The Blue Revolution is a Lie

B. McPherson

This video is quite long, but it is a real eye opener about "organic prawns"

The Blue Revolution is the set of lies told to the public about the sustainability of fish farming. It includes fables about the farming of shrimp and prawns as well. Industrialists that own the “farms” have been tireless in repeating the story.

The open net fish farming industry has shown how disease is concentrated in the feed lot of the nets. Waste from the fish drops to the ocean floor and contributes to pollution. The overcrowded conditions require the heavy use of antibiotics to keep disease at bay. And often, that is not enough. Currently, on the west coast of British Columbia, millions of farmed Atlantic salmon have been killed because they are infected with a deadly virus.

They promised us cheap fish if we accepted the farm leases in our clean coastal waters.

Ever wonder what those farmed fish eat? They eat wild fish. Not salmon. The industry would claim that they only catch “garbage fish”. There is no such thing. All wild creatures have a place in the tapestry of life. Turning less desirable fish into meal for farmed salmon probably means that someone in a third world country goes hungry tonight.

Ever have shrimp at a restaurant? Do you ask where it comes from? Shrimp and prawns used to be so expensive that the average person had them only once or twice a year. Now some restaurants have “endless shrimp” and “all you can eat shrimp”. How about “popcorn shrimp”? Where do they come from and why are they so cheap? Everything must be paid for one way or the other. It looks as if the people living on the north east coast of Brazil are paying. The environment is paying. Corporations are making a killing.

Damage to the local mangrove forests and other life in the area has been extensively documented. Even when the farms are abandoned, they continue to disrupt and prevent the healing of the environment.

The carrot that the corporations hold out to the local, often subsistence farmers in the area is the prospect of well paying jobs. Once the leases are granted, the promise of jobs evaporates in the tropical sun, while villagers find their routes to the mangroves cut off by high fences. Those that make it to coastal rivers find them dying from the chemicals released into the water as the shrimp ponds are cleaned.

What Can You Do?

·         Always ask when you buy fish whether it’s in a restaurant or the supermarket. Never buy farmed fish. The price is far higher than the money you pay for it.

·         Always ask where the prawns and shrimp are sourced. Never buy farmed shrimp. They are grown on the backs of the poor. Prawns and shrimp are luxury foods and wild caught will reflect the price.

·         Reduce the amount of animal flesh that you eat.

I     In case you are wondering, the Green Revolution was a Lie Too.