Farmed salmon help save wild fish
By Robert Wager, Times Colonist February 1, 2011
There is nothing natural about agriculture. It is a 100 per cent man-made activity. We gave up natural feeding of the population about 10,000 years ago when we stopped being hunter-gatherers. All agriculture has impact. With this in mind, the debate becomes: How much impact is acceptable for how much yield?
With respect to the aquaculture debate, the real question is how do we, as a society, gain the benefits of consuming salmon without irreparable damage to the environment? To suggest that eating wild salmon is the best way to protect the wild salmon has never made sense to me. Farming salmon is the ideal way to eat salmon and protect wild salmon too.
Robert Wager
Vancouver Island University Nanaimo
