Farmed fish raises environmental concerns
The Washington Post noted in a recent article the fact that by the end of the year half of all fish and shellfish consumed by humans will also be farmed by humans rather than caught in the wild.
Worldwide demand for fish is such that the oceans could not possibly feed people what they need, but farming fish is not without its problems, particularly when it comes to what those farmed fish eat.
It takes fish to make fish
In the wild, of course, fish eat other fish in order to survive. When fish are farmed, they often eat fish as well, and in a very resource-intensive way. It used to be that it took more wild fish to raise an equal amount of farmed fish, but experts now say it takes 0.63 kilograms of wild fish to produce a kilogram of farmed fish.
Fish raised by humans don’t always just get wild fish to eat, however. Sometimes they’re fed the byproducts of other animal production processes, such as the trimmings from poultry plants. Farmed fish might also be treated with antibiotics or be genetically modified in ways that aren’t possible with wild-caught fish. (Wild fish, of course, have their own potential health problems, such as mercury contamination.)
And fish farming has impacts on wild fish beyond just the fish that are caught to raise them. Some fishermen worry that parasites and diseases from fish farms can easily travel into the wild fish population because the fish farms are typically raised in the same areas where wild fish are caught.
Sustainable farming
Despite its drawbacks, fish farming is seen as the best chance for people in the future who want to make a living from the ocean. But sustainability is just as important when it comes to farmed fish as it is to those caught in the wild, experts say.
A quarter to a third of all fish caught in the wild go into fish (as well as poultry and pork) production, which can easily upset the delicate balance of the ocean. When small fish are harvested, the larger fish and sea birds have less to eat, which can cause their populations to crash as well.
Stanford University professor Rosamond L. Naylor says the key to sustainable fish farms will be breaking the connection between wild fish and farmed fish, though no one is quite sure how to do that yet.
And whatever solution is found, whether in the United States or elsewhere, it’s going to have to be exported widely in order to ensure the stability of fish populations around the world. Right now, the United States gets just 5 percent of its fish from domestic aquaculture, while 62 percent of the world’s farmed fish and shellfish come from China.
