Big Salmon

Cooke Aquaculture owns Omega Protein. What does that mean for you?

- Rip Cunningham

Aquaculture may seem like an odd subject for a publication focused on saltwater gamefish, but its broader impacts affect a wide range of species popular with sport-fishing anglers. While the term "sport fishing" implies that we are just out having fun, it should be remembered that while using only about 3 percent of the overall resource, we support an industry worth tens of billions of dollars. Also noteworthy is that in some fisheries, recreational anglers put more meals on the table than the commercial user.

But this column is specifically about Atlantic salmon ocean net pen (ONP) aquaculture. While there are a lot of other aquaculture operations along our shorelines, salmon have the longest history here, and that helps us understand what the problems are. Most of the other existing aquaculture is for shellfish and a growing number of seaweed and kelp farms. All have demonstrable benefits. But there is also a NOAA Fisheries effort to develop offshore aquaculture for a variety of other species, and some of the problems known about salmon ONP aquaculture may become a concern for offshore operations.