Aquatic farming - yes or no?

The state of Alaska does not allow fish farming within its waters, but the federal government is advocating fish farming as a possible answer to future food insecurity.  There are different types of fish farming (i.e. not all methods are created equal).  There is the type where you build holding facilities on land and cultivate your critters on shore (tilapia or catfish are two examples), and then there is the method used in the waters of British Columbia and Chile, where they rear salmonids in net pens.  I don't know very much about the on shore methods, but I do know that the offshore rearing has several problems.  First, the fish are so close to each other all the time, that they have to give them lots of antibiotics so that they don't all get sick and cause a mass die off.  Second, salmon are not vegetarians, so they have to be fed other fish to survive.  The amount of fish killed to make a salmon is nearly twice the weight of the actual salmon produced by farming.  Third, all the fish waste and antibiotics get dumped on the bottom right below the net pens, and the pens have to be moved periodically to keep the ocean bottom from becoming unusable.

In warmer climes than here, much bigger fish like tuna are farmed.  This practice is common in Australia, and Japan is also producing thousands of tiny tuna fry in laboratories.  Hawaii has also gotten into the tuna farming business.  In some places they catch wild tuna when they are small, then keep them in pens for a certain amount of time so they can get bigger and more valuable.  I imagine they have the same problem with crowding and die-offs as you would have in salmon pens, but if you only have a quota to catch 10 tons of tuna, but you are able to increase the weight of the surviving fish by 25% while they are in the pens, you can see how valuable this practice might be (especially since certain species of tuna are in dire straits right now).

Back closer to home, Alaska does allow shellfish farming, and there are several enterprises farming oysters that are fairly profitable.  They have to send samples of their product off to labs in Anchorage once a week to ensure that it is not contaminated with Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) before they are allowed to sell their oysters.  I know that many people think that oysters are just scary snot creatures, and shouldn't be eaten, but I find them delicious (though not in stuffing).

When I was stationed in New Jersey in the mid 1990s, they had these facilities called depuration plants.  When "wild clams" (that's a good name for a band!) were harvested and landed in NJ, they had to spend 3 days in the depuration plant before they could be sold.  That's because bivalves are filter feeders, and they tend to grow REALLY big when they are located near sewage outflow pipes.  They had a nice 3 day spa visit at the depuration plant after they were landed to help flush any nasty stuff out of their systems.

If you are starting to think that Clams Casino isn't so tempting any more, let me try to allay your fears.  If you are not a vegetarian, most of the animals which you consume probably eat something that would make your stomach turn.  I love bacon, but pigs are not the cleanest/healthiest of eaters (probably why they taste so good).  Lots of sea creatures are scavengers (lobsters, crabs and striped bass being among the tastiest that I love to eat).  And I know not too many Americans of my generation have enjoyed the delicacy of turtle soup, but we have two of those funny reptiles that live with us, and if you could see what I do when I observe their eating rituals, you would never want to eat one again.

The tofurky by comparison, has lead a clean life, but I cannot imagine it is as tasty as a Dolly Varden that you have caught yourself and pan fried in a skillet with some rosemary and olive oil.   MMMMmmmmmmmmm.........