2014-02-17
619
PART 2. FISH AND FISH PRODUCTS
Problems of the industry
Fish farms: Underwater factories.
Exercise 1. Read and translate the text with the help of a dictionary.
TEXT 5
" We don't take what Mother Nature throws at us. This is a factory for fish ".
Bill Evans, Vice President of Mariculture Systems,
Inc., Salmon-farming company
Fish farming, or "aquaculture", has become a billion-dollar industry, and more than 30 percent of all the sea animals consumed each year are now raised on these "farms". The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the aquaculture industry is growing three times faster than land-based animal agriculture, and fish farms will surely become even more prevalent as our natural fisheries become exhausted.
Aquafarms can be based on land or in the ocean. Land-based farms raise thousands of fish in ponds, pools, or concrete tanks. Ocean-based aquafarms are situated close to shorelines, and fish in these farms are packed into net or mesh cages. All fish farms are rife with pollution, disease, and suffering, regardless of their location. Aquafarms squander resources – it can take 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce just 1 pound of farmed fish – and pollute the environment with tons of fish feces, antibiotic-laden fish feed, and diseased fish carcasses.
Fish on aquafarms spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy enclosures, and many suffer from parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating injures. Conditions on some farms are so horrendous that 40 percent of the fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food. In short, fish farms bring suffering and ecological devastation everywhere they go.
Many land-based aquafarms are indoors, so farmers even control the amount of light that fish get. These farmed fish will spend their entire lives crammed together, constantly bumping against each other and the sides of their grossly overcrowded cage.
Exercise 2. Answer the following questions:
1. Why has fish farming become so popular?
2. Where can aquafarms be based?
3. What is the difference between aquafarms based on land and in the ocean?
4. What are the problems of fish growing on the farms?
5. What are the conditions of fish growing?
6. Are there any fish farms in our region?
7. What products do they produce?
8. What measures should be taken to improve the situation?
9. Have you ever tasted fish grown on the farm?
10. Is there any difference in the wild fish and fish grown on the aquafarms?
Exercise 1. a) Read and translate international words without a dictionary:
protein, human, a human, selection, composition, texture, dietary, complimentary, reputation, reproduction, information, to accumulate, recommendation, element, total.
b) Check if you remember the meaning of these words:
species, source, essential, content, herring, haddock, halibut, salmon, shellfish, pollock, catfish, tuna, include, phosphorus, calcium, iron, vitamin, mercury, lead, chlorine, bromine, dioxin, seafood.
c) Read and translate the following word combinations:
to some extent, modern techniques, the right proportions, a good selection, a very nutritious part, nervous system, similar amounts, poor quality, high fat content, pelagic fishes.
d) Give all the possible synonyms to the following words:
essential, extreme, improvement, issue, taste, to develop, to keep, heart-friendly, toxin, to consume, to change.
e) Give the antonyms to the following words:
unfortunately, misconceptions, undoubtedly, different, to increase, polluted, modern, a human, healthy, to be rich in.
Exercise 2. Read and memorize the words from the text below:
| refer, v | направлять; отсылать; относиться |
| lumped | сосредоточенный; концентрированный |
| flavour, n | вкус, привкус |
| purport, v | означать; значить, обозначать |
| fallacy, n | обман, хитрость |
| nutritious, adj | питательный |
| nutrient, n, adj | питательное вещество; питательный |
| since, prp | с тех пор; так как |
| oily, adj | жирный |
| highlight, v | ярко освещать; высвечивать; отводить главное место; выдвигать на первый план |
| cause, n, v | причина, основание; послужить причиной, поводом |
| contaminate, v | загрязнять; отравлять |
| essential amino acids | незаменимые аминокислоты |
| freeze, v | замораживать |
| store, v | хранить |
| advisory, n | информационное сообщение, сводка, предупреждение об опасности |
