Is Farm-Raised Seafood Sustainable or Not? (Part 1)
Posted on | March 9, 2010 | 5 Comments
Last year, seafood raised at aquaculture operations, or farms, reached a major milestone. More seafood eaten on this planet now comes from farms than from the wild. As population grows, this trend will continue, demanding ecologically responsible aquaculture. In Part 1 of this series, SOP boils down attributes that determine a farm’s sustainability.
Aquaculture in a mangrove forest
A broad umbrella under which we can judge a farm’s sustainability is its effect on the surrounding environment. The physical structures used to house the fish or shellfish must not be built in environmentally sensitive areas, such as mangroves. Also, farms need to be designed and maintained to avoid escapement of fish into the wild. The spread of disease and parasites should be prevented, especially beyond the operation’s boundaries. At the same time, the use of antibiotics, growth hormones, and preservatives must be eliminated. [This is as much about keeping these chemicals out of the surrounding ecosystem as it is about keeping them out of our bodies.]
Another key factor to evaluate sustainability of an aquaculture operation is the ratio of pounds of fish it takes produce one pound of farmed fish, also know as the fish in/fish out (FIFO) ratio. It simply makes no sense (from a sustainability point of view) to harvest five pounds of wild fish to feed farmed fish that yield one pound of product. While salmon farms are notorious for high FIFO ratios, improvements are being made. Oysters and some fish such as catfish and tilapia can be grown on a completely or nearly vegetarian diet.
To answer the title of this article…..yes and no, it depends. SOP challenges you to start learning more about the farm-raised seafood you eat. In Part 2 of this series, we will use the attributes mentioned above to compare different types of aquaculture operations.
Tags: aquaculture > catfish > ecosystem > farm-raised > fish > fish in/fish out > mangrove > seafood > shellfish > sustainable > tilapia
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5 Responses to “Is Farm-Raised Seafood Sustainable or Not? (Part 1)”
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March 10th, 2010 @ 10:38 AM
i know i have to read the second part to probably find this out…but how do i know what farm raised fish is okay or not?
March 10th, 2010 @ 5:16 PM
We plan to publish Part 2 and Part 3 over the next couple weeks. If you still have questions after those, let them fly!
March 18th, 2010 @ 9:18 AM
Is it possible for aquaculture to eliminate antibiotics? The purpose is to grow as much meat as possible in as small an area as possible. In such conditions I think it is almost impossible to keep the animals disease free without antibiotics. Even with antibiotics unregulated fish farms can have devastating effects on the population of farmed fish (see Chilean salmon farms as example) not to mention the surrounding environment.
March 18th, 2010 @ 9:46 PM
Excellent question. Some aquaculture operations in the ocean or coastal waters have reduced their dependence on antibiotics by decreasing the number of fish per area. Some land-based closed systems have completely eliminated the use of antibiotics by making sanitation a priority and using filters to avoid disease. To answer your question, it’s probably not possible to eliminate antibiotics for many operations. But, if we can subsidize cleaner operations with our purchasing power, you’d probably agree, we should.
April 28th, 2010 @ 4:25 AM
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kim Libby. Kim Libby said: http://sustainableoceanproject.com/2010/03/09/is-farm-raised-seafood-sustainable-or-not-part-1/ http://bit.ly/dD9EHp [...]