Fish Farms from A to Z

There’s a new and so far little-known way to catch bird flu.

By water.

One major outbreak of bird flu among wild birds occurred in the middle of 2005 around Qinghai Lake, in China. Recently, wild birds in that area have again tested positive for H5N1.

Some experts believe that these wild birds caught the virus from the many fish farms around Qinghai Lake. That’s because the fish on these farms are fed with chicken droppings.

The H5N1 virus can live up to a month in water.

So the wild birds may be catching it either from swimming around in and drinking from the fish farm waters or from eating the fish. The fish don’t catch the flu of course, but maybe the virus can survive in their bloodstream.

Either way, the wild birds seem to be catching it this way.

One young boy in Vietnam died from catching bird flu by swimming in a section of the Mekong River where a lot of H5N1-infected chickens had recently been dumped.

Hopefully, nobody in the world today would simply dump H5N1-infected chickens into a river, but there’re many fish farms around the world fed with chicken droppings.

Hey, it’s encouraged by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. It certainly sounds efficient, logical and ecological.

What can we do to protect ourselves?

First, during a bird flu pandemic, don’t go swimming in public pools. The chlorine added to the water in most pools should kill the virus, but it gets used up as people swim, so that on a hot summer’s day there’s very little chlorine in the water.

If you do go swimming, make sure you shower before you go into the pool — for the safety and protection of the other swimmers. Make sure you shower after you finish swimming — for your safety and protection.

Don’t use hot tubs with other people.

Cook fish as thoroughly as you would chicken. You should do this anyway. I don’t care if you are a sushi lover — you can ingest some nasty parasites from eating sushi.

If bird flu is in a pandemic stage or if it’s been found in birds in your area, don’t go swimming in lakes and rivers. Wild birds leave their excrement in such bodies of water.

If you’re hunting or fishing, make sure you wear high, waterproof boots so that you don’t get wet.

If you do go swimming (or maybe fall if you’re boating) into a river, pond, lake or open water in the wild, don’t open your eyes underwater and don’t take that water into your mouth.

You shouldn’t do that anyway, since such water is always full of various species of bacteria and viruses.

Ocean water should be safe to swim in, unless somebody has recently dumped dead chickens into it.

Don’t drink any water from a river, lake or other open source of water.

Water from your tap should be all right to drink. If there’s a pandemic and your local water company is short handed, you may want to boil drinking water as a precaution against normal germs.

Septic tanks and other enclosed residential water systems should be safe.

However, if your home’s source of water is an open well, you should boil the water. Heating it up to 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 10 minutes should kill any H5N1 virus.

If and when bird flu reaches the pandemic stage, you’re most at risk of catching the disease from direct contact with other people.

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Most people don’t realize that the bird flu virus can survive in water for close to a month. Wild birds seem to be catching the virus from fish farms fed by chicken droppings. So you must protect yourself from water-bourne bird flu.

 

I wrote an article the other day about the Sockeye in Canada. Apparently no one knew why the red salmon did not appear as usual this fall.

However, information given to me after i wrote this article mentioned above, states something else, and should maybe be taken into consideration to a cause for this absence.

First a little background for you who did not read my previous article.

Millions of the red salmon called Sockeye Salmon has gone missing from its traveling through the river Fraser this year. The river is located in the province of British Columbia.

Department of fisheries states that around 6 to 10 millions of this species was expected on its travels into the river Fraser this month. A counting performed shows that only around 600.000 sockeye’s have taken the trip this year. This vanishing act will have enormous consequences for the fishing industry.

Local fishermen tells that the situation is chocking and a catastrophe and even says it is critical. CBC believes this will be the worst year in history for the catching of the pacific salmon.

Speculations around this disappearance has been done all from  that the salmon has suffered from warmer sea waters, food shortage, increased amount of predators, salmon lice from some of the local fish-farms in the strait of Georgia.

Another possibility is that the fish is late this year, and will come at a later stage. The biologists do not believe this is a plausible cause at all.

The red salmon spends from one to four years out in the Pacific before it migrates back to the fresh waters to breed and die. This happens quite regularly in late summer times. No one has proper knowledge of what the fish spend its time on out in the ocean. This fact is rather astonishing, that the scientists at this time has no knowledge of what this red salmon spends its time on when its not in the rivers of Canada.

As a consequence of this situation, the Canadian authorities have cancelled the season for red salmon catching this year. Only the natives will be allowed to do the fishing for its own consumption only.

The red salmon count has dropped with almost 90 percent over the last twelve years in most of the Canadian lakes.

The three other species of salmon migrating through the rivers of Canada during the summer and fall season does not seem to be affected by the same amount of decrease as the red salmon has.

So what makes us draw some conclutions to why the Sockeye salmon is not showing up in the streams of Canada this year?

In January 2007 scientists gave an alert to the British Colombian authorities that sea lice could be the cause of the decline in the amount of salmon in Canadian rivers and lakes.For the first time in Canada, scientists have used data from the world’s largest aquaculture company to draw a link between sea lice from Atlantic salmon on British Columbia fish farms and soaring infection rates in wild salmon migrating nearby.

This alert was published in Toronto Globe and Mail in 2007. So one can say that the solution to the absence of this delicate fish was found already back then, and the cause for the fish was infected was identified as well.

Then in February 2008 the Vancouver Sun published a study from a Government-funded group switches sides on risks of fish farms .Pacific Salmon Forum at this time agreed sea lice are killing salmon. In a major blow to British Columbia’s salmon farming industry, the government-funded research group says it now accepts a recent scientific study that warns of mass extinctions of wild pink salmon on the central coast due to salmon farming. In an uncirculated “communiqué” obtained by The Vancouver Sun, the Pacific Salmon Forum acknowledged that sea lice infestations contributed to plummeting pink salmon populations in the Broughton Archipelago from 2001-2005 – as noted in a recent article in Science, a leading international research journal. The article written by Martin Krkosek, co-researcher Alexandra Morton and others, drew international attention. It warned that wild pink salmon could be extinct within four years on the B.C. central coast due to sea lice infestations arising from salmon farms in that area. In 2007, a provincial legislature committee studying fish farming also recommended the industry switch from open-net sea pens to closed-containment pens that would prevent lice infestations at farms from spreading to wild fish migrating in the vicinity. Both recommendations have been ignored by the province.  

One can say, the signals were there, and causes were outlined, however no action was taken. Who is to blame on this issue, neglecting authorities not follow up with regulation and control to avoid a disaster on the coasts of Canada. It is therefore no mystery any longer to why the salmon does not appear as expected (by some). It is human interference with its effects on environment.

Human contribution to the global warming and pollution sets parameters for how our wild life develops and response accordingly.

There is no excuse to be ignorant anymore, there has to be a change in human behavior before it is too late. We have already too many signs in our food chain that we need to clean up our act and become more environmental concerned when making the economics of a project or industry. Industry should be responsible for paying the cost their activity has on the environment, and the consumer has to accept the price tag that comes along with it. But I guess this will be to much to ask for – at least today.

 

Millions of Salmons disappeared in mysterious ways in Canada

No one knows why and how.

Millions of the red salmon called Sockeye Salmon has gone missing from its traveling through the river Fraser this year. The river is located in the province of British Columbia.

Department of fisheries states that around 6 to 10 millions of this species was expected on its travels into the river Fraser this month. A counting performed shows that only around 600.000 sockeye’s have taken the trip this year. This vanishing act will have enormous consequences for the fishing industry.

Local fishermen tells that the situation is chocking and a catastrophe and even says it is critical. CBC believes this will be the worst year in history for the catching of the pacific salmon.

The cause for this sudden and dramatic reduction of up to 10 million salmon is a riddle to all.

Some speculate that the salmon has suffered from warmer sea waters, food shortage, increased amount of predators, salmon flee from some of the local fish-farms in the strait of Georgia.

Another possibility is that the fish is late this year, and will come at a later stage. The biologists do not believe this is a plausible cause at all.

The red salmon spends from one to four years out in the Pacific before it migrates back to the fresh waters to breed and die. This happens quite regularly in late summer times. No one has proper knowledge of what the fish spend its time on out in the ocean. This fact is rather astonishing, that the scientists at this time has no knowledge of what this red salmon spends its time on when its not in the rivers of Canada.

As a consequence of this situation, the Canadian authorities have cancelled the season for red salmon catching this year. Only the natives will be allowed to do the fishing for its own consumption only.

The red salmon count has dropped with almost 90 percent over the last twelve years in most of the Canadian lakes. The causes mentioned have been environmental causes to amount of fishing.

The three other species of salmon migrating through the rivers of Canada during the summer and fall season does not seem to be affected by the same amount of decrease as the red salmon has.

Let me ask you a simple question. Do you know the single most important thing you can do to ensure proper fetal brain development? The answer is surprisingly simple – take fish oil during pregnancy.

Studies have shown fish oil is very effective in proper fetal brain development. The reason for this is, almost 30% of the human brain is made up of DHA fats found in the oil. Increasing the intake of the oil during pregnancy ensures adequate DHA is available for the baby’s development, which results in a better brain with more intelligence.

High DHA levels in the brain also help the child later to have a better memory and concentration. She would also have better cognitive skills and much lower chances of having behavioral disorders.

The oil helps the pregnant mother too to avoid brain loss and reduces the risk of post partum depression – a common phenomenon many mothers go through after delivering the baby.

The question then arises – how to choose a good oil? You need to evaluate the oils on a few parameters to make sure you are getting the best oil possible.

The first and the most important thing to get right is the source of the oil. Most common fish do not contain Omega 3 fats. And an even lesser number contain DHA Omega 3 fats. Mackerel, trout and salmon are a few among them. An even better choice is the Hoki fish from New Zealand. It contains even higher amounts of DHA than the others. The reason for this is, the Hoki is caught from the ocean where it feeds on wild plankton. Most of the salmon on the other hand is farm bred and doesn’t contain as much DHA as a natural diet provides to the Hoki.

Some fish oils cause a “repeat” or a fishy aftertaste. This usually means the oil is not fresh and has been oxidized at some point during processing. Make sure the oil you use is fresh and un-oxidized. For this, it is necessary that the oil processing facility be near to the place from the source of the fish. This is something you can find out easily from the supplier’s website.

Next, check how pure the oil is. Has it been properly refined? Safe fetal brain development can only be had by a pure, concentrated oil. Molecular Distillation is the process that can do this job effectively. It also prevents the oil from getting oxidized during processing. Ensure the oil you use has been molecularly distilled.

Finding the right oil can ensure proper fetal brain development and a healthy and smart child. So go now and find out an oil that can make this happen.

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This volume outlines the major findings from the Norwegian research programme on whales and seals in Norwegian waters. A wide range of topics are covered, including physiological aspects, social organization, population dynamics, stock assessment and management. The book will be of great value to scientists and managers, as well as to members of the general public interested in environmental issues…. More >>

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