – can the corporate world tolerate democracy.
Big tobacco and Norwegian salmon feedlots hired the same strategist - Hill and Knowlton. The Tobacco Industry knew their product was suspect in killing people, and so it took skilled professionals to get people to keep buying cigarettes. Hill and Knowlton are top-flight, known for managing public relations for the Gulf War, the Exxon oil spill in Alaska, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and the massacre at Tiananmen Square. The salmon farmers have spent millions advertising just in the last two years.
But truth is more powerful.
Staniford used cigarette pack imagery (http://salmonfarmingkills.com) to make the point that farm salmon contain cancer-causing chemicals, that they are spreading like a cancer choking off wild salmon migration routes and otherwise harming oceans worldwide. Staniford never named Mainstream in these graphics, but BC salmon farming is 92% Norwegian owned and Norway is the biggest shareholder in Mainstream’s parent company, Cermaq. So through Mainstream, Norway is attempting to protect its industry, calling for an immediate gag order on Staniford and $1 million in damages.
Why such a big response to a guy with big mouth and no money?
Under the watchful eye of Justice Adair we saw evidence that the salmon farming industry knew cancer-causing chemicals are in their product even as they targeted pregnant women to eat more farm salmon:
In 2011, a multi-million dollar ad campaign put fish farm propaganda in our mailboxes saying;
Farmed salmon is natural, nutritious and free of contaminants
They know there are contaminants in farm salmon, but they paid huge bucks to tell British Columbians there are none.
While the salmon farming industry has the resources to hire Hill and Knowlton, Staniford’s tools are biting satire, superheroes, three websites, a Captain Condom suit and edgy, British humor. He knows people won’t read dry exposés on the industry. So he pushed the limits and Norway is pushing back hard. Mr. Wotherspoon, commercial litigation lawyer for Fasken Martineau, with 9 offices around the world, is asking Justice Adair for an immediate gag order on Mr. Staniford to shut him up for the few remaining weeks he is in British Columbia, before he is deported.

Norwegians should be concerned about this. In 2010, the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Chinese free speech dissident, Lui Xiaobo. When Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann accepted the award on Xiaobo’s behalf she said;
To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.”
China took offence and imposed new rules concerning import of Norwegian farm salmon causing a 68% decline in shipments of Norwegian farm salmon to China. Massive stores of farm salmon rotted in warehouses.

While they are vulnerable to the trade winds they create, society’s rapacious corporate giants can save themselves from the spin of the vortex merely by leaning on another leg in another country. What Norway’s salmon feedlot operators lost in Norway, they gained in BC. BC farm salmon export to China skyrocketed from $249,000 in 2010 to more than $3.8 million in 2011 (Vancouver Sun, Feb 2012).

Now, however, free speech is threatening the profitable BC / China farm salmon connection. Staniford keeps saying salmon farming spreads disease. Indeed the ISA virus, the most lethal virus known to salmon and a form of influenza spread from Norway to Chile in 2007 causing 2 $billion dollars of damage. When my colleagues and I reported European strain ISA virus positive tests here in BC, what did the provincial Minister of Agriculture, Don McRae do? He made a statement that Premier Christy Clark would personally tell China we do not have ISA virus in BC. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency testified at the Cohen Inquiry in December that if ISA virus is in BC, trade in farm salmon could cease.
Recent industry trade paper headlines make it clear the farm salmon market is collapsing, because there is too much uneaten farm salmon on the market driving prices down below cost. Two weeks ago the US lifted a 20-year 24% duty on Norwegian farm salmon. This will allow Norwegian companied to sell more farm salmon to the U.S. and might save the motherships, but it puts their BC companies at greater risk. Farm salmon companies in BC report firing people and downsizing, they cannot survive without the Chinese market.
And so gale force winds spawned on the other side of the planet when Norway awarded one man for free speech have slammed into a small courtroom in Vancouver where Norway seeks to take free speech away from another man. The structure of the courts and democracy are creaking, rivets popping, paint peeling.
Norway I want to say to you - ISA virus is in BC, cancer-causing chemicals are in your fish, you do use BC as a dump as your companies never shovel their manure and wild fish are being killed in your pens. You can silence Staniford, but at what cost? You won’t hide these truths, because they are lying around in evidence everywhere. Corporations are like addicts they can’t stop themselves. They are blind to everything, but the next quarter. What does it mean when you hand out the Nobel Peace prize in one part of the world and then work to erode democracy where it has become inconvenient to business?
We all have to ask ourselves - what kind of world we want to exist in?

February 9, 2012

Do we want wild salmon in the future.....

Do we want wild B.C salmon in the future - well then this is what we need....


Don't mess with "The Don" Mr. Harper

Don't mess with "Dangerous Don"   
                                      - you never know what he is capable off .....





...and He is NOT alone......






 .....so all you "political airheads" will probably get your ass kicked all the way to Norway, and end up in a feedlot filled with "gen-manipulated-fastgrowing-pirañas"  

PS. these "Super Dudes" are NOT sensitive to kryptonite or $$$$$$$......the only thing that can stop them is the TRUTH - I know that nobody over there in BC probably like that, but as a wise person once said :

" Life is hard, you die and then you are only remembered for what you did while you lived" 

February 7, 2012

Bristol Bay - Key Considerations for a Large-Scale Mine Proposal


                                BRISTOL BAY - LATEST NEWS  

If your are interested in reading a more detailed rapport about the considerations regarding establishing a huge mine right in the middle of one of the most significant and important spawning areas in the world, the use this direct link.
It's essential reading and gives you a perfect view of what's really on stake in this very important situation. If the multi billion industry get free hands and build this mine it could have devastating environmental consequences for the whole region.
Is it worth the risk ?? - and who is really going to benefit from such a mining project - the share holders or the local population......???

Key Considerations for a Large-Scale Mine Proposal

Wild Salmon Center and Trout Unlimited have produced a report examining the proposed Pebble Mine and its potential impacts on the wild salmon fishery of Bristol Bay, Alaska. This report describes significant ecological, economic, and cultural concerns raised by proposed development of the Pebble copper, gold, and molybdenum deposit in the headwaters of the Bristol Bay basin, which is home to North America's most abundant wild salmon fishery and the world's largest wild sockeye salmon run.

read the rest of this article HERE

Norwegians warned over salmon standards


I read this article from the Moscow News about how some laboratory test have shown high levels of Salmonella and Coliform bacteria in Norwegian farmed salmon.
Read this interesting article for yourself.....

Norwegians warned over salmon standards


by Alina Lobzina at 07/02/2012


A potential fish deficit is looming for seafood lovers as the Russia’s food monitoring agency has found a new health threat to the nation.   
Norwegian salmon might disappear from Russian supermarket shelves as the “dangerous produce” doesn’t meet the Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus Custom Union’s standards, according to the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service, or Rosselkhoznadzor.
And despite the fact that Russian manufacturers are ready to offer some replacement fish products, the amount they are able to supply is significantly less that current imports from the north European state.
Failed tests
Laboratory tests found salmonella and other coliform bacteria, according to a warning that the head of Rosselkhoznadzor, Yevgeny Nepoklonov, sent to the director general of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, Harald Gjein. And infected fish has continued to flow into Russia, despite guarantees given by officials, the letter read.
Imports of Norwegian salmon to Russia have been gradually growing, and in 2011 the country became the biggest importer of fish from Norway, buying about 10 percent of its exports, Gazeta.ru reported.
Last year, the supply of just one kind of Norwegian salmon to Russia amounted to about 104,000 tons worth 401 million euros, according to the Norwegian fishing authorities.
Local trout insufficient
Trout artificially bred in Russia and red salmon could become a suitable substitute for Norwegian produce, the president of the Pollock Fishermen Association, German Zverev, believes. But the total harvest of these aquatic bio-resources is no more than 65,000 tons, which is not enough to meet the salmon consumption in the country.
“In big cities and large retail chains, Norwegian fish fills a considerable amount of supplies, and finding a replacement wouldn’t be that easy,” Agavan Mikhayelyan, director general at Finekspertiza told Gazeta.ru. The only hope is that Rosselkhoznadzor will ban salmon from certain producers, and not the whole country, he said.
Registering importing contracts would be a more efficient way of monitoring fish quality than any bans, Zverev told Gazeta.ru.

February 4, 2012

The Salmon farm monitor

A good friend of mine send me this article and I must say that everything Don Staniford is fighting in Canada right now is made into a pure proof by Dr. Roderick O'Sullivan's research results - read it and get a much wider understanding of all the problems connected to this industry.




That which you have wasted will not be there for future generations

Dr. Roderick O’Sullivan is a writer, an environmental scientist and an international authority on salmon farming. He also runs his own dental practice in the London’s West End. Read Dr. O’Sullivan’s dramatic critique on the birth and death of the fishing farming dream.


The Dream
By the early 1990’s, smoked salmon, previously the prerogative of the affluent, could finally be enjoyed by the man-on-the-Clapham-omnibus. Because Norwegian scientists had eventually overcome the problems of breeding and disease control, salmon farming had become a commercial reality. These fish were crossbred to rapidly achieve maximal weight and unlike their wild counterparts, tolerated heavy stocking densities and the close proximity of man. Brandishing impeccable environmental credentials, this novel industry promised to save the wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and create new jobs.
Taking advantage of the wild salmon’s unique image and taste, entrepreneurs initially built cages holding 100,000 salmon costing £1 each. After two years, each fish could be worth in excess of £10. Demand rocketed. Salmon was four times the value of pork; smoked salmon was fetching £17/lb. And that was in 1991! Located in inaccessible and economically depressed areas, farmers were eligible for generous EU grants and subsidies, so multiple-cage farms popped up like mushrooms. Anticipating the immense profits, multinational companies quickly bought-out local crofters. Overseen by lax laws and few personnel, salmon farming is often described as “self-regulatory”. Once exclusive and over priced, Atlantic salmon is today a cheap global commodity, available in both top restaurants and the local fish’n’chippie.
The Nightmare
The public remain unaware of the true price our environment pays for this widespread availability of farmed salmon. The ubiquitous logo of salmon leaping over waterfalls is a sham. A migratory species, each farmed fish swims its miserable life away in the equivalent of a bathful of seawater and is marketed solely on the majestic image of its distant cousin, the wild fish. The consumer therefore focuses on the salmon’s gastronomic allure, remaining unaware of the issues that have transformed the industry’s earlier dream into today’s Environmental and Consumer/Health nightmare.
CONSUMER/HEALTH ISSUES
Colourants
Would you buy salmon whose flesh was unappetisingly grey? Only by adding the expensive colourant Canthaxanthin (E 161 g) to its food do farmed salmon retain their distinctive orange-pink hue. Any butcher adding dye to spruce up unappetising meat would quickly find himself in court, yet salmon-farmers choose their required tint from a graded shade-guide! Surely this is duping the consumer to buy a phoney imitation product, rather than genuinely-pink salmon flesh?
For health reasons, the EU bans the direct addition of Canthaxanthin to our food, yet the public are nowhere informed they are consuming the dye indirectly via farmed salmon. In February of this year, the EU ordered salmon farmers to reduce the amount of dye they feed to the salmon – by a massive two thirds! All packaged food must list each constituent, colourant and additive - why must farmed salmon remain the exception?
Dangerous/Unhealthy Constituents
Farmed-salmon contain considerably higher concentrations of tumour-promoting PCB’s (Poly-Chlorinated Biphenyls) and Dioxins than wild salmon. Even minimal intake of these compounds may irreparably damage brain development in children. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned that eating more than one portion of farmed salmon weekly could exceed the World Health Organisation’s recommended maximal intake for these toxins.
Unlike the Government Health Warning accompanying cigarettes, similar FSA’s advice is nowhere displayed. Residues of the now-banned insecticide, di-chlorvos, have also been discovered in supermarket salmon. The Pesticide Residues Committee recently found the pesticides DDT, chlordane and hexachlorobenzene in 97% of the seventy-nine farmed salmon they tested.
To ensure his stock of farmed salmon concentrates on growth rather than on reproduction, the farmer prefers to rear all-female stock or sterile fish. These are produced by manipulating the maturation times of young fish. Hormones (steroids), chemicals, pressure shock or x-ray bombardment are the methods used.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics cure an expanding list of fish diseases, some new to science. Because the antibiotics used in salmon farming are identical to those dispensed in doctor’s surgeries, ingestion of penicillins, tetracyclines, sulphonamides etc. contained in farmed salmon could contribute to both allergic reactions and antibiotic resistance in the population as a whole. Certain salmon diseases e.g. furunculosis, can be resistant to three different antibiotics. The Veterinary Inspectorate regularly finds residues of antibiotics in farmed salmon.
Fat Content
Farmed salmon are fed unnatural diets, very high in oil content, hence are four times fatter than wild salmon. One farmed sample examined had seventeen times more fat than its wild Pacific counterpart! 20% bodyweight can be fat... Hardly healthy fare for the weight-watcher or the diet-conscious?
Organic Farmed Salmon?
One should take such claims cum grano. Colourants to pink its flesh; x-rays for sterilisation; hormones to eradicate sex-drive; sprayed with medicament, insecticide and pesticide; dosed with antibiotics; imprisoned in densely packed cages; vaccinated; genetically manipulated… hardly an “organic” regimen. Neither are many of the constituents of the farmed salmon diet:
    NUTRIENTS MINERALS/CHEMICALS
    White fish     Flesh dye (Canthaxanthin)
    Blood meal     Magnesium sulphate
    Hydrolised feathers     Iron oxide
    Meat bone meal     Zinc sulphate
    Cane molasses     Potassium iodide
    Fish oils     Sodium carbonate
    Soya     Zinc oxide
    Antioxidants     Di-calcium phosphate
    Yeast     Copper carbonate
    Herring offal     Cobalt sulphate
    Saithe offal     Cobalt carbonate
    Binders (cellulose, alginate)     Optional; antibiotics
Ivermectin
Note the presence of animal meal, feathers and molasses in a diet for fish! After enzyme-treatment. Feathers provide cheap, easily available protein while animal and poultry blood also provides inexpensive protein and calories. This practice might hold implications for both Jewish and Muslim communities.
Some Norwegian operations go one better; they “recycle” whole salmon that die on the farm by grinding the bodies into pellets. “Organic” farmed salmon and the faeces of the hobbyhorse (Equus carnivalis) share a common attribute - both are very hard to find!
Eating Diseased Fish
Infective Salmon Anaemia (ISA) occurred recently in Ireland, for the first time – found in Scotland in May 1998. Instead of destroying the infected fish, as per protocol, they were promptly killed and sold off. Such diseased fish, if awaiting definitive veterinary diagnosis (which may take some time), may be marketed quite legally. No label warns the consumer that disease dictated the premature slaughter of the fish. While current evidence suggests ISA viruses do not damage humans, who in their right mind would knowingly tuck into fish riddled with pathological organisms?
The germs causing Foot and Mouth Disease rarely affect humans yet the Government spends billions to keep the food chain free of them. Listeria in farmed salmon has resulted in batches of Irish, Scottish and Norwegian salmon being rejected by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Diseases/Chemicals
To combat numerous diseases, fish are hosed with powerful pesticides or, similar compounds may be added to their food. Salmon farms are all-year-round foci for billions of flea-like lice that only attack salmon and trout, wild or farmed. Yet again, to kill these parasites, pesticides are used, in spite of some being officially banned or contraindicated by the manufacturers for use on salmon-farms. Highly injurious to the environment, these compounds include:
(1) Di-chlorvos: Capable of killing lobster and shellfish in one thousandth the concentration used in salmon farming. Listed as one of the EU’s most dangerous compounds for aquatic environments, it previously enjoyed illegal usage. It was eventually licensed by the Authorities because farmers insisted no alternative existed. In 2002 di-chlorvos was outlawed as cancer causing. A salmon-farm worker is currently claiming in the Dublin High Court that di-chlorvos caused his testicular cancer.
(2) Malachite Green, was outlawed in 1990 by US Federal Authorities as cancer causing. Although banned here since June 2002, the compound is still being detected in Scottish farmed salmon. The EU threatens legal action if salmon farmers continue to use it.
(3) Ivermectin’s long-lasting capacity to destroy many non-target marine species led its manufacturers to specifically recommend it NOT be used in aquatic environments. This advice has been routinely ignored resulting in the Veterinary Inspectorate regularly finding it in farmed salmon.
(4) Cypermethrin, is both popular and cheap. With a record of being able to destroy all insect life in 12 kilometers of river, it can eradicate similarly structured marine species inhabiting salmon farming waters.
(5) Teflubenzuron destroys the hard skin of virtually all known insects, hence threatens most aquatic molluscs. The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency warned; “Being very long-lived¸ Teflubenzuron endangers non-target species and may re-enter the food-chain via shellfish.” As it will NOT biodegrade in seawater, toxic wastes under farms may release Teflubenzuron into the sea for years to come.
Pollution
Pollution from Scotland’s salmon farms is estimated to be twice that of the human population. Agricultural wastes must be treated or spread on land, human sewage must be detoxified, yet all fish-farm wastes are flushed untreated into loch, river and sea. Shellfish disappear, dead-zones proliferate and once-rare algal blooms have become commonplace. The very bacteria on which the marine food chain depends are now adversely affected by these pollutants.
20% of salmon-food lies uneaten and putrefying beneath the cages. Over 80% of fish-food is re-released into the surrounding water as polluting suspended solids, organic filth, fish-diarrhoea, ammonia and bacteria-rich debris. Small wonder that neighbouring shell-fishermen regard salmon farms with dread.
Escapee Fish
10 - 20% of farmed stock escape due to storms, accident etc., so today, escapee salmon outnumber wild fish by a factor of four in certain waters. These escapee fish are big, hungry and aggressive and, in North America, tend to overrun the native species. Infected escapees eradicate neighbouring wild stocks by disease transfer. The alarming interbreeding between escapee and wild salmon signals irreparable contamination of the latter’s genetic codes, threatening its very existence. This is why all salmon farming is outlawed in Alaska.
Genetically Modified/Transgenic Salmon
With the insertion of an extra gene for growth hormone plus a promoter sequence, genetically modified (GM) salmon produced by Aqua Bounty Farms in the USA grow six times faster than farmed salmon. With their 20% improvement at converting food to flesh, these fish offer even greater profits to salmon farmers. 60-kilo GM salmon are also in production.
Eating the excess growth hormones in these fish will not be a problem because, as the manufacturers confidently assure us, all hormones will be, “destroyed by cooking and digestion”. Well, that’s alright then! As soon as the appropriate licence is issued, these Frankenstein-esque creatures are destined for your local supermarket, regardless of the plethora of potential side-effects for humanity and the environment.
Diminishing Fish Stocks
It takes three and a half kilos of wild fish to produce one kilo of farmed salmon so trawler-fleets must delve deeper and wider for fish oil - the new ‘blue gold’. Feed companies already harvest sand-eels, sprats, capelin, anchovies, herring, mackerel, blue whiting and are even plundering Arctic krill to feed spiraling demands. Vast quantities of South Pacific industrial fishmeal and fish oil are also imported; 80% of global fish-oil is now used in fish farming.
Vanishing Wild Salmon
As farmed salmon production increases, wild salmon numbers decrease. The Atlantic salmon is now endangered in mainland Europe, Scotland and parts of the USA. Numbers in Ireland are at their lowest ever. By merely swimming past disease-ridden farms, adult wild salmon can sign their own death warrants because, unlike their medicated/vaccinated cousins, they are unprotected against exotic infections.
On entering the sea for the first time, young salmon are particularly vulnerable to lice-attack as are neighbouring seatrout (Salmo trutta). Similar lice attacks from the farms have also eliminated neighbouring sea-trout. Far from being its saviour, salmon farming is responsible for driving another nail into the wild salmon’s coffin.
Continuing Nightmare
One Scottish newspaper claims farmed salmon is “the most contaminated food in the supermarket” while the Daily Mail (24/12/02) calls it “pink poison”. Salmon farming may generate huge profits for the few but its associated ecological destruction could eventually undermine the social and economic fabric of coastal communities that depend on small-scale fisheries and tourism.
We are all aware of the horrors of CJD and the role unnatural nutrition played in the spread of Mad Cow Disease. Surely the health risks attached to eating intensively reared or genetically modified creatures demands continued investigation, not out-of-hand rejection? Yesterday my friend’s cat turned up her nose when proffered fresh farmed salmon. Maybe cats know something we don’t?


February 2, 2012

Salmonopoly




Salmonopoly

Marine Harvest is the largest aqua-farming concern in the world. Turning out more than 100 million farmed salmon per year, it supplies consumers in Europe, the USA and Japan. But at what price? This global empire is run by John Fredriksen, a self-made man and one of the richest on Earth. In his Norwegian home, he is called the “Big Wolf”; he calls himself “green”, “enduring” and “transparent”. But reality contradicts the corporate philosophy, particularly in Chile where Marine Harvest is by far the largest producer with some 70 fish farms. Chile, with its barely-there environmental legislation, is a paradise for investors. Everything that is forbidden to salmon producers in Europe is allowed in Chile, with the result that after 18 months of rearing, the salmon are a chemically loaded product. In April 2008, in order to improve the intensive large-scale farming image, Marine Harvest entered into a partnership with the WWF. For a donation of € 100,000 per year, Marine Harvest may use the WWF’s panda logo to advertise its industrially produced farmed salmon. Utterly suspect ecologically, but very successful economically: after a collapse during the financial crisis, the company’s shares rose by 270% in the summer of 2009 alone. John Fredriksen is the main protagonist in this eco-thriller set in the murky world of a global foodstuff giant.


PDF downloadDownload synopsis (275,68 kb)


Source to this post - United Docs

The Truth About Eco Labels for Farmed Fish



Read this article from TAKE PART it's pretty scary stuff.......
         The Truth About Eco Labels for Farmed Fish



If you’re spending a little extra money on farm-raised fish with a sustainability sticker, you may be getting short-changed.


According to a Pew Environmental Group funded study released Wednesday by Canada’s University of Victoria Seafood Ecology Research Group, a number of seafood eco-labels simply aren’t living up to their promises. That’s bad news for consumers who rely on those prominent stickers to figure out what’s O.K. to eat.

The study looked at 11 species of farm-raised marine finfish, including Atlantic cod, Atlantic salmon, barramundi, grouper, and European seabass. Researchers then examined environmental impacts of fish production, including antibiotic use, pathogens, escapes and sustainability of the feed. The group then compared 20 eco-labels that included organic, retail certification and third-party labels and found that many were misleading.
“Eco-labels are abundant in the marketplace, but there’s little to them but the label,” John Volpe, Ph.D., a marine ecologist and lead author of the report, tells TakePart. “Many retailers don’t provide any information other than the sticker, and give no indication to what they’re basing their claims on. There’s no meat on the bones.”
For organizations that poured valuable resources into developing and marketing their labeling programs, there’s added bad news—very little progress has been made in driving change in the aquaculture industry, says Volpe. Many eco-labeled farmed fish are on par with conventionally grown seafood, despite the higher price tag.
So which labels did best in the study? At the very top is the U.S. National Organic Standard for farm-raised salmon, (which is not yet in effect). The World Wildlife Fund’s Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue also fared well, while U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer and the seafood retail industry's label Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) ranked low on the list.
Read the rest of this interesting article HERE

And of course the one and only Catch Mag

And the last one of these "pearls on a string"it's of course the one and only Catch Mag.
They have developed a new player for their mag and I must say it all looks really good. 
Mr. O'Keefe is just a very skilled photographer and I really enjoy his shots, always with new ideas and angles to it. Real pleasure to follow and very motivating as well. Well done guy's - can't wait for # 22....


Here is just a few of my favorites shots from this edition, but don't hesitate check it all out by clicking on this DIRECT LINK - and make sure to sign up if you haven't already done it - personally I wouldn't risk missing a single edition of Catch - always such a pleasure and a true photo journey.













New great edition of Flymage

It seems like we all publish at the moment - these fly fishing e-mags are popping up in our mailboxes like pearls on a string - isn't life wonderful sometimes.
Here it is the latest edition of Flymage and a great one, I might add. Check it our by using this direct LINK - then you can chose between an english or a spanish version - absolutely brilliant, which I had thought of that!!!

Here is a little taste of what you will find inside this exciting edition, hell there is even some shots from Denmark - Yehaaaa :O) - so this is where I honestly can use a real Facebook phrase  - I "like" it.











February 1, 2012

New edition of Blood Knot mag out now

A new great edition of Blood Knot Mag is out now, filled with goodies and great content as usually - check it out by clicking this LINK 


Here is a little taste of what you will find inside 





Great videos and lot's of great shoots....