I appreciate the concerns letter writer Heidi Pringle has about building a large fish farm on the Susquehanna River (“Susquehanna salmon farm would be a mistake,” Aug. 10). However, most of her objections involve worst case hypotheticals.
She states that farm-raised salmon would not help low-income individuals because they can’t afford to buy it. I’ve noticed that farm-raised seafood generally costs much less than wild-caught varieties of the same species.
The fact is, with the world population expanding, we need to find alternative sources of protein that don’t exploit our overfished oceans. Factory ships deplete fisheries in a matter of years and an inordinate amount of sea life also perishes in their nets.
Pollution from poultry producers on the Eastern Shore has been well documented. The environmental degradation from raising cattle has also been shown to be severe. Perhaps a fish farm is the most environmentally sustainable method for producing healthy food. Harvesting all those invasive blue catfish and Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead) in the Chesapeake Bay would also help.
— Eric Greene, Annapolis
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