Demand for seafood has greatly impacted the oceans. Is aquaculture the solution to the problems caused by overfishing? Aquaculture aims to restore the depleting wild fish populations, threatened by overfishing, by cultivating a population of fish which has been grown to satisfy human demand.¹

Although the idea of farming fish to allow the wild stock and aquatic environment to heal sounds nice, there may be unintended consequences with multiple negative effects. Similar to cows in the meat industry, fish are subject to similar treatment. They spend their lives swimming in an enclosed area packed full of tens of thousands of other fish where they are all exposed to parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating or fatal injuries. Subjecting fish to crowded living conditions results in fish bumping into each other as they swim as well as bumping into the walls of their enclosure, causing sores on their bodies and damage to their fins. The abrasions caused by close living quarters allows for parasites, disease and bacteria to enter into the fishs’ system. Several types of bacteria can be transferred to humans, while processing and removing the guts of the fish.² 

³

Farmers will often sort the fish by size to prevent the larger fish from killing the smaller ones. The process by which the separating is done puts the fish through a lot of stress. To assess their true weight, fish are starved for 24 hours and redistributed to the respective enclosure through pumps. Fish that go through this process can be faced with painful scrapes, loss of protective scales, disease, parasitic infestations, deformities, stress related injury, blindness and hearing loss. 

The great number of fish contribute to numerous contaminants entering the marine environment affecting other organisms: pesticides, fecal matter, food filled with chemicals, water quality, parasites and diseases flow through the water, as well as through the systems of escaped fish⁴, and find their way to other sea life outside of the enclosures.⁵ Escaped fish pose the problem of not only transferring disease to the outside environment, but if the fish is a nonnative species, it could cause problems for the native fish, competing for food and displacing them.⁶ The most prominent case of disease lies with salmon fishing. Due to poor measures of biosecurity, the spread of salmon attacking diseases is a global concern. Infectious salmon anemia, a viral disease, and Sea Lice, a parasite that attaches to the body and draws nutrients from its host, are frequent consequences of salmon farming.⁷

⁸

^{Sea Lice}

⁹

Aquafarming locations destroy the ecosystems around them, killing off natural habitats by exceeding the environment’s carrying capacity. Excessive amounts of fish and the waste they produce can cause a slimy, green algae bloom to form on the surface of the water, depleting oxygen and killing marine life.¹⁰ 

The nutrient content of farmed fish versus wild fish relies on their diet. While wild fish depend on a natural diet of what is available to them in their environment, farmed fish are fed a variety of  dry fishmeal pellets and fish oil.¹¹ Farmed fish are generally higher in omega-3 fatty acids. Due to living conditions and exposure to disease and chemicals, farmed fish have more contaminants in their systems.¹²

Many aquafarm locations are seated on the coast, eliminating vital wetland and mangrove ecosystems for farm construction. The destruction of mangrove forests on the coast deprive aquatic species of a crucial nursery habitat, as well as providing a habitat for birds, reptiles, crustaceans, among others. The forests protect against erosion, aid in the buildup of sediments, contaminants, nitrogen and carbon¹³ and provide communities with a place to collect food.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing divisions of the food production industry. Farming sites are predominantly found in Asian countries, accounting for 89% of all aquaculture development. China accounts for 62% of that growth.¹⁴ With the rapid growth of the industry, planning and regulation are not always a priority. As a result, some establishments do not abide by regulations, causing resource conflict or scarcity, disregarding the quality of the product and safety of production, in some cases.¹⁵ The development in aquaculture is in effect to meet the demands of the people. Following regulations and making sure that the output of product is meeting demand causes some concern for the economic and social reliance on production. There is a challenge to meet regulation and social needs, as industry changes may prohibit securing food at the same rapidity as before, which would impact stakeholders including farmers, producers and consumers.¹⁶ Fishermen are directly impacted by the growth of the aquaculture industry, as it affects their outcomes each time they catch fish. Due to the destruction of mangroves, fish are deptives of a crucial reproductive environment, thus reducing the population of those fish. The relyance of aquaculture businesses on catching small fish to feed farmed fish impacts the food available to wild fish, which may deprive them of food which they need to grow larger. As mentioned previously, disease, parasites and nonnative fish releases into open waters impacts the health of wild populations.¹⁷ 

As the industry is a readily growing division, it is something only the wealthiest groups, who are capable of controlling land, can invest in. The loss of land causes problems for the poorer members of the community; as their resources, provided by the wetlands, mangroves and surrounding forests for gathering food, are compromised.¹⁸

Over the next three months, I will be exploring and presenting sustainable to the problems of aquaculture described above In order to identify positive or negative trends in the sustainability of the industry, the following definition of sustainability will be used as a guideline and to determine objectives and indicators for whether a particular approach is sustainable.

Something is sustainable if its initiatives, actions or impacts serve to meet the social and economic needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs through:

• Reducing resource use, encouraging re-use, finding renewable alternatives and minimizing waste and pollution while protecting and restoring the health of natural systems and biodiversity and addressing global climate change.
• Equitable economic development that does not exploit humans.
• An elevated and dignified standard of human well-being that ensures basic human rights and needs that include universal access to healthcare, food and water, housing, economic dignity, fair wages and safe working conditions

Best practices for meeting these objectives include an inclusive, transparent process that employs systems thinking, encourages individual action and innovation and assessment using measurable indicators. 

The definition above will be applied to assess the sustainability of different approaches to the aquaculture industry.

Bibliography

¹ US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What Is Aquaculture?” NOAA’s National Ocean Service, 2 Apr. 2019, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/aquaculture.html. 

² “Fish Disease and Human Health.” Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2013, www.fish.wa.gov.au/Sustainability-and-Environment/Fisheries-Science/Aquatic-Animal-Health/Pages/Fish-Disease-And-Human-Health.aspx. 

³ Image: Fish Enclosure https://thefishsite.com/articles/offshore-wealth 

⁴ “The Impact of Aquaculture on Marine Habitats ” World Ocean Review.” World Ocean Review, https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-2/aquaculture/eco-friendly-aquaculture/the-impact-of-aquaculture-on-marine-habitats/ 

⁵ “Aquafarming.” PETA, 3 Dec. 2019, www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/fish/aquafarming/. 

⁶ “What Is the Environmental Impact of Aquaculture? – GAA.” Global Aquaculture Alliance, 7 July 2020, www.aquaculturealliance.org/blog/what-is-the-environmental-impact-of-aquaculture/.  

⁷ “Environmental Problems of Aquaculture.” Earth Journalism Network, 23 Apr. 2020, https://earthjournalism.net/resources/environmental-problems-of-aquaculture#:~:text=These%20largely%20nitrogen%2Dbased%20wastes,introduce%20into%20the%20marine%20environment. 

⁸ Image:Sea Lice https://www.intrafish.com/technology/scientists-patent-new-method-for-preventing-sea-lice-on-farmed-salmon/2-1-837312 

⁹ Image: Schematic representation of the main interactions and impacts resulting from aquaculture activities in estuarine and coastal ecosystems http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/restoring-coastal-ecosystems-fisheries-aquaculture/ 

¹⁰ “Is Aquaculture Bad for the Environment?” PETA, 14 Oct. 2013, www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/is-aquaculture-bad-for-the-environment/. 

¹¹ Fisheries, NOAA. “Feeds for Aquaculture.” NOAA, www.fisheries.noaa.gov/insight/feeds-aquaculture. 

¹² Center, Kendall Reagan Nutrition. “Wild Caught vs. Farm Raised Seafood.” College of Health and Human Sciences, 27 Feb. 2020, https://chhs.source.colostate.edu/wild-caught-vs-farm-raised-seafood/. 

¹³ Marcel Martinez-Porchas, Luis R. Martinez-Cordova, “World Aquaculture: Environmental Impacts and Troubleshooting Alternatives”, The Scientific World Journal, vol. 2012, Article ID 389623, 9 pages, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/389623 

¹⁴ Fisheries, NOAA. “Global Aquaculture.” NOAA, 22 May 2019, www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/aquaculture/global-aquaculture. 

¹⁵ “Aquaculture Development Beyond 2000: Global Prospects.” Aquaculture In The Third Millennium, http://www.fao.org/3/ab412e/ab412e33.htm 

¹⁶ “Involving Stakeholders in Aquaculture Policy-Making, Planning and Management.” Aquaculture In The Third Millennium, www.fao.org/3/ab412e/ab412e32.htm. 

¹⁷https://www.esa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/issue8.pdf 

¹⁸ “Impacts of Aquaculture.” Latitude Geography, www.latitudegeography.org/impacts-of-aquaculture.html.