Assignment task:
Respond to this discussion post: Industrial ocean fish farming- bad for the ocean, fish, and people. This article starts by displaying a picture of boats, and machinery placing or retrieving old oyster boxes, degraded ropes, and big buoys from the water. This picture looks bad and grabbed my attention right away, making me think... is this aquaculture? The picture is then followed by discrediting NOAA's Aquaculture Week by stating how aquaculture pollutes, threatens marine life, produces unhealthy products, and harms local fishers. Backing this claim up by referencing a net pen failure releasing 160,000 salmon into the surrounding waters of Washington, without recovering the faulty equipment. Hallie proceeds to list all the negative effects of escaped species and aquaculture equipment on the ocean's environment making sound evidence against the blue revolution. My opinion is she is absolutely right about the negative effects aquaculture has and companies turning their back and refusing to claim ownership of failed attempts to control nature. What I don't agree with is the zero effort of listing all the good and positive ways aquaculture can be used, replenishing coral reefs, creating self-sustaining seaweed farms to help reduce cattle emissions, or protecting ecosystems from pollution. While aquaculture has its downside its upside holds more weight to me.