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SQUIRREL-KILLERS 2014

SECOND NEGATIVE BRIEFS
Dr. John F. Schunk, Editor

“Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its non-military exploration and/or development of the Earth's oceans.”



N201. AQUACULTURE: Solvency

N202. AQUACULTURE: Disads

N203. ARCTIC DEVELOPMENT: Solvency

N204. ARCTIC OFFSHORE DRILLING: Solvency

N205. ARCTIC OFFSHORE DRILLING: Disad

N206. CLIMATE CHANGE: Solvency

N207. CLIMATE CHANGE Disad

N208. DESALINATION: Solvency

N209. DESALINATION: Disads

N210. DRIFTNETS: Solvency

N211. INVASIVE SPECIES Disad

N212. IRON FERTILIZATION: Solvency

N213. IRON FERTILIZATION: Disad

N214. LAW OF THE SEA TREATY: Solvency

N215. LAW OF THE SEA TREATY: Disad

N216. MANNED EXPLORATION: Solvency

N217. MILITARY CUTS Disad

N218. OCEAN DUMPING: Solvency

N219. OFFSHORE DRILLING: Solvency

N220. OFFSHORE DRILLING: Disads

N221. OVERFISHING: Solvency

N222. PIRACY: Solvency

N223. POLLUTION Disad

N224. PORT DREDGING: Solvency

N225. PORT DREDGING: Disads

N226. PRECAUTIONARY PRINICIPLE: Disad

N227. ROBOTS: Solvency

N228. SAFETY NET CUTS Disad

N229. SEABED MINING: Solvency

N230. SEABED MINING: Disad

N231. SHIPPING INDUSTRY Disad

N232. SONAR CURTAILMENT: Solvency

N233. SONAR CURTAILMENT: Disad

N234. SPACE PROGRAM CUTS Disad

N235. WAVE ENERGY: Solvency

N236. WHALING: Solvency



N237. WIND ENERGY: Solvency




S-K PUBLICATIONS

PO Box 8173

Wichita KS 67208-0173

PH 316-685-3201

FAX 316-260-4976

debate@squirrelkillers.com

http://www.squirrelkillers.com


SK/N201. AQUACULTURE: Solvency
1. AQUACULTURE IS VULNERABLE TO DISEASE & CLIMATE
SK/N201.01) SK/N201.780) FEEDSTUFFS, February 24, 2014, p. 19, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Fisheries and aquaculture are a vital source of jobs, nutritious food and economic opportunities, especially for small-scale fishing communities, yet threats from large-scale disease outbreaks in aquaculture and climate change-related effects could dramatically alter this.
SK/N201.02) Jason Allardyce, SUNDAY TIMES (London, England), December 9, 2012, p. 7, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "We are at a cliff edge," he [Alex Kinnimonth, Scottish Wildlife Trust] told Holyrood's rural affairs committee, adding: "In Chile salmon farms expanded greatly with poor environmental controls, then suffered a big outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia disease with social and economic consequences.
2. AQUACULTURE DOESN’T RELIEVE OVERFISHING
SK/N201.03) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Just what we use to feed farmed fish is another concern. Most farmed marine fish and shrimp species are carnivorous. They're either fed whole fish (mainly in the case of tuna) or pellets made of fishmeal and fish oil. In both cases, the fish used as feed are generally caught from the wild, according to WWF [World Wildlife Fund]. The amount of feed needed is staggering--WWF says that 22 kilograms of wild-caught fish is needed to produce just one kilogram of farmed tuna: four kilograms of wild-caught fish is needed to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon.
SK/N201.04) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Many of the fish used as feed--mostly anchovies, pilchards, mackerel, herring and whiting--are already fished at, or over, their safe biological limit. So instead of relieving pressure on the marine environment, says WWF [World Wildlife Fund], aquaculture actually contributes to overfishing. Norway takes 30 per cent of its fishmeal--mainly stocks of anchovies--from the southern Pacific off Peru and Chile. Global dumping of fishmeal, according to the FHL, amounts to about 20 million tonnes a year, enough raw material to increase aquaculture in Norway tenfold.

SK/N201.05) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The global appetite for bluefin tuna has had a devastating effect on the fish's population in the Mediterranean and off southern Australia, according to WWF [World Wildlife Fund]. But far from taking pressure off the fish aquaculture has, until now, merely exacerbated the problem. Typically, more than half the catch in the Mediterranean is farmed, but this merely involves catching wild tuna--many of them juveniles--fattening them up in cages and exporting them to Japan for sushi. According to the European Commission, despite global initiatives to limit exploitation, bluefin tuna populations have fallen by around 80 per cent since 1970. In 2010, the breeding stock of Pacific bluefin tuna was estimated to be about 22,000 tonnes less than a third of the estimates from 15 years earlier.


SK/N201.06) Jason Allardyce, SUNDAY TIMES (London, England), December 9, 2012, p. 7, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "It would make no sense at all to harm the environment we work in; good water conditions are critical to produce the increasingly high quality and quantity of fish that is now required by consumers, in the UK and across the world." He [Mark Warrington, Meridian Salmon Group, Scotland] added: "Unsubstantiated claims continue to be made about the effect fish farming has on the general biodiversity of the sea. If there was conclusive data on this, we would look to change our operations."
3. ASIAN COUNTRIES WON’T FOLLOW U.S. LEAD
SK/N201.07) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Barely five per cent of global aquaculture production is certified, according to the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling. What's more, the institute argues, the potential for further growth is limited by the fact that demand for certification is firmly oriented towards Western markets, whereas most seafood is consumed elsewhere, notably in Asia, where most fish and shrimp farming occurs. This means that many fish farmers will, in effect, have two markets: a certified, high-standard-system that sells into the minority Western market; and a lower standard, mass market business for the rest of the world.
SK/N201.08) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Aquaculture is growing most quickly in exactly the places where there are most people, and where many people are very pool.' Little argues that the West instead needs to change its mindset towards the pressures that lead to mass production of farmed fish in the developing world. The UNFAO estimates that China produces 70 per cent of all farmed fish, while Asia as a whole accounts for 91 per cent. 'The approach seems to me almost neo-colonial, telling producers what to do rather than engaging with local governments, NGOs and community groups,' Little [Stirling's Sustainable Aquaculture Research Group] says. 'The main concern in Asia is still about eating more, rather than environmental impacts.'

SK/N202. AQUACULTURE: Disads
1. AQUACULTURE THREATENS THE ENVIRONMENT
A. THERE ARE MANY ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
SK/N202.01) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Another major issue, warns Ninnes [chief executive, Aquaculture Stewardship Council], is the cumulative impact of aquaculture. One fish farm in a sheltered bay will have limited or isolated impacts, he says, but hundreds set up adjacent to one another, often with little or no regulation, is a different issue. 'What is the current capacity the environment has for a certain amount of aquaculture?' he asks. 'That requires several agencies because of the geographical scale involved. When should the water be left fallow, what are the impacts of disease treatments?'
SK/N202.02) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Fish farms are linked to the spread of disease, the dilution of wild stocks through cross-breeding by escapees, pollution, the devastation of mangroves, concerns over the use of wild fish to feed farmed fish, and conflict with predators such as seagulls, seals and starfish.
SK/N202.03) FEEDSTUFFS, February 24, 2014, p. 19, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Supplying fish sustainably--producing it without depleting productive natural resources and without damaging the precious aquatic environment--is a huge challenge," he [World Bank director of agriculture and environmental services Juergen Voegele] said. "We continue to see excessive and irresponsible harvesting in capture fisheries, and in aquaculture, disease outbreaks, among other things, have heavily impacted production.”
SK/N202.04) Janna Palliser [consulting editor], SCIENCE SCOPE, January 2013, p. 10, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Negative environmental consequences for fish farming include pollution due to fish waste, escaped fish competing and breeding with wild fish, parasites and disease spread to wild fish near net pens, contaminated groundwater, destruction of coastal habitat (e.g., mangroves), and the introduction of exotic species (Monterey Bay Aquarium 2012c).

SK/N202.05) Alan B. Sielen [Scripps Institution of Oceanography], FOREIGN AFFAIRS, November-December 2013, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But the impact of aquaculture varies widely depending on the species raised, methods used, and location, and several factors make healthy and sustainable production difficult. Many farmed fish rely heavily on processed wild fish for food, which eliminates the fish-conservation benefits of aquaculture. Farmed fish can also escape into rivers and oceans and endanger wild populations by transmitting diseases or parasites or by competing with native species for feeding and spawning grounds. Open-net pens also pollute, sending fish waste, pesticides, antibiotics, uneaten food, diseases, and parasites flowing directly into the surrounding waters.


B. POLLUTION DAMAGES THE ENVIRONMENT
SK/N202.06) Jason Allardyce, SUNDAY TIMES (London, England), December 9, 2012, p. 7, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Last month The Sunday Times revealed that dozens of salmon farms around the Scottish coastline had been dumping unacceptable levels of pollutants into the sea. The impact of the country's [pounds sterling]500m aquaculture industry, which supplies many of Britain's top chefs, including Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay, was revealed in the results of seabed surveys released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). Now David Ainsley, a tourism operator in Argyll, wants MSPs investigating fish farming to view evidence of what he says are degraded seabeds below fish farms, where the damage makes it difficult for various species to thrive.
SK/N202.07) Jason Allardyce, SUNDAY TIMES (London, England), December 9, 2012, p. 7, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Conservationists, who are concerned about the expansion of the industry, claim the nutrients from unused fish feed and fish faeces from salmon farms can cause local algal blooms. They say these can lead to reduced oxygen in the water and to the production of agents toxic to many aquatic species. In addition, uneaten food and biological waste can accumulate on the seabed, smothering plants and animals, causing an oxygen drain on the seabed to break it down and making it more difficult to support marine life.
SK/N202.08) Jason Allardyce, SUNDAY TIMES (London, England), December 9, 2012, p. 7, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Generally you get less diversity, with a shift from larger burrowing species like crustaceans towards smaller specialist species that are more tolerant to organic enrichment, such as nematode worms," said Alex Kinninmonth, a policy officer at the Scottish Wildlife Trust. He added that the nutrients can also lead to the death of maerl, a coralline algae or hard seaweed. Maerl, which can be found on some of Scotland's most beautiful white "coral" beaches, offers a habitat that provides shelter for a wide range of species, including a nursery area for young scallops.

SK/N202.09) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As with intensive terrestrial farming, WWF [World Wildlife Fund] and other organisations also worry about the use of antibiotics to treat infections in fish farms, as well as anti-fouling agents such as copper.


SK/N202.10) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. They [World Wildlife Fund] also argue that nutrients in unused fish feed and fish faeces can cause local algal blooms. These blooms lead to reduced oxygen in the water, which can, in turn, trigger the production of ammonia, methane and hydrogen sulphide, which are toxic to many aquatic species.
C. ESCAPEES DECIMATE NATIVE POPULATIONS
SK/N202.11) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Escapees are an intractable concern. WWF [World Wildlife Fund] has expressed fears that they breed with wild stock and dilute the natural gene pool, potentially affecting the long-term survival and evolution of wild species. Wild Atlantic salmon populations have dropped steeply in the past 30 years--by 80 per cent between 1970 and 2000--according to WWF, which believes that farmed salmon are putting pressure on the remaining wild populations. At the same time, farmed salmon production in the North Atlantic ocean increased 55-fold and wild salmon now encounter escapees in Norway and along the west coast of Canada.
SK/N202.12) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In Scotland, over the first six months of this year, escapees amounted to 30,986 fish, with holes in nets, equipment failure, human error and bad weather being blamed. Last year, nearly 41,000 fish escaped from Scottish fish farms; in 2011, the total was 416,000. Norway, too, has had its problems. 'Back in 2006, we had a horrible year,' says Kvistad [Norwegian Seafood Federation]. 'We had 921,000 escaped fish; we had hurricanes, which explained some of it.’
SK/N202.13) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Elsewhere, in Fiji and on other Pacific islands, badly constructed fish farms are allowing invasive species, such as tilapia and mosquito fish, to compete with native species. A six-year study by Wetlands International (WI) found that 85 per cent of wild fish catchments had been invaded by escapees. 'Native and endemic fish faunas are being locally extirpated, which, in the context of small islands, can put them well and truly on the road to extinction,' said a WI spokeswoman.

SK/N202.14) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland) says that fish farming is 'destroying west Highland and Hebridean wild salmon and sea trout stocks and has pushed iconic sea trout fisheries such as Loch Maree beyond recovery. Salmon abundance (adults returning to Scottish coasts) is now less than 20 per cent of that seen 50 years ago, according to the association.


D. DISEASE RAVAGES NATIVE POPULATIONS
SK/N202.15) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Wild fish stocks are also exposed to diseases, such as salmon louse and sarcocystis, an emerging disease in rainbow trout that causes sores and affects growth. Global shrimp farming has been hit by early mortality syndrome, which is caused by a particular bacterium and can lead to 100 per cent mortality. The UNFAO says that disease treatment and damage costs the aquaculture industry US$6 billion a year.
SK/N202.16) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. According to the Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland: S&TA), the migration of wild salmon between fresh and salt water normally keeps sea lice at bay. 'Adult wild salmon are perfectly adapted to cope with a few sea lice and background levels of these parasites occur naturally in the sea,' says Guy Linley-Adams, a solicitor working with the Friends of Loch Etive, a charity that's protesting against the expansion of fish farming (see Scotland's salmon rows). However, the advent of salmon farming has triggered a fundamental change in the density and occurrence of sea lice. The S&TA, citing figures produced by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, says that in June this year, more than one third of salmon farms--47 farms--on the Scottish mainland and in the Hebrides were in areas where average sea-lice numbers exceeded the industry's own limit.
SK/N202.17) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. 'The salmon smolt [juveniles] come down the river and have to swim through a cloud of juvenile lice, and they simply get killed,' says Linley-Adams [Friends of Loch Etive, Scotland]. 'Even one or two mature female sea lice per fish within a set of cages housing hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon amounts to a rampant breeding reservoir pumping billions of mobile juvenile sea lice out into the local marine environment.'

SK/N202.18) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The proximity of farmed fish to wild stocks also causes environmentalists unease. Fish farms require the shelter of bays and estuaries to avoid damage from storms and currents, so there are a limited number of suitable locations. According to Linley-Adams [Friends of Loch Etive, Scotland], 30 fish farms in Scotland 'are simply in the wrong place. When fish farms were first built, for obvious reasons they were placed in sheltered areas, but they were positioned right by the mouths of the rivers where wild salmon smolts enter the loch, putting the farmed and wild fish into direct conflict.'


SK/N202.19) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Norway spends 50 million Norwegian krone (5.35 million [pounds sterling]) a year tackling the problem of lice and many farms deploy wrasse and lumpfish to eat the lice that attach to farmed fish.
E. AQUACULTURE DECIMATES ASIAN MANGROVES
SK/N202.20) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The wider environment has also suffered tremendous damage from aquaculture. The mangroves of Asia--vital nurseries for wild fish stocks, sources of wood for building and buffers to storm surges--have been battered by oil palm plantations but also razed to make space for shrimp farms. About a fifth of all mangroves have been lost since 1980, mainly cleared to make way for farms that often get choked with waste, antibiotics and fertilisers, according to a UN study released last year. Unsustainable practices include the reliance on high-nutrient chemical inputs that severely degrade the land quality: after five to ten years, shrimp ponds are abandoned and investors establish new ponds in other mangrove areas. 'The short-term benefits of this shifting aquaculture tend to be reaped by an elite of investors, while rural communities permanently lose their natural resources,' wrote the authors of the report.
SK/N202.21) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. 'Mangrove ecosystems are rare--they cover a small area of the globe,' says one of those authors, Dr Hanneke Van Lavieren of the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health. 'That makes them even more at risk from aquaculture and development. You find mangrove forests in areas perfect for shrimp farming. The water is brackish, they create sheltered areas, the water is flushed naturally. But the intensive nature of aquaculture makes it unrealistic for mangroves to carry out their natural role of filtering out pollution.'

2. AQUACULTURE THREATENS SMALL FARMERS
SK/N202.22) Mark Rowe, GEOGRAPHICAL, November 2013, p. 38, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But there are pitfalls as aquaculture expands, according to Subasinghe [senior aquaculture officer at the UNFAO] 'There's a trend in commodity production to become more and more corporate,' he says. 'If that happens in aquaculture, we lose the value. It isn't only the fish we need, we also need the employment. We have a responsibility to make sure aquaculture contributes to a better world, higher incomes and livelihoods, not just producing fish but producing fish in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner. We have to work with small-scale farms, so that they have bargaining power.’

SK/N203. ARCTIC DEVELOPMENT: Solvency
1. TRANS-ARCTIC SHIPPING IS A PIPE DREAM
SK/N203.01) Heath C. Roscoe et al. [National Security Fellows, Harvard Kennedy School], JOINT FORCE QUARTERLY, January 2014, p. 82, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. However, Stephen M. Carmel, senior vice president of Maersk Line, Limited, has questioned the viability of global Arctic transshipping. Carmel argues that Arctic shipping routes do not offer an attractive alternative to the more traditional routes and are highly unlikely to be advantageous in the future. He believes the variability in transit time due to shifting ice and unpredictable weather is unacceptable in a world of "just in time" supply. He further notes that variability eliminates network efficiencies. Arctic routes are useful for only a small part of the year and are more expensive due to poor economies of scale. Therefore, Carmel would not expect to see a large increase in commercial transit shipping.
SK/N203.02) David J. Farrell Jr. [Secretary, The Maritime Law Association of the US], UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO MARITIME LAW JOURNAL, 2012-2013, LexisNexis Academic, p. 185. For the foreseeable future Arctic shipping will be summer only because around-the-clock darkness in the winter will always ice everything over. Even during the Arctic summer, due to new open water, storms and wave damage of unprecedented ferocity have become common. Therefore, Arctic shipping routes must not be confused as viable options to the Panama or Suez Canals.
SK/N203.03) David J. Farrell Jr. [Secretary, The Maritime Law Association of the US], UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO MARITIME LAW JOURNAL, 2012-2013, LexisNexis Academic, p. 185. Ships operating in the Arctic environment are exposed to a number of unique risks. Poor weather conditions and the relative lack of good charts, communication systems and other navigational aids pose challenges for mariners. The remoteness of the areas makes rescue or clean up operations difficult and costly. Cold temperatures may reduce the effectiveness of numerous components of the ship, ranging from deck machinery and emergency equipment to sea suctions. When ice is present, it can impose additional loads on the hull, propulsion system and appendages.
2. RESCUE OPERATIONS WOULD BE A NIGHTMARE
SK/N203.04) Heath C. Roscoe et al. [National Security Fellows, Harvard Kennedy School], JOINT FORCE QUARTERLY, January 2014, p. 82, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The Arctic's cold air and water temperatures, shifting pack ice, and unpredictable weather require the quick and efficient rescue of tourists aboard lifeboats or distressed vessels. Even limited exposure to cold weather and Arctic seawater reduce human endurance to minutes and the likelihood of long-term survival to nearly zero. These hazardous environmental conditions prevail in a region with scarce emergency resources and vast distances that result in lengthy response times.

3. ACQUIRING ICEBREAKERS IS NOT FEASIBLE
SK/N203.05) Scott Borgerson [co-founder of the nonprofit organization Arctic Circle], FOREIGN AFFAIRS, July-August 2013, pNA, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Yet even if Congress appropriated the money to build icebreakers tomorrow, due to the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (also known as the Jones Act), which requires ships traveling between U.S. ports to be built in the United States, the Coast Guard estimates that it would take a decade for the United States' moribund shipyards to construct a single new vessel--by which time the Arctic summer sea ice would likely have already disappeared. Congress should relax this protectionist law to allow the Coast Guard and the navy to procure foreign-built ships or lease privately built American ones, at a fraction of the cost.
SK/N203.06) Heath C. Roscoe et al. [National Security Fellows, Harvard Kennedy School], JOINT FORCE QUARTERLY, January 2014, p. 82, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Lastly, there have been bad experiences with leased icebreakers that could not fulfill their mission requirements. Sweden called the Oden home, breaking its commitment by ending its resupply and science mission support of the U.S. Antarctic McMurdo Research Station and putting the entire 2011-2012 research season in jeopardy.
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