In a new paper in Science a research team led by Stanford postdoctoral scholar Ling Cao and Professor Rosamond Naylor offers the clearest picture to date of China's enormous impact on wild fisheries. The study also presents a more sustainable alternative to the current practice of using wild-caught fish to feed farm-raised fish, Phys.org reports.
China
is the world's leading producer, consumer and processor of fish, contributing
one-third of the global supply. China's fish production has tripled in the past
20 years, and about three-quarters of its supply now comes from fish farms.
Yet
the industry still places huge pressure on wild fisheries through its demand
for fishmeal and fish oil made from wild-caught species. How China develops its
aquaculture and aquafeeds sector can thus tip the balance of global seafood
availability.
"There
is a clear opportunity for positive change, but the economic and regulatory
incentives for such change are not yet in place," said Professor Naylor,
the William Wrigley Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and director of
the Centre on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford.
Fishing
in the coastal waters of China is poorly regulated and often indiscriminate.
The result is large volumes of assorted "trash fish" – species that
are unfit for human consumption – that end up in animal feeds, including in
fishmeal that is fed to farm-raised fish. Many of the species of wild fish used
for feeds have been fully exploited or overexploited, and reducing the demand
for them can help protect fragile ocean ecosystems.
One
promising solution is to recycle the waste by-products from seafood processing
plants across China. This waste, which can be 30 to 70 percent of the incoming
volume of fish, is often discarded or discharged into nearby waters.
The
team's analysis shows that these processing wastes could satisfy between half
and two-thirds of the current volume of fishmeal used by Chinese fish farmers,
replacing much of the wild fish currently used in feeds.
Quality
and food safety are two potential barriers to replacing wild-caught fish with
fish processing wastes. The waste is lower in protein that wild-caught fish,
but this can be overcome by adding plant-based protein sources to the fishmeal,
like algae or ethanol yeast.
The
use of processing waste also raises concerns about contamination and disease
transmission, which the researchers say can be addressed through better
research on the safety risks and through tighter regulations.
"It's
time to make serious decisions about managing and protecting ocean fisheries,
and China will play a pivotal role in this process," said Professor Naylor.
"Collecting
good data from China is an important starting point. But we also need a clear
path toward more sustainable fisheries and aquaculture management, and that's
what we present in this paper."
"This
is a critical juncture for China," said lead author Ling Cao, a
postdoctoral scholar at the Centre on Food Security and the Environment.
"If
the country makes proactive reforms to its aquaculture sector, like using
fish-processing wastes instead of wild fish, and generally reducing the amount
of fishmeal in aquafeeds, it can greatly improve the sustainability of the
industry. If not, the consequences for the entire global seafood supply chain
are going to be really serious."
Read the article HERE.
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
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