Would environmental impacts form freshwater aquaculture include nutrient overload and escape of exotic species?
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3 Responses to Would environmental impacts form freshwater aquaculture include nutrient overload and escape of exotic species?
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“Environmental Impacts” of “Freshwater Aquaculture” would co-exist in a nutrient overload setting, and/or with “exotic” species. It would not directly cause this condition. A farm upstream of the aquaculture may be the culprit of nutrient overload, for example. Similarly, if a fish farm was damaged by a storm and the fish escaped, they could be exotic to the area.
Exotic species are also a tough subject to debate: some find it hard to claim anything is “natural”. In other words, to be an exotic species, the particular thing has to be in an area where it should not be. It is difficult to state with certainty what is “natural”.
To close my answer, aquaculture is a man-made ideal, if you are referring to this form of it. Your question needs to be far more specific, and should have included region and type of culture you are asking about. Nutrients would be closely monitored in an aquaculture setup, and exotic species could escape but this is unlikely, unless you are talking about a fish farm run by morons.
Peter
February 25, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Yes,
A). Fertilizers, pesticides, and waste water can cause an imbalance in the water nutrient balance. This is when something occurs on land, and then when natural processes like rain or irrigation, cause run-off into creeks, streams, aquifers and basins.
B). In our State we have an invasive “snake-fish” from Asia that was identified in our waters in 2008. They are attempting to kill each an every one, but we have a lot of waterways…
Funny enough, both of these are due to man’s desire to control and manipulate their environment..
Wood Smoke ~ Free2Bme!
February 25, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Definitely. commercial FW aquaculture is the equivalent of CAFO, a lot of animals concentrated in a much smaller area than they would occupy in the wild and fed heavily. The amount of waste (feces plus uneaten food) is truly horrendous.
Although I can’t think of any instance of exotic organisms escaping from an aquacultural facility, there are a lot of instances of disastrous releases done on purpose (red-eared sliders [outside of their natural range], snakeheads, carp, and goldfish). Storms have been responsible for the escape of lots of animals. While I would not call the introduction of exotics an impact, it would have to rank as a potential impact.
oikos
February 25, 2012 at 6:11 pm