Atlantic Salmon Made in Taiwan Spawns Cold-water Aquaculture Industry in the Sub-Tropics
The Fishing Agency of the Council of Agriculture held a press conference today, Wednesday,May 11. to announce that scientists had successfully bred and raised Atlantic salmon in Taiwan.
The COA believes that the first domestically raised Atlantic Salmon will hit the market two years from now. A spokesman forecast that within 3 years, local producers will be able to replace around 20 percent of imports, and that production should be able to increase to a 50 percent market share in the fifth year.
The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) normally lives in sub-arctic regions in water with an optimum temperature of 6 ~ 16 ℃, while waters around the sub-tropical island of Taiwan have an average temperature of 24 ~ 27 ℃.
Taiwan currently imports around 2 million tonnes of Atlantic Salmon per year at a price of 200-250NTD (USD$6.15-$7.69) per kilogram, and demand for the cold water fish is increasing.
A research and development team from the National Taiwan Ocean University, and the National Kaohsiung Marine University of Science and Technology developed the cold-water aquaculture technology.
Source: Council of Agriculture Fisheries Agency
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This seems really foolish. I don’t see this being successful without absurd amounts of antibiotics. And, of course, those fish will be eating a crap diet that will either further deplete fish stocks (as farmed fish tends to do) or reduce the health benefit of eating salmon in the first place. I feel like this is just profit-chasing without forethought. I heartily welcome anyone to share info to the contrary though! I’d LOVE to be wrong on this because salmon has got to be one of the most delicious fish out there. But if it doesn’t make ecological sense to continue to eat a species, then it is absurd and selfish to continue doing so.
I agree, Tanya. The bureaucrats in charge of this project are patting themselves on the back and claiming it’s an environmentally friendly project that will help reduce carbon emissions caused by the distance between the source of Atlantic Salmon, and the market here in Taiwan. But I’m sure it’s going to take a lot of energy to keep the water cool in a sub-tropical environment. According to my reading they are setting up a demonstration aquaculture center in Kaohsiung, which is a pretty hot place.