AQUACULTURE Global View of the Largest Aquaculture Producers (2014)―Fish and Seafood

ARE FISH FARMS THE FUTURE?

OCEAN ATLAS 2017 / FAO

Production in thousands of metric tons

45,469.00
6.3
43.6
402.80
Aquaculture is booming—in 2014 nearly every second fish consumed Northern Europe 304.30
by people came from a fish farm. The ecological and social problems 1,332.50
Eastern Europe

caused by this aquatic stockbreeding are immense. Norway

1,545.10
Eastern Asia
Fish

P
er-capita fish consumption has doubled over the ulations used to feed the large predatory fish. Therefore, 331.40 559.70
last 50 years. Demand has risen especially sharply aquaculture does not necessarily help halt overfishing in 295.3 West Asia
0.3 North America
in industrialized and developing countries. Aqua- the world’s oceans. Western Europe
4,881.00
culture has been promoted as a solution since the 1970s 595.20
and supported with massive state and development fund Aquaculture as industrialized underwater factory Southern Europe China 3,397.10

15.8
India
1,214.50
subsidies. In 1950 aquaculture produced approximately farming is an ecological disaster. The fish injure them- 1,137.10 Vietnam
500,000 metric tons of live weight; in 2014 that figure rose selves, get sick, and fall victim to parasites more quickly. Egypt Chile
1,544.20
to 73.8 million metric tons, 88 percent of it in Asia. China To counter those ill effects, fish farmers rely on antibiotics 4,253.90 Mollusks
Latin America
547.40
alone produces 62 percent of the global production and is
thus the most important aquaculture country.
and chemicals, including pesticides, which pollute the
water. The more animals are held in a breeding pool, the
South Asia Indonesia 2.7
Aquaculture takes place in ponds, irrigation ditch sys-
more excrement, uneaten food, and cadavers sink into the
water below, overfertilizing the water. The nutrient-rich 1,956.90 Other
4.2 Crustaceans
313.20 aquatic 0.3
tems, integrated recycling systems, and large cage systems wastewater, replete with traces of chemicals and pharma- Nigeria Bangladesh animals 0.5
in the sea. Fish, shrimp, crabs, and mussels are the primary ceuticals, then flows into the rivers, lakes, and seas, and
3,194.80
stock. Fish farming on the high seas and on the coasts ac- also soaks into the surrounding soil.
243.70
189.20 Inland aquaculture in millions of metric tons
counts for 36 percent of total production. The hope is that Sub-Saharan Africa Southeast Asia
Oceania Marine and coastal aquaculture in millions of metric tons
it will satisfy the continually increasing global demand Additionally, mangrove forests must often give way
for fish and seafood as well as provide a solution to over- to aquaculture. This is especially absurd, given that they
fishing. However, the current industrialized aquaculture is actually serve as nurseries for many species of fish. 20 per-
hardly an answer to overfishing and food security needs, cent of the world’s mangrove forests were destroyed be- models. Today around 19 million people work in this sec- The grave social and ecological consequences of cur-
as it is often highly questionable—ethically, ecologically, tween 1980 and 2005 by human actions, more than half of tor. The working conditions are nevertheless extremely rent industrial aquaculture approaches cannot be halted
and socially. them (52 percent) due to the introduction of aquaculture. precarious. Contracts are often only verbally agreed upon, by technical and ecological changes alone.
On the Philippines alone, two-thirds of the mangrove for- worker protection regulations are rare and their enforce-
That’s because the fish and other animals require large ests have been cut down because of shrimp farms. ment is even rarer. The result: exploitation and forced la- The demand for fish and other sea creatures is the
quantities of food themselves: producing just one kilo- bor. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates main driver for further developing industrial aquaculture.
gram of shrimp, salmon, or other farmed fish requires 2.5 Aquaculture destroys the livelihoods of local popu- that 70–80 percent of aquaculture sites and coastal fish- It serves a profit-driven global market with a great hunger
to 5 kilograms of wild-caught fish. The figure for tuna is lations and leads to local conflicts because it massively eries are small businesses that rely on the labor of family for cheap fish, primarily in the form of mass underwater
closer to 20 kilograms. Raising red tuna in net-cages in reduces the catches of the traditional coastal fisheries. members. That means that children are subjected to the factory farming. The consumption of fish and sea crea-
Malta thus endangers the local mackerel and sardine pop- People are driven away or forced into new employment often physically demanding and dangerous labor condi-
tions of the fisheries.
tures by the global middle class must be reduced.
•
Yet ecologically sound aquaculture is indeed possi-
Another Way—Aquaculture as a Closed Nutrition Cycle
ble, as carp and trout farming show. For many centuries Increasing Quantity of Farmed Fish
ecological, locally run aquaculture has been a source of
If farmed fish are kept in nets or cages and actively fed 1 , livelihood and protein for millions of people, especially

OCEAN ATLAS 2017 / FAO

Current Dissolved food Algae Capture fisheries Aquaculture
their excretions normally cause the environment to in Asia. The example of pangasius farming in Vietnam in kg per capita
1 become overfertilized (eutrophication). The exception: shows that change is possible. Following the exposure of
12
Mussels when other organisms on lower levels of the food chain scandalous farming conditions, the industry is reforming
Fish are kept downstream 2 . Shrimp, crabs, or sea cucumbers step by step according to new environmental standards, 10
OCEAN ATLAS 2017 / S. KNOTZ / IBIS-INFOBILD

kept in cages 3 eat particles that sink to the bottom. including the ASC Seal (Aquaculture Stewardship Council). 8
Mussels 4 filter smaller particles out. And their excretions That means that no fishmeal from overfished populations
are metabolized by the algae and invertebrates. is used and that good water quality and low mortality 6

4 Unlike conventional fish farming, so-called integrated rates must be maintained. Technical solutions to environ- 4
multitrophic aquaculture is an environmentally friendly mentally friendly aquaculture are also being intensively
2
approach that actually takes the surrounding ecosystem researched—closed recirculation systems significantly
Food particles Invertebrates into account. reduce the environmental strain, but are expensive and 0
3 1954 1964 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 Year
However, it represents only a marginal share of global demanding to operate, as well as energy-intensive.
aquaculture, and the use of fish oil and fishmeal remains The quantity of fish farmed for human consumption rose steadily
Current 2
problematic. from 1954 to 2014. Today it actually slightly exceeds the quantity of
wild-caught fish.

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