notbob > wrote:

>On 2011-02-12, Omelet > wrote:

>> Farm raised catfish are fed a clean pelleted food.

>But live in their own waste!
>
>This one of the major problems with aquaculture, disposing of all that
>waste from thousands of fish. Requires fresh water, which is
>overhead. It's so bad in the shrimp industry in Thailand, shrimp are
>pumped full of antibiotics to survive their own filth. When farms ARE
>finally flushed, they waste is so toxic, it's killing off natural
>mangrove wetlands that are the birthplace of most of the sealife in
>that part of the ocean. IOW, aquafarming is killing off most of the
>natural sealife in The Gulf of Thailand.
>
>Do you actually believe catfish and talapia farmers are any less
>greedy or more responisble?
>
>The guy who will make it filthy rich is the person who figures out a
>way to harvest all those damn jumping Asian carp up around the Great
>Lakes and creates a way to turn them into marketable protein. Hell,
>grind 'em up and make fish meal for salmon farmers or sell to those
>moron consumers who are already paying big bucks for imitation
>crabmeat. Seems like a no brainer.

FWIW, Seafood Watch (as of January, 2011) lists U.S. farmed catfish
and U.S. farmed tilapia as among their "best choices". They would
not do this is the environmental damage from the farming operations
were too great.

Myself, I just don't happen to like catfish/tilapia in any form I've ever
tried.

Steve