Right location: impacts on mangroves
Ok so I lied, I thought it might be good to talk about salmon farming at this point but as I wrote the post I realized I could write a whole series on that topic so I am going to save it until I finish this string.
You may recall a few posts back that I said aquaculture can have a bright future in our world so long as the right combination of species, location, and scale is discovered. When aquaculture operates in the wrong location its activities can alter or impact the ecosystem in a negative way. From my experience, there is no better example of this than shrimp farming and its removal of mangrove forests to construct farms (I will cover all the issues with shrimp farming extensively in the future).
Mangrove forests are arguably one of the most important ecosystems on the planet as they protect coastlines from the effects of storms and tsunami’s, provide excellent habitat for many coastal marine species, and support the economies of local communities. During the shrimp farming boom of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the price of shrimp was so high that farms were being developed as fast as possible to take advantage of the market. Farmers believed that growing shrimp in mangrove areas would work well due to its proximity to the sea and the fact that shrimp grew in the mangrove forests naturally. As a result aquaculture became a significant factor in the deforestation of mangroves in tropical countries, in some cases accounting for at least 1/3 of the removal of mangroves. The negative effect on mangrove forests was further exacerbated when high nutrient water that was sometimes loaded with chemicals used to control disease was discharged into the mangroves after the shrimp were harvested.
This effect has been a major black eye for the shrimp farming industry and it has been seen in almost every country where shrimp farms operate near mangrove forests.
This picture was taken in Thailand and it shows a farm built right in a mangrove forest. What you are seeing in the pumping station that pumps water into the farms. You can be sure that the area where the farm is built was formerly a mangrove forest.