In today’s society, Twitter is a powerful force (along with other forms of social media such as Facebook and Youtube). About 1 in 5 US adults are on Twitter and this has remained consistent over the past several years. The “left” is more likely to use Twitter than the right (32% to 17%). The top 25% of users produce 97% of the tweets. Around 1 in 5 say they have experienced harassing or abusive behavior. 7 in 10 adult Twitter users get news on site and of these 57% say it has increased their understanding of current events.
The anti-aquaculture movement, especially out of British Columbia, has effectively used Twitter and other forms of social media to help mobilize support, resulting in the banning of salmon net pens in certain areas in that province. Several site leases have been cancelled and at the time of this writing, the entire industry is under threat. There is also a halo effect from these efforts that has tainted all of fish farming nationally and internationally. The assault on net pen salmon farming on Twitter has been unrelenting and vicious. There is never a discussion as to quantifying concerns and approaches to mitigating these concerns. All dissent appears to have the singular purpose of cancellation with a scattergun assault of issues seemingly designed to smother any dissenting point of view.
Fearmongering supposed threats that nets pens pose to the environment is standard practice by anti-aquaculturists. It is common to suggest that there is significant disease risk to wild salmon (without any risk quantification) and to promulgate these unsubstantiated claims as headlines in social media. As a veterinarian who has worked with wild and farmed fish diseases for over 30 years, the ignorance of the disease process and the blatant exploitation of the specter of disease is both irritating and concerning. This is further exasperated by peer-reviewed publications in non-medical journals that are elaborate sophistries of unvalidated disease models. These models neglect to incorporate basic variables of disease epidemiology and are merely untested biased hypotheses. However, suiting the purposes of the “anti’s”, their speculations are paraded in the “Twitterverse” and to politicians as being fact.
This speaker originally took to Twitter to try and learn this platform with a goal to be more of a social media “thought leader” on fish farming, science, and fish veterinary medicine. It has been an interesting journey. Some of these experiences will be presented, including the occasional provoked lapse into some unprofessional utterances. It will conclude with some thoughts on why a professional would bother to engage in such an abusive environment; what can be learned from interactions with the anti-aquaculturists; how social dogma can set in; and speculations on what some of the driving forces might be behind the anti-aquaculture movement.