Here we go...the first environmental blog post of many!!!

So, for my very 1st environmental blog post I felt the need to choose an article to review from scidev.net since it is one of my favorite websites for obtaining environmental news. They have wonderful sections on agricultural, environmental, as well as international development issues. The article I will be discussing is, "Environmental impact research urged for farm fishing", and I will post the link for you at the end. Farm fishing, or aquaculture as it also known as, is a hot topic lately since there is a growing concern about the struggling state that our fisheries are currently in. There are an enormous amount of articles and books that are out that state a chilling prediction that our world's fisheries will be completely erased by the year 2050. Now this is just scary, especially considering we are already in 2011! So, the real question becomes, "Do we have what it takes to turn this daunting situation around?" This is where the farm fishing comes into play. Many scientists and environmentalists feel that farm fishing offers a viable and sustainable alternative to commercial fishing, and overall I tend to agree with this notion. However, that does not mean that farm fishing is completely and 100% great for our environment, especially our oceans, and this is exactly why this article is calling for more environmental impact research to be conducted. Problems with farm fishing are still pretty prevalent. These can range from water pollution from the antibiotics that the fish are given, as well as water pollution from having too many species in a small contained area, to problems arising from the farmed fish often being non-indignous to that area and harming the native fish species by changing their habitats or competing for the natural resources. The farmed fish can also sometimes break out of their enclosed netted area and mate with wild fish or even transmit diseases to the wild fish, since disease outbreak among farmed fish tends to be fairly high since the fish are confined in such a small area, allowing the disease to spread more even more rapidly. So all-in-all, farm fishing does indeed have the potential to be a sustainable solution to commercial fishing, but there is still research that needs to be done before we can claim that it is truly a green alternative. Hope you enjoyed my 1st post and maybe even learned something new too! Stay tuned for some more eco-friendly posts! 

Peace and love,

The Green Chick

http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/fisheries/news/environmental-impact-research-urged-for-fish-farming.html