Ocean fish farms are a pretty good deal

I read with interest the May 1 article “Humongous fish farms are industrializing our oceans,” by Wenonah Hauter, and I must disagree with her conclusion that offshore aquaculture is an undesirable activity in our oceans, particularly here in Rhode Island, where our state’s economy has been traditionally tied to the sea. Globally, capture fisheries have maximized their catch of seafood, and few nutritionists would argue that eating less seafood would be bad for people’s health and well-being.

Offshore fish farms are an answer to shortages of seafood in the face of growing local and world demand. It is a well established fact (see United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization statistics) that globally catches of fish and other seafood products have reached their maximum sustainable catch yield of about 80 million metric tons. The world’s marine capture fishery yields have remained roughly steady at this level since the early 1980s, and yet global demand for seafood has been on the rise. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Aquaculturists, published and supported by the International Aquafeed Magazine from Perendale Publishers