This picture was taken on Atlantic Beach at sunrise before selling calendars locally. It fits the theme of this post about farming the sea. There are two ways we can farm fish. The way I support is to help nature overcome habitat-related spawning obstacles by incubating fertilized eggs from local specimens to release hatchlings that live wild and free as Natural Selection ensures survival of the fittest. This is a wonderful way to sustainably support historically high abundance and harvest levels using traditional fishing methods. Stricter regulations with less seafood available to consumers opens the door to Public Water industrial fish farming that I strongly oppose for many reasons. Corporate cages full of genetically modified species clogging Public Waters plague native seafood with pestilent sea lice and contagious pathogens as they excrete habitat-degrading levels of antibiotic-laced feces. Farmed fish that would normally swim hundreds or thousands of miles in the wild will live sad lives confined to overcrowded cages. Stocking a wide variety of native seafood is good for recreational and commercial fishermen as well as consumers and the fish we eat. Subsidizing corporate fish farms restricts our freedom to access Public Waters and the resources they support. It hurts local fish and fishermen while leaving consumers with unnatural fish lacking the quality of wild-caught seafood that roamed free in open waters. Now is the time to decide which method of farming the sea we want to see. I choose wild and free!
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