Project Three: The Fable

For Project Three I designed a picture displaying a morph of mangrove coastlines, slowly being destroyed, and then becoming a shrimp farm. I took this picture and created a puzzle out of it. Each puzzle piece has words that are somehow related to the other pieces it fits into. I figured this way children would have the opportunity to complete a puzzle and still learn about the harms of aquaculture through the final picture and keywords. I designed this puzzle for 5th graders, but it is still fun to complete, enjoy!
Puzzle:

Timed Writing

Aquaculture: Timed Writing
Alyssa Cross
I have recently written a research paper with regards to the topic of aquaculture and its impact on the environment. Aquaculture has been perceived as the solution to over fishing, an on going issue in the world today, but recently aquaculture has been harming the environment more than helping. I believe that sustainable aquaculture cannot be practiced and should not be seen as the solution to over fishing. To help broaden others knowledge about aquaculture I have posted a blog of my researching paper. To better my personal understand I have written letters with regards to sustainable aquaculture to various organizations. I have also recently been working on a fable to educate fifth grades about the harms of aquaculture. Through project 3 I have been working to educate others and myself in the field of aquaculture and the problems it presents.
A blog is a webpage which everybody throughout the world cannot access via the internet. On my blog website, www.crossab.blogspot.com, I posted a copy of my research paper on aquaculture. On my blog website I also used tools to display pictures. Through the tools on blogger.com I created a pole asking whether people, after reading my paper, can vote on whether aquaculture is the solution to over fishing. My blog site has not only educated others on aquaculture but also given my a view of others opinions through voting or comments. The comments on my blog site included questions on what the solution to over fishing should be and whether I believe sustainable aquaculture could be practiced. While writing my letters, later on, I used my blogging feedback to ask the same questions to the different organizations. Blogging was the first step in expanding my and others knowledge in the harmful aspects presented by aquaculture.
After creating a blog site I continued on to writing letters to varies organizations such as WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) and Desert Sweet Shirmp (Shrimp Farm). In my letters I presented facts of issues presented by aquaculture, such as destruction of coastlines or emission of pollution, then asked how the different organizations prevented these problems or dealt with them. I presented facts so that the different organizations knew that I had knowledge in the field of problems presented in aquaculture. By presenting the fact and then the question I gave the reader a basis of where my question was coming from. I preferred to email my letters because I figured the feedback would be quicker, I found college mail moves rather slowly. I ended up emailing two of my letters and had to mail the third because an email address was not given. I hope to broaden my horizons in the knowledge of aquaculture. All of the organizations websites, which I contacted, claimed that sustainable aquaculture is possible. Therefore, I am hoping, for the environments sake, maybe these organizations will prove me wrong in my views of aquaculture; maybe the aquaculture farms have found ways to prevent pollution and destruction of coastlines. The final goal I wish to achieve through my letters is whether sustainable aquaculture can really be practiced today and replace over fishing issues.
After attempting to further my education in aquaculture I began attempting to create a fable to education 5th graders on the harmful impacts presented by aquaculture. I have not carried out my fable yet, but I have a basis for my project. For a class of 5th graders I will create a story book about a baby fish who has lost his home because of the construction of a shrimp aquaculture farm. Throughout my story the baby fish will have to deal with leaving his home behind, attempt of being eaten and adjusting to a new habitat. Within my story book I will provide writing on one side of the page and a detailed picture which I have drawn myself. The goal I wish to achieve through my Fable is I wish to educate children on the harms of natural process such as fish farming. The bright colors of my fable should help to draw in the attention of the students and educate them at the same time. If our younger generations are not educated in what negatively impacts their environment then issues, such as over fishing, will continue arise as they grow older. We need to educate our youths to ensure a save pollution free future world, if that can even be achieved.
By creating a blog and writing letters to organizations I wish t better my understanding of aquaculture. The feedback from my blog helped my formulate ideas for my letters. My letters, if replied to, will complete my understanding of aquaculture. As of now I still believe aquaculture harms the environment and should not be the solution of over fishing, but I hope to be proved wrong by the organizations I wrote to. Through my fable and blog I hope to better educate others. I hope my fable successfully teaches 5th grades about the issues with aquaculture. Through project 3 I hope to finally raise awareness of the ongoing issue with fish farms and over fishing. I enjoyed working in project 3 as is created an area to express my opinion, learn and educate others.

Desert Sweet Shrimp
Email- Shrimp@desertsweetshrimp.com

To whom it may concern,

My name is Alyssa Cross and I am a current student at Eckerd College. Recently, I wrote a research paper regarding aquaculture and its harmful effects on the environment. To better understand sustainable aquaculture I have a few questions I would like to ask. I understand disease and parasites are common in shrimp farms, due to the high population density, and can pose a potential problem for farms. On your website I read that you do not use antibiotics, without the use of antibiotics what is your solution for disease and parasite control? I also realize fish farms produce waste, which can cause algae blooms in local waterways. Algae blooms decrease the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, which can lead to the suffocation of local fish populations. What is done with the waste product, feces and pellets, produced by the farm? Shrimp farms are built normally on coastlines and take up a lot of room. When building Desert Sweet Shrimp how did prevent harmfully impacting the surrounding environment? By building farms humans are destructing habitats and harming ecosystems. How does Desert
Sweet Shrimp avoid harming local habitats? I am also aware that a lot of food is necessary to feed farmed shrimp. Where does the feed come from? Does the feed take away from local shrimp populations? I am concerned if humans continue to consume large amounts of
Seafood, we may permanently damage the oceans ecosystems. Do you believe the worlds fish supply can be produced by aquaculture? My main question is, how does Desert Sweet Shrimp practice sustainable aquaculture? Thank you for your time, I appreciate it greatly.
Sincerely,
Alyssa B. Cross

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA Aquaculture Program
Email- NOAA.Aquaculture@noaa.gov

To whom it may concern,

My name is Alyssa Cross and I am currently a student at Eckerd College. I have recently been writing a research paper with regards to sustainable aquaculture. To help better my understanding of sustainable aquaculture, I had a few questions I would like to ask. Aquaculture fish are grown in high population densities enabling disease and parasites to spread with ease. What is a solution to diseases and parasites that will not cause pollution? Antibiotics
are poured into tanks or fed to the fish through tablets, causing waste which can pollute local waterways. Where will the waste from feces and tablets be disposed? Where does the food for the farmed fish come from? Does the fish feed take away from surrounding fish populations?
The process of fish farming is not a natural growing process for the fish. Does aquaculture harm the fish’s natural growing process? Does aquaculture produce unhealthy fish loaded with antibiotics?
Shrimp farms use shallow waters along coastlines to grow shrimp. Coastlines tend to be mangrove forests, which house nurseries for small fish. By destroying coastlines, shrimp farms destroy habitats and put smaller fish at risk of predators. Can sustainable aquaculture really be practiced? I have one main question I would like to leave you with, is aquaculture really the solution to over fishing? Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Cross

WWF
U.S. Headquarters
World Wildlife Fund
1250 Twenty-Fourth Street, N.W.
P.O. Box 97180
Washington, DC 20090-7180

To whom it may concern,

My name is Alyssa Cross and I am currently a student at Eckerd College. I have recently been writing a research paper with regards to sustainable aquaculture and how aquaculture can prove to be harmful to the environment. I have a few questions regarding aquaculture I would like to ask to help increase my knowledge in the field of sustainable fish farming. I read through the WWF website and thoroughly agree that the emission of pollution from aquaculture farms should be carefully monitored. If the local waterways are polluted with nitrogen and phosphorus the water enrichment process leads to algae blooms. Algae absorbs high levels of dissolved oxygen, meaning waterways around fish farms, if enough pollution is emitted, will have lower levels of dissolved oxygen. Fish need dissolved oxygen to survive; if levels of dissolved oxygen get too low the local fish populations could die. What is WWFs solution to aquaculture pollution?
Shrimp farms are built in shallows coastlines to provide the best environment for the shrimp. Coastlines where shrimp are farmed normally house mangrove forests. Mangrove forests are nurseries for smaller fish, without mangroves smaller fish are less protected from predators. Shrimp farms destroy coastlines, what is the WWFs solution to the destruction of coastlines? Is there a method to build shrimp farms without destroying habitats?
My main questions I would like to leave you with are, is there such a thing as sustainable aquaculture? Is aquaculture the solution to the problem of over fishing? If not, what other solutions are there for the rising demand in the world for fish? Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,

Alyssa Cross

Aquaculture: Environmental Issues

Alyssa Cross
Professor Kathleen Robinson
Analytic Writing
11/12/2007
Aquaculture: Environmental Issues
The human population, as it continually grows, causes increasing stress on the environment with high demands of food, space and other natural resources. Human needs are continually on the rise. That being so, it appears humans are consuming the entire world’s natural resources. Coal, oil and natural gases are all examples of overused energy resources, causing added stress on the environment due to pollution. Another example of the human need to consume is found in the following quotation, “more land has been converted to cropland since 1945 than in the eighteenth and nineteenth century combined” (“Troubling Environmental Trends” para. 1). Today, an additional stress on the environment is the issue of overfishing. The world’s fish population is dramatically decreasing as demands for fish rise. Due to the issue of overfishing, currently thirty percent of the world’s seafood comes from aquaculture (“Something Fishy” para. 2). Aquaculture is defined by the U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as, “the propagation and rearing of aquatic organisms in controlled or selected environments” (“Something Fishy” para. 2). Aquaculture is agriculture, but using water versus land. Originally, aquaculture appeared to be the solution for overfishing. But there are several issues which are harmful to the environment caused by aquaculture. Aquaculture produces mass amounts of waste, high feed demands for growing fish, antibiotics, and the chance that farmed fish will escape. Due of these facts, aquaculture should not be viewed as the solution for overfishing. When all the facts are analyzed, aquaculture harms the environment more than it helps.
Presently, diseases and parasites create problems in aquaculture. Growing fish in tanks is not considered a natural process. Therefore, farmed fish are at more risk of contracting diseases or parasites then wild fish. When any set of animals, including humans, are placed in an enclosed area with a high population density, disease and parasites will spread rapidly. For example, if a college student gets sick, it is more likely their roommate or fellow boarders will also get sick. College students live close together in a smaller proximity to one another, breathe the same air, eat the same food, and share the same drinks, making it easy for bacteria to spread. Similarly, the same concept applies to farmed fish. Farmed fish are grown in high populations in small cages to ensure mass production and profit. The close quarters of the farmed fish allow disease, such as Molluscs in oysters or Crustaceain in cray fish, to spread with ease (Black 129). Diseased farmed fish can also find their way into waterways, contaminating local populations with a disease the local fish have never been exposed to (“Something Fishy” para. 4). If local fish populations contract a disease which they have never been exposed to, the results may be devastating, stressing the environmental ecosystem. Some farms have been abandoned because the disease or parasites could not be controlled; meaning all the land used for the farm is wasted. Closed farms create wasted space and destroy surrounding ecosystems. Diseases and parasites cause the contamination of local populations or the closing down of farms. All in all, diseases and parasites spread throughout fish farms and, overtime, add stress to the environment.
After awhile, farmers turned to the solution of antibiotics and vaccinations to fight the diseases and parasites. There are two main problems that have risen with the use of antibiotics and vaccinations. The two problems that occurred with the use of antibiotics and vaccinations are that the process proves to the wasteful and diseases build up immunities. Firstly, antibiotics are fed or poured into the fish cages. The concept of feeding the fish antibiotics has two drawbacks; it can prove to be very wasteful and unreliable. Feeding or pouring antibiotics does not guarantee a fish will receive the medication. The antibiotics that are not eaten by the fish run off into local waterways polluting them. Antibiotics can wreak havoc if they make it into the oceans (“Something Fishy” para. 4). Secondly, over time, bacteria and parasites build up immunity to the antibiotics. Once the parasite becomes unaffected by the antibiotic, farmers are forced to increase the dosage or change the antibiotic. Fighting diseases then becomes an ongoing cycle of immunity to antibiotics by the disease leading to the increase of dosage which in turn leads to the increase of pollution emitted by farm. Antibiotics and diseases are of the many drawbacks to aquaculture.
To ensure the best quality meat, farmed fish are genetically engineered. Genetic engineering is when two fish with desired traits are bred, to hopefully produce a fish with both desired traits (Black 129). Genetic engineering creates fish with different gene pools from those in the wild. Examples of desired traits are immunity to certain diseases, meat quality, size, and speed of growth. If a genetically enhanced fish escapes from the pen, it can breed or compete with local fish populations (“New Coalition Hopes to Sink Plan” para. 2). If a farmed fish breeds with local fish, the original gene pool could be diluted or lost forever (Black 130). Genetic enhancement of farmed fish can prove to be harmful to the environment if farmed fish escape (Davenport and Black 65). The purpose of aquaculture is to take the stress of fishing off endangered species. But by diluting the endangered species gene pools, the purpose of aquaculture is defeated.
In addition to the previous issues, aquaculture’s emission of waste is harmful to the surrounding bodies of water. Food, feces, and antibiotics are washed from farms into local bodies of water. Eighty percent of feed in aquaculture is wasted (Davenport and Black 29). Waste in fish farms comes primarily from fecal matter and in uneaten food. Fecal matter contributes to water enrichment. Waste from fish farms are ammonia, phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (Black 3). Ammonia, phosphorus and DOC contribute to nutrient enrichment. Nutrient enrichment speeds up and increases algal growth (Davenport and Black 35). Algae blooms absorb the dissolved oxygen (DO) in water to grow. DO is the source of air for fish as well. During algal blooms, DO levels drop dramatically and surrounding fish populations cannot breathe (Davenport and Black 36). Aquaculture adds stress on the environment by emitting waste and contributing to low levels of dissolved oxygen, causing suffocation of fish.
Fish farms take up large amounts of space, as seen from the following quotation, “cultivated land, livestock production and aquaculture now cover a quarter of the earth’s land surface” (“Troubling Environmental Trends” para. 2). Coastlines in the Philippines are used to house fish farms, but the farms lead to destruction of local coastline mangrove forests (“Something Fishy” para. 5). Shrimp farms demand shallow coastal pools (Black 183). Mangrove habitats are destroyed and ecosystems are ruined to make way for fish farms. Some regions in Asia have experienced a seventy percent reduction in mangrove habitats (Black 183). Mangrove forests act as nurseries for baby fish and blockage from large waves. Without mangroves, waves are not blocked from crashing further inland, destroying homes and habitats. Aquaculture is adding stress on local mangrove ecosystems, inland habitats, and local fish populations.
Aquaculture is creating more issues within the environment than solving the problem of overfishing. Aquaculture is a breeding house for diseases which could be passed on to local fish populations. Genetically enhanced escaped farmed fish can destroy or dilute local gene pools. Waste from fish farms emits pollution contributing to algal blooms lowering the levels of dissolved oxygen. Lastly, aquaculture destroys mangrove forests and coastlines. Before humans harm the environment further, new solutions ought to be created over aquaculture to solve the issue of overfishing. Aquaculture was originally seen as the solution to overfishing, but since many issues have risen due to aquaculture it appears new ideas are in need of development to relieve the stress formed by overfishing and aquaculture.