Adventure Time!
The Friday Harbor Labs have a number of trails to explore, that weave and wind through the woods behind the labs. Rachel, Taya, and I decided to go explore some these trails one afternoon. As we were walking down muddy trail we spied a small tunnel that appeared to lead through a thicket. After bushwhacking through the gnarled tunnel, which had more thorns than we had anticipated, we emerged onto a breathtakingly beautiful meadow that overlooked the ocean. This was no ordinary meadow, it was the kind of meadow that you go to on a sunny day to make daisy chains. The ground was covered in a thick layer of emerald green moss that gently hugged us as we sat on it. Below the blissful meadow lay a small beach covered in soft rounded pebbles that made a pleasant clacking sound as we walked over them. As the sun began to sink lower in the sky it started to dawn on us that we had to get back to the trail. We didn’t want to go through the tunnel because it was unpleasant enough the first time. We decided to head due west towards the trail. Our zigzagging path through the woods took us on an adventure full of thorns and laughter. Hopefully next time we go to our amazing spot in the woods we can find a better way to get there!
This past week in class we each read and discussed a paper on sustainable fisheries. I chose a case study that evaluated the environmental impact of different varieties of feeds used at salmon farms. The main goal of this study was to determine if organic salmon feed had less of an environmental impact than the conventional salmon feed. The study used four different types of salmon feed. The LCA methodology was used to evaluate the environmental impact of each feed. Each ingredient was assessed on its environmental impacts from cradle-to-grave. They found that the organic ingredients outperformed the conventional ingredients in every category except ecotoxicity. This article really helped me grasp just how big of an impact farmed fish have on the environment. A good way to further the study would be to test the health impacts of organic vs. conventional  feed on the salmon.
Link to Feeding Farmed Salmon: Is Organic Better?
http://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/Feeding_farmed_salmon_-_is_organic_better.pdf
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