Should we farm fish and seafood?

1. In order to guide student reflection during this introductory activity, tell them that the ultimate goal of this project is to propose a new aquaculture project in their community. In order to propose a viable, sustainable project, they will need to better understand the scientific aspects, especially in regards to the environmental impacts, without neglecting the social and economic aspects.
2. This activity will help introduce the controversy behind the industry and initiate a deeper reflection. You can choose to have students either:
   1. Read the article Farmed salmon vs. wild salmon by Let’s Talk Science or
   2. Watch the videos: The Problem with Farmed Salmon (2013), which is a report by Global 3000 interviewing the environmentalist, Dr. Alexandra Morton (6:58 min.) and What is aquaculture and why do we need it? (2019) about why the world needs aquaculture by the Global Seafood Alliance (3:06 min).
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   3. The reading/viewing time is about the same. Alternatively, you could assign half the class to do Option A and the other half to Option B. Each group would then share their learning through class discussion and presentation.
3. Following the reading or viewing, students should complete the Pros, Cons, Solutions Organizer reproducible. Encourage students to take notes as the information will be used in the following activity. If using Option B, provide students with a few minutes after each video to finish filling in the form.
4. Optional: Students can add additional aspects that might not have been covered in the videos by referring to this list from PBS.

1. Once students have finished making their notes, use these to make a class list of the key issues involved. This list will be used as a basis to establish the criteria for their own aquaculture project. Separate the issues listed into each of the different aspects of the problem: social, environmental and economic. The list needs to be accessible to all students. Saving a copy is good practice at this point.
2. This activity can be done in various ways.
   1. In-person using a board and post-it notes of different colors. In a shared classroom, you will need to have the results photographed and shared to make them accessible past this period. Alternatively, this could be done through a class discussion in which you record the issues in the relevant columns of a table and students make copies in their notebooks.
   2. Online using a Google Jamboard and notes of different colors. This can be done synchronously (done in class with students) or given as homework. Note that the latter will need to involve a cleanup of the Jamboard to remove duplicates.
3. The list of issues can be added to during the course of the project. The solutions and advantages listed will offer insights into what needs to be addressed in a sustainable aquaculture project. However, it is to be expected that students will need to do more research to integrate those solutions into their own project. The issues listed will be used by students in the next activity and thus need to be accessible to all students. Saving a copy is good practice at this point.

The objective of this activity is to propose a new aquaculture business in the student’s community (local, provincial/territorial) that aims to reduce environmental issues and stress on wild populations. As this project lends itself perfectly to a multidisciplinary approach, different criteria categories are presented to help in adapting to the curriculum alignment needs at hand. You can build your own assessment rubrics with the help of those categories and adapt them to your needs and student capacities.

The proposed project can be presented using a visual support decided by and/or the students. Teachers can decide on the formats to offer or allow students to choose their format themselves. For example, a visual support could be a 3D model (digital or physical), a poster, a digital presentation or any other format deemed acceptable for assessment purposes.

The proposed project must satisfy the success criteria listed below. The Student Workbook reproducible can be used to help structure student research.

Main Criteria

Below is a list of criteria that can be adapted to suit your curriculum and assessment needs. The student workbook integrates these but the order is different, to reflect the research and presentation sequence. 

Students will:

• Decide whether their proposed aquaculture venture will be land-based or water-based.
• Support the decision for their preferred aquaculture model (land-based or water-based) providing two reasons for their choice.
• Name the species they have chosen for their aquaculture venture and explain why they chose it, including:
  • Basic facts on the species:
    • Common name
    • Scientific name
    • Taxonomy
    • Distribution
    • Diet
  • Evidence of why it is an important species for human consumption (supported with numerical evidence)
  • Evidence of successful breeding anywhere else in the world (to make sure it is feasible)
• Select from the class list of issues (completed in activity 2) and demonstrate how the project addresses:
  • 2 Environmental issues
  • 1 Economic issues
  • 1 Social issues

My Community Criteria

Students will need to consider their own community’s status in regards to:

• Social factors: employment, choice of location
• Economic factors: avoiding competition with existing businesses, using local resources.
• Environmental factors: resource attainment (food, materials), disposal of waste

Science Criteria

Presentation of the project should also include information about:

• The lifecycle of the selected species, and how those different steps are managed in the aquaculture venture.
• Factors that could impact the species’ ability to breed successfully (E.g., habitat, lifecycle seasonality, etc.).
• How the basic needs of this species are met in a sustainable way.
• How waste is managed in a sustainable way.
• How water use is managed in a sustainable way.

Depending on time available, projects can be presented in class or exhibited in the school. The next optional activity also invites students to do an oral presentation on their project.

An ideal way to complement this project is to link it to career development. Students can be asked to do an oral presentation of their project and use role-playing to illustrate a particular perspective. The career profiles below can be used as inspiration. Students can be asked to skim over a few profiles to help them choose a profile that suits their interests. You may choose to assess how well the perspective was used in the presentation.

• Business, administrative roles
  • Regional Manager https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/sheldon-george
  • Project Coordinator https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/craig-mercer
  • Plant manager https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/kay-ryan
  • Communications and Marketing Manager https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/meredith-ann-epp
• STEM roles
  • Research scientist: https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/jeff-clements
  • Research scientist specialized in genetics: https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/bob-hanner
  • Cleaner Fish Coordinator https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/tanya-savory
• Combining both:
  • Senior Fisheries Certification Manager https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/stephanie-good
  • Professional diver (and businessman) https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/luke-ingersoll
  • Compliance and Certification Coordinator https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/amy-negrijn
  • Technical Supervisor: https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/janice-duggan-molloy