Ocean Book of the Month Each month in 2007, The Ocean Project will highlight a book focused on our blue planet or environmental sustainability. Books for all age groups will be covered, non-fiction and fiction, prose and poetry. If you have a suggestion, please let us know.
May’s book of the month, Swimming in Circles by Paul Molyneaux, is a hard-hitting and much needed examination of the practice that has been touted as the key to saving our seas: aquaculture. Molyneaux’s examination into worldwide aquaculture practices reveals that in contradiction to its reputation as a practice that will compensate for the world’s dwindling fish supply, fish farming in actuality depletes ocean resources and creates many more problems than it solves. This thoughtful examination of the dark side behind “the next big thing” is a perfect read for the month that reminds us, “you are what you eat!” Paul Molyneaux knows about fisheries from the inside. He began working in commercial fishing as a “lumper,” unloading scallop boats, in 1976. In researching this book, he observed salmon and shrimp farms, especially in Maine and Mexico, and spoke with those who support and oppose aquaculture. The issues are not always black and white but he learned firsthand many frightening facts about the aquaculture industry. For starters, tightly packed together farmed fish suffer from frequent and varied diseases, which can quickly spread to the wild fish; and the antibiotics used to treat the farmed fish can not only enter the food chain, but also lead to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that have the potential to harm animals and society. On top of that, fish farms use pesticides that contaminate the planet from local groundwater supplies all the way down to the ocean; farmed fish are fed with feed made from wild fish that have to be caught to maintain the fish farms, resulting in further decimation of already depleted wild fish populations; and dangerous genetic pollution occurs when farmed fish escape and crossbreed with wild fish, which has happened frequently. The human consequences of aquaculture are also devastating. Molyneaux demonstrates the ways in which small local businessmen are being put out of business by large multinational conglomerations. Aquaculture’s argument that it creates local jobs is revealed as the falsehood that it often is. Paul Molyneaux makes a strong case against aquaculture’s self-created image as the miracle cure to over-fishing. Instead, we learn that some types of aquaculture can decimate both local economies and the ecology. Swimming in Circles examines the worldwide crisis that the fishing industry is in, and forces readers to come to the sobering realization that there is no quick and easy answer to this troubling problem. In short, aquaculture as currently practiced by many multinational corporations is not sustainable. There is potential to do it right, with different species and on different scales. Perhaps Molyneaux’s next book will delve into the innovative ways some people are farming fish.
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Images: © 2007 Wolcott Henry