Even without watching Prison Break, I bet I could escape this thing, and fish are almost as smart as I am. Photo by Ivan Walsh
Alas, this is what journalism amounts to these days: the “established media” put forth a sad collection of factoids without enough background to actually make any sense to those not intimately familiar with the issues at hand, and then the “blogosphere” makes silly jokes. This cycle is vital to prevent that which was once called “meaningful lasting change” in our collective youth. Now we have websites with pictures of cats, which it turns out is all society wanted in the first place.
(Yeah, I feel old today.)
Anyway, a Canadian fish farm has been charged by the federal government with possession of fish. Specifically wild fish, which are different from farmed fish, which I guess is all that they were allowed to possess. There’s something in the process that involves catching a bunch of the farmed fish, which I thought were kept in tanks, but maybe they do things differently now that most of the wild fish are so low in population that they can’t really be said to be “using” the ocean anymore, so maybe the fish farmers have spread their stuff out a little. From what I gather, they’re from an “open net” fish farm, where the “tank” is a big net in the ocean that supposedly keeps the farmed fish in and the wild fish out. Except when they don’t, apparently.
The charges are based on a private prosecution that was put forth by biologist and activist Alexandra Morton, and I think that’s pretty cool that she could go and do that, but I’m also interested with the money quote:
“For decades we have heard reports of wild fish trapped in fish farms, eaten by the farm fish and destroyed during harvest”
Here’s the thing: I haven’t heard this, and I’ve been writing about various related topics for 9 years now. Even with the most awesome smart phone, do you think the average consumer is going to do one tenth of the (ridiculously minor) research that I did for this post while standing at the fish counter trying to decide what to buy? Anyone who thinks being a vegan is hard doesn’t understand anything about fisheries, animal agriculture, or anything else other than maybe what wine goes with what food.
