Tahiti Nui Ocean Foods plans to raise three species of native fish: napoleon, salmon loach and marbled loach on Hao Atoll. Led by Wang Chen, the aquaculture complex will be built on the site where was installed for 30 years the rear base of the Pacific Experimentation Center. Nearly 600,000 tons of equipment will have to be shipped to the atoll for what will be the largest project in the territory and which according to Mr. Wang should be able to employ about 10,000 people.
The company, which is a subsidiary of the Chinese group Tian Rui, partly chose Hao for its runway is long enough to accommodate cargo planes to ship fish directly to China and the United States.
The Tahiti Nui Ocean Foods (TNOF) industrial site will process up to 90 tonnes of fish in the hundreds of hatchery and pre-grow ponds.
Questionable use of nano-silver to replace the so-called antibiotics
To ensure the good growth of these 90 tons of fish (eggs, larvae, juveniles) installed in the basins of the hatchery and pre-growers, a daily renewal of the sea water (10% of each of the hundred basins) is carried out. However, the waters of the basins and bins of the shore complex contain organic effluents consisting of non-ingested food, metabolic excretions, feces (faeces) or even dead fish and carry solid residues and nutrients.
However, the report states that “no information was provided on the exact chemical composition of the organic effluents. The protocols communicated on hatchery and pre-fattening management are reduced.” According to the operator, the use of chemicals and even therapeutics will be limited within the aquaculture plant. “TNOF ensures that its procedures do not include preventive treatments or growth factors or hormones, quite conventional in breeding. This environmental impact study took this statement into account. Monitoring measures, the water column, but also inputs to Hao Atoll can easily verify the sincerity of the approach.”
Similarly, to control outbreaks in ponds, the operator has indicated that it will not use antibiotics or antifungals. “As part of this project, for disinfection in the aquarium and especially in the basin, the technical choice was made to work with nano-silver.” The use of this product as an alternative to phytosanitary products – usually “one of the black spots of aquaculture” – will be a first in French Polynesia. But it raises questions. “In the case of nano-silver, there is little indisputable data (that is to say, obtained according to reproducible, repeatable and validated protocols, both by scientific and regulatory experts) relating to the impact of nano-objects. on health and the environment are currently available “. Is nano-silver poisonous or not “The lack of data should lead to consider that this one can be potentially dangerous” concludes on this subject the study of impact on the environment. The European Scientific Committee on Health Risks has confirmed – despite the lack of available data – that nano-silver released by consumer products has a toxic potential in humans and the environment. If the use of nano-silver is “generalized” and “growing”, it is a source of “potentially toxic” exposure of consumers and the environment, via the release of ionic silver (silver ions) by the nanomaterial, concludes the scientific committee. “In many studies, the release of dissolved silver has been suggested as the leading cause of toxicity in humans and the environment.”
Too many questions remain unanswered
The whole game is being developed in the form of floating fish, it does not appear in this first impact study, this part of the project being subcontracted to Polynesian aquaculturists who will grow fish in aquaculture the lagoon. Indeed, the occupation of the public is subject to local residents.
In its recommendations, the research firm also asks the question of a second study of environmental impact to come to these sites and wonders about the best mode of operation to follow. There is currently no other place where fish are farmed, where they are farmed, and their location in Hao only for reasons of proximity of processing plant On other atolls And if so, which ones?
Capturing Wild Spawning Stocks to Begin the Chain Will Affect the Status of Wild Stands The production of food, organic matter in effluents discharged into the sea, the use of therapeutic veterinary products will have impacts on water, on the natural stands and of course on the “social acceptability” of the project in its together.
The necessary establishment of a PGEM and a PGA
“The development of an aquaculture complex and attached farms can only be considered as an integral part of the lagoon, its functioning as an ecosystem connected to the ocean” the local authorities to take part of the reflection upstream. “The lack of planning for lagoon uses via a maritime spatial management plan (PGEM) hinders the development of the project.”
This project also includes the NOAA-supported Gulf Fish Extension Project for economic reasons. The Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Gulf Restoration Network, and several associations and organizations fishing. “Offshore industrialization is driving irreparable damage to Gulf ecosystems and coastal communities,” said George Kimbrell, senior counsel for the CSA and plaintiffs’ counsel. We need to manage and protect our fisheries, and that will not be done by destructive industrial practices that put them at risk. This action, initiated by a number of stakeholders, aims to put an end to these plans in the short term.”
As part of the aquaculture farm project on Hao Atoll, the environmental impact study for the construction of the onshore complex is available at Hao City Hall, at the service of development and urban planning in Papeete, to the direction of the marine mining land affairs March 10 to April 15, 2016.
