Column by Barbara Hirsch
Global fish production, the term used for both growing farmed and catching wild fish, has steadily increased to three times what it was a half century ago. It is now over 300 billion pounds/year. As the wild fish steadily disappear, the business of aquaculture (fish farming) grows, and both are taxing ocean ecosystems. Numbers vary, but about three quarters of the world’s “fish stocks” (our anthropocentric term, they exist only for us) are considered depleted or fully exploited. Technology and desire for trawling the oceans and netting huge catches grew to far beyond sustainability. And then there is the by-catch. One example: a study in the 90’s on shrimp trawling in the Gulf of Mexico, showed that for every pound of shrimp caught, 10 pounds of other species, such as sea turtles, were caught and discarded.
About a fifth of those tons of fish caught and farmed are used for fishmeal for livestock feed, fertilizer, and to raise more fish. Fish oil is also used for aquaculture and human consumption. Three times the weight of fish in fishmeal is needed to grow a salmon. (Though it is believed that in the wild, the salmon would require as much as ten times its weight.) In the future, grains and even livestock byproducts might be use for farming fish, as the wild species continue to vanish.
People now eat more meat and fish than they used to, a great thing for poorer populations, but it’s looking less good for the rich ones. And we rich ones tend to like those big wild caught fish like tuna and swordfish, which also happen to be laced with mercury and industrial chemicals. So for those of us who eat lots of fish, should we choose wild or farmed fish? The answer might just be: eat less.
SOURCES
http://vitalsigns.worldwatch.org/vs-trend/fish-production-reaches-record
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/100095/index.html
http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/aquacult/overview.php
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1084135/
http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/technology/earth/2010/07/earthtalk-eating-fish-green-economy/
I bet Barbara’s Prius has leather seats.
Another ignorant comment by Smurfo.
Barbara rides a bike everywhere and will not even take paper advertising or use a plastic bag.
I love how these people always use the words “Facts” and “Truth” as they use half truths and some of the facts… but only the ones that support their position. Demagogue.
“these people” ?