Global demand for fish is rising at a rate our ocean is incapable to support. Aquaculture is here to fill that gap. The industry provides nearly half of all the fish we consume, and it is going to spread to more areas and provide more fish for the days to come.
The downside is that fish farming itself is unsustainable. Fish farming makes fish feed out of smaller fish or fish oil and feed them to bigger caged fish. To raise a pound of farm raised fish, it sometimes takes several pounds of wild fish. Fish farming is adding pressure to the ocean rather easing it. Then there are the escaped fish. Fish escape is unpreventable and can turn into invasive species, devastating nearby habitat. It raises more concern that genetically modified salmon may soon be approved for farming. An alternate argument is that we are consuming more carnivorous fish not because of our increasing population but of our increasing wealth. Unless we can invent some vegetable feed for carnivorous fish, we need to eat more herbivore fish like Tilapia and Striped Bass.
One fact is for sure though: we need aquaculture, but only one that is sustainable and would leave behind usable water bodies for us.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/business/energy-environment/28iht-rbobfish.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=fish_and_other_marine_life
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/03/theres_a_bit_of_a.html
-Tom Lee
Interesting, however, first of all the Striped Bass(Morone saxatilis)is an opportunistic carnivore (http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=353). And, you are correct that Tilapia is an herbivorous fish, however, did you know that more fish meal is used in the Tilapia industry then in the Salmon industry? Tilapia do not need fish meal/oil, however, they grow faster on diets containing fish meal so they are fed diets that contain fish meal. And because of the size of the tilapia industry, much more fish meal goes into the diets fed to tilapia then into the diets fed to salmon.
ReplyDeleteHere is a site that has a lot of information concerning feeds and diets:
http://www.marineharvest.com/en/CorporateResponsibility/Salmon-feed/
It is from Marine Harvest, one of the largest producers of salmon in the world, however, it is information gathered from other sources.