Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Discussion thread: Aquaculture episode is up! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-18 18:55:03
Imported:
2026-06

Content

This episode is up and published and ready to hear! Let's chat about it below.

Okay so last week we learned about seaweed (and the bonus episode about the U.S. Constitution) and this week we follow up with a semi-related look at where seafood comes from, what's sustainable, how fish and crustaceans and seaweed are farmed, and how changing your diet even a little can make a big impact.

Did you listen? What did you think?

Also much of this episode was written/edited while I was on winding roads coming back from Portland which was... an experience. Of all the ways to test road-trip working it was less than ideal but it's a great episode, Dr. Ben Halpern is passionate and realistic about it and I loved working on it.

Anything that really surprised you? Any changes you're considering?

In transit,

You Father Dadward

Files

Aquaculture Ecology (SUSTAINABLE OCEAN FOODS) with Dr. Ben Halpern - alie ward

Farmed versus wild. Basement shrimp hustles. Mangrove drama. Anthropology. Animal welfare and plant-based diets. Climb aboard to meet UCSB's super cool dude, researcher and Aquaculture Ecologist, Dr. Ben Halpern. You'll hear about sustainable food sources, land vs. sea farming, bycatch, shellfish gu

Comments

choirqueer

Love this! It was interesting to hear him say he's encountered a lot of seaweed-as-food in sci fi, I feel like I mostly see bug eating or synthetic/replicator-type tech food (or it's just not addressed at all) so I'd love to read some stories with seaweed food if anyone has recs! Since I've been vegan a long time, I can't really eat any less seafood than I'm already eating, but if anyone else is considering heading in a veggier direction, I'm always more than happy to talk about my experience and especially about low-budget, low-effort ways to eat more plant foods (as a disabled person on a food stamps budget who loves to cook but often can't do the things)...so anyone reading this, feel free to reach out!

Oscar Courchaine

Even if aquaculture is environmentally sustainable... I just don't think the fish want to die 🐠🐟🐡

Naomi Jane

Ohh this sounds like it was my question (I haven't listened yet though!) - I'll try and remember some book titles for you, I know I've read several with seaweed food mentioned but I read so many books they kinda blur together in my mushy 2025 brain 🫣

Alie Ward

We talk a lot about this in the episode -- citing research about fish pain and emotional/cognitive experiences, and tbh I steer people toward that line of thought and plant-based diets, or chooisng bivalves over animals with more complex nervous systems.

Alie Ward

I would love to know more about your experience and I'm sure I'm not alone! Feel free to info dump here. (Your podmother Jarrett has the most delicate stomach and legumes destroy him, so eating plant-based together has been a challenge.) But I would really like to move toward veggie/vegan in my life. I just can't justify meat ethically or environmentally and feel such shame I haven't made the conversion yet. I've cut down a lot and roughly 2/3 of meals are veggie, but I'm not there yet.

aguycalledshane

I know I should eat more fish, for many reasons, but... I find most of it unpalatable. Anything in a shell is great, but things with fins are tricky, and as far as seaweed goes, my (limited) experience makes me retch.

Kimberly

This was an interesting listen because I’m currently reading the book Salmon Wars by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collin’s which has a very different viewpoint on salmon farming. Which they discuss how scientists that research negative impacts of salmon farming have had backlash.

Bonnie M Rutherford

I have to say I was outraged by your guest’s comment regarding the salmon farming disaster of August 19, 2017 in Washington State. He claimed it was caused by a storm but that is not factual. The incident was investigated by the Washington State departments of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Fish and Wildlife which found that it was negligence on the part of Cooke, the company involved in the farming. There was an excessive buildup of more than 110 tons of mussels and plants due to inadequate maintenance of the nets. This caused the mooring system to fail. The company claimed there were unusually strong tides but that was not true. The disaster caused the release of approximately 250,000 non-native Atlantic salmon into the waters of the Salish Sea, the traditional salmon fishing area of the coastal Salish Tribes. The local tribes spent weeks of round the clock work trying to capture the non-native fish but only managed to recover about a third of them. Several tribes, most notably the Lummi Tribe, worked with the state to prohibit Atlantic salmon aquaculture. Cooke responded by attempting to bribe them by increasing the amount they had to pay the tribes for the captured salmon. For years Washington State has worked with the tribes to restore salmon habitat, by replacing culverts, restoring estuaries, and removing dams. Washington passed a law in March Of 2018 banning the farming of Atlantic salmon. Subsequently Cooke’s license was terminated. Atlantic salmon farming will be completely phased out by the fall of this year. Unfortunately Atlantic salmon are still being found in the area, including rivers. In fact they have been caught off shore here on the Tulalip Reservation. Washington Fish and Wildlife consider them to be an invasive species. Just to be clear, the ste and the local tribes are not opposed to aquaculture but only the farming of non-native species.

Kimberly

The book Salmon Wars discusses this event. Very interesting

Kimberly

I have one fiction book about algae being used for food that I highly recommend. It’s called In Ascension by Martin MacInnes.

Bonnie M Rutherford

I was pretty sure the book covered that event because it was being promoted by the Tulalip tribes.

Bonnie M Rutherford

Bordered in Black by Larry Niven is about a planet where the humanoids live entirely on algae. I can't recall names of books right now but I've been reading science fiction for almost 70 years and I know that quite a few of the multi-generational ships in space operas grow algae for food.

Bonnie M Rutherford

I just remembered that Arthur C. Clarke wrote a story about under sea plankton farming.

Naomi Jane

I won't *guarantee* these to all mention seaweed, and if they do it will have been a passing mention, but they're all good books regardless, so: - Mars House (Natasha Pulley) - The Wayfarers series (Becky Chambers, actually maybe anything she's written) - Frontier (Grace Curtis) - Generally, space operas like Bonnie has mentioned 😄

Elinor Wahl

Sorry that my question was genuinely too stupid to make it into the episode 😅

Andy Pepper

Related: I would LOVE an episode about traditional Chinese medicine. It comes up literally in every conversation about endangered animals, including this one! I remember reading some of that finger-pointing is Western flim-flam and some isn’t, and I would love to hear an expert speak to that.

James Nance

Such a great episode! Another strong reminder to reduce or eliminate beef and pork consumption. Learned a ton as always!

Alie Ward

Andy, that's a great idea! If anyone has experts to suggest, reply to this comment!

Alie Ward

I've certainly found that for some people, eliminating types of animal products helps rather than going, shall we say, cold turkey. When I met Jarrett, he was a butcher for a boutique organic butcher and just in the last year or so has reduced his beef and pork by about 75%, which is so great. It's not perfect, but it gets easier as you learn what you can live without and can be proud of the positive impact it has environmentally and ethically.

Alie Ward

Okay hang on Elinor now I have to go see what it was

Alie Ward

Oh!! Eels! I didn't ask it because I'm hoping to do a whole-ass eels episode! It was a GREAT question!

Alie Ward

Thank you so much for this comment -- I really appreciate it and I wish I had given it more context. this episode was a challenge because it covered SO many ecosystems, so many species, so much technology and history, and had a difficult animal ethics component. So I tried to keep it moving, and I apologize that I didn't pause for an aside on that aspect. One reason I always say that this show is impossible without you Patrons is because as one collective mind asking questions, we get such a breadth of knowledge. I just went back and we didn't have a single Patreon question about this incident, which surprised me! But I'm glad you let me know about that context and shared the info here! Salmon Wars is going on my reading list now.

Alie Ward

Thank you for bringing it up! I hadn't heard of that book until now, and I wish I would have included an aside on it! I may be able to add one in for future listeners.

Kimberly

I just finished it the other day so I didn’t know about it earlier. But it would be a good book recommendation for people interested in learning about the other perspective of salmon farming

James Nance

Cold turkey... There are even puns on Patreon!! :D

Elinor Wahl

Oh - that's great to hear! And eels are a terrific topic, I can't wait!

Kevin Hatman

I loved this episode, as it really helped to shift my thought process around farmed v. wild caught fish. It's so challenging sometimes to understand exactly what's ... ethical(?) and what's not, so being able to hear directly from someone who is working in this field directly was really valuable. Thinking I'm also going to have to incorporate more seaweed into my diet as well (especially after the last episode), though I think my cooking skills aren't yet up to the task of making it appetizing for my (admittedly subpar) palate. One idea for a future ology came from the discussion of using aquaculture as a tool for carbon sequestration. I actually work in carbon removal and there's so much happening right now -- from all of the different technologies, ranging from the ancient to bleeding edge (including ocean-based!), to figuring out how to actually track how much of this invisible gas you're pulling out of the atmosphere -- even learning how to use these processes to reduce pollution from biomass waste and revitalize farmland. There's a lot more to it than people think (or to put it another way, it's a lot more than just planting a few trees and saying "yeah, we're good!"). I've had a lot of really smart people who have helped answer all of my (sometimes dumb) questions since I started working on this in 2023, so I'd be happy to connect you with them if you're interested!

Fiona Dolphin

I have to say, I work in Public Health in a program that manages shellfish harvest and the “don’t eat oysters in summer months” saying is a MYTH! Biotoxins can be found in the water any time of year! And you cannot cook biotoxins out of shellfish! So please please please always check with your jurisdiction that manages shellfish harvest (Fish and Wildlife, Dept. of Health, etc) before harvesting recreationally and check every time you harvest because conditions can change rapidly! Biotoxins can kill you, they are no joke!

Fiona Dolphin

I’ll also add that in Washington State we have a Shellfish Safety Map that you can check and it will show you which areas are currently safe to harvest shellfish from recreationally :) it’s constantly updated too as we monitor biotoxins very closely!

Kaylee Schrandt

It seems pretty evident that eating fish is better for the environment than beef or pork after listening, but I’m wondering if there’s data on the comparison when the fish is transported across the US or imported? I.e., how much of a dent does the transportation environmental impact have on the comparison between the two (even if fish is still the better option)?

Snarky Mermaid

I was asleep with Covid when the questions for this episode happened. Living in BC, salmon farms are hated as they use Atlantic varieties. That aside the problem seems to be more about the sea lice, and diseases that they may give to the Pacific Salmon. Tofino has a particularly controversial salmon farm they have been trying to get closed down for years for these reasons.Meanwhile I thought it was a great episode and learned loads.

Toby Mark Gritten

I have to agree. I am of the same opinion. The Ologite saying it was down to political reasons is poorly informed to say the least and I think you should make a correction for future episode repeats Allie. The whole science behind why salmon farms are bad for wild salmon has been suppressed by the entire aquaculture industry. More info can be found here;- https://www.nationalobserver.com/podcast/salmon-people/unlikely-detective

Dave Brewer

I second Bonnie's book recommendation.

Dave Brewer

"Salmon Wars" also includes information about salmon farming options that are not as environmentally damaging as the inland water pen farming that is the dominant technique now.

Jeanette-o-saur

I second the request for a sequestration episode!

Wandering Wyatt

Just listening - thanks for this episode on a fascinating & challenging episode. Love that he mentioned BC clam gardens (part of my graduate work!).

Thorpasaurus Jess

Hi Alie! A little late listening to this but, I need your quote, “Algae? More like PALgae, because algae is your friend” on a t shirt. I need it.