Assignment 16: Maggie Anderson

Fish Farming

We’re all human. And we all enjoy eating. And we all appreciate the fact that our species no longer dies by forty. But if we want to continue to this trend of rising health and longevity in a growing population, we need to maintain our nutrition. Predictions put our population at 9.7 billion by 2050, up from 7 billion in 2015, meaning our planet will need 70% more protein by 2050. Due to cost and space restriction on land, the best place to expand this production is the sea. Another advantage of fish over meats such as beef is the fewer resources needed to grow a fish. Due to the fact that they are cold-blooded and float all day, they need considerably less feed to live; therefore more feed is directly translated into meat. Fish also consume less feed and, ironically, much less water.

But commercial fishing is not the solution. It depletes the ocean’s resources and will soon become unsustainable in a growing population. One solution is fish farming, the practice of raising fish in an enclosed space such as a net in the ocean or a pool on land so that when fish are needed they can easily be pulled out and prepared. Aquaculture can create more meat than can be hunted; creating a healthy, and sustainable, environment that makes the fish healthy, happy, and delicious.

Downsides to fish farming exist, and they have bubbled to the surface and made a large splash in the minds of consumers. One concern is overcrowding. Having fish packed together in concrete pens isn’t good for anyone, least of all the fish. Crowded conditions lead to disease, genetic problems, and the buildup of naturally occurring chemicals such as ammonia, which destroys the water, as well as harming the fish. Most fish farm owners regularly treat their farms with antibiotics to keep their fish alive. This is worse in offshore farms, where the contaminated water can harm wild fish and infect them with diseases from the farmed fish if they come into contact.

 Feeding these fish creates a further strain. Salmon and other popular fish are carnivorous, and they require 30 billion tons of forage fish such as sardines to feed the larger fish in the farms. Most of this is given to the fish in pellets that contain fish meal, fish oil, and plant based nourishments like soy. This creates another strain on the ocean as the continued extraction of wild forage fish continues to deplete populations and ecosystems.

These problems are, however, solvable. One easy solution to the feeding problem is to raise more omnivorous fish that can be fed without the use of fish meal. This is already happening, and the use of forage fish per pound of farmed fish has dropped 80% in the last fifteen years. Fish oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, however, and is harder to replace. The oil is created in algae and goes up the food chain through bigger and bigger fish. Omega-3 is already being extracted directly from algae which also reduced chemicals that accumulate in farmed fish.

Another solution is to mimic the natural environment. Nowhere, in the ocean or anywhere else, does an ecosystem with only one species exist. Diverse ecosystems naturally clean themselves up. One cleaning method lets the rest of the ocean do all the work. A farm off the coast of Panama is situated in waves that can reach up to fifty feet, unlike most farms, which are built in more sheltered locations. This washes away old water, destroying any chance of build up and sending the debris off to other parts of the ocean. As tests have reported clean water surrounding his pens, it is assumed that the waste is being eaten by plankton. In this way the farm both produces a sustainable food source and helps the surrounding ecosystems.

An even more profitable way to clean your waste water is to create your own ecosystem. A man named Stephen Cross has built one such farm off the coast of British Columbia. His main product is sablefish, which he feeds. Down current from the sablefish pens are baskets of shellfish such as cockles, oyster, scallops, and mussels. These feed on fish excretions and live alongside sugar kelp which reduces bioethanol, converting waste into plant tissue. Below the fish on the sea bed are sea cucumbers to handle heavy organic waste. This system could work with almost any type of fish in almost any environment. Not only is it healthy for the outside environment, as all impact is neutralized within the system, it’s economically smarter. All the plants and animals used can be sold, for the cost of only feeding the fish.

Fish farming is going to have to take off if we are to avoid famine. And it doesn’t need dramatic overhaul to bring it up to these standards of sustainability; it’s already heading there fast. Even in the past fifteen years have standards improved. Farmers and countries are realizing that fish farming is efficient and that farms that are better for the fish and the environment also make more sense economically. This isn’t an uphill battle for sustainability against the force of the economic goals of those involved; it’s an easy, and peaceful, win for both sides. If you want to ensure the prosperity and progression of future generations, act now and support fish farming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Animal Welfare Institute. “Fish Farming.” https://awionline.org/content/fish-farming Retrieved    June 22, 2017.

Bourne, Joel. “How to Farm a Better Fish”. National Geographic. June 2014, pp. 93-111.

Stone, Daniel. “The Other Other White Meat.” National Geographic.             http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/special-features/2014/04/140430-other-white-    meat-fish-aquaculture-cobia/. Retrieved June 22, 2017.

Velings, Mike. “The Case for Fish Farming.” TED. October 2015.             https://www.ted.com/talks/mike_velings_the_case_for_fish_farming?language=en.            Retrieved June 22, 2017.