Ocean Trout Farms - Rainbow Trout Escape

Well it has happened again. Another 2,000 Rainbow Trout have escaped from Ocean Trout Farms, a sea based aquaculture operation located in Queens County, Nova Scotia.

The operators of the fish farm think hungry seals may have caused the problem that allowed the fish to escape.

The last time Ocean Trout Farms was mentioned here was in 2007 when 500,000 Rainbow Trout escaped during Hurricane Noel.

Those trout showed up in rivers along the coast from the Mersey and Medway all the way to the Sackville River here in the HRM.

The fear is of course that the fish may carry diseases and parasites from living in farm conditions that could get into the wild populations of Atlantic Salmon and Speckled Trout here.

 There is also concern that non-native Rainbow Trout could colonize some of the local rivers and lakes putting the native species under critical pressure.

This escape happened earlier this month but I heard nothing about it until I happened to see a small article in today's newspaper. I wonder what obligation this company is under to report escapes, mortalities, disease outbreaks or parasitic infestations? Having said that, I am not sure what value that information would have after the fact anyway.

Fish Farming, Young Salmon, and Sea Lice

West River

Wow, things change.
When I first heard of Aqua-culture I thought it would be the salvation of wild Atlantic salmon here in the east and the Pacific salmon in the west too.

 If it was cheaper to farm them than harvest them from the wild well, it would soon not make sense to send a fleet of boats out to sea for a fish that wasn’t worth much in the market place.



 Everything seemed aligned to favour the wild fish.


 Economic studies had established that a rod-caught fish was adding about $1000.00 or more to the local economies where the sports traveled. A net caught fish was what, a couple of dollars a pound? There was some protest to large scale fish farming but I really thought it was because of the employment displacement and to be expected. It turns out I might have been wrong in my initial enthusiasm.

 I received this link in an email today.

It is a report from the BBC's site that says bluntly that fish farms are wreaking havoc on wild stocks and could actually be the final straw that breaks the back of wild runs. I hope it isn’t true but check out the article and let me know what you think.

Here is a quote,
"In the natural system, the youngest salmon are not exposed to sea lice because the adult salmon that carry the parasite are offshore. But fish farms cause a deadly collision between the vulnerable young salmon and sea lice. They are not equipped to survive this, and they don't." - Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station, located in the Broughton Archipelago.