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Nicholas DeCosmo

Professor Munsell

English Composition II

12 NOV 22

The Strategic Use of Marine Aquaculture for Food Security

Food security has been a problem since the beginning of human civilization. A lack of

security in food will cause a slow for most if not all economies and countries around the world.

To slow and eventually prevent this food insecurity would be to find a more environmental and

less resource heavy means of producing said food product. One way in preventing food

insecurity is by harvesting marine life in a style similar to land-based agriculture, which is

classified as marine aquaculture. An article “Mapping the global potential for marine

aquaculture” by Rebecca R. Gentry, Halley E. Froehlich, Dietmar Grimm, Peter Kareiva,

Michael Parke, Michael Rust, Steven D. Gaines, and Benjamin S. Halpern; addresses this very

issue with a few handy solutions. Like land-based agriculture, marine aquaculture needs a

specific set of requirements for the harvested organisms to grow in a healthy and efficient

manner. All of which is naturally located in a few areas around the globe. These spots are all

suitable for farming on this scale but haven’t been used to their full potential. This article will

use a compilation of data, an appeal to logos, to support as to why this angle of “fixing” the

upcoming food shortage we will face holds any sort of potential. The article also appeals to an

existential pathos of the inherit reason as to why something like this should be pursued while

having layers of credible sources, an appeal to ethos, to support the backbone of this article.
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The purpose of this article is to give evidence for the point of ending food insecurity for

the future population of humans. It goes into detail on how the production of protein is going to

be the main draw for concern when it comes to food production for the future. An effort for

farming a multitude of species is made within the article. Such species would be fish, bivalves,

and marine plants. The offset is to encourage large scale fish farming in a select few natural

locations that would be best suited for this project. Something of this scale for food production

would have to overcome a few socioeconomic hurdles due to these areas conflict with ports for

trade and overall boundaries for countries. Fish farming of this scale would be akin to an

agricultural revolution but in the sea rather than on land.

Due to this article being a scientific article, there is an abundant appeal to logos by use of

data points and other studies referenced within the article itself. The categories of marine

aquaculture cultivation in high volume are separated into two groups with each having different

prime hotspots. The first group of hotspots is for finfish aquaculture. These so-called hotspots are

located at the southern coast of Kenya, Fiji, and central Indonesia. The second group of hotspots

are for bivalves, which, are muscles and other two-hinged shell-like creatures. The best locations

for farming this group would be in Uruguay, Bangladesh, and Guinea. With both groups being

grown at the best theoretical location, which would be Indonesia, 1% of the suitable ocean near

Indonesia would yield over 24 million tons of fish and 3.9 x 10^11 single 4-centimeter bivalves

per year. This has the capacity to increase the production of fish and consumption of said marine

produced foods by nearly 6 times (Gentry, Froehlich, Grimm, Kareiva, Parke, Rust, Gaines,

Halpern; 2017). Logistics aside, multiplying the amount of seafood produced by 6 times will put

a dent within the amount of protein needed to sustain human civilization once it reaches the 10

billion population mark. Using such metrics can paint a better picture as to how much space this
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really takes could strengthen the cause within the public eye. One way the article achieves this is

by stating a relative size of the space needed. The total area for this project would take up less

space than Lake Michigan in terms of water. When it comes to feeding the entire world, this

amount of space is near minimal and almost the size of a smaller state here in the US. The only

problem as to why this hasn’t been implemented is due to most of these areas already using their

water borders for more relevant and logical means for the country. Be it for trade, defense, or

tourism. Hindering these sectors could cripple some supply chains in the region which can lead

to a domino effect of other unwanted outcomes.

An appeal to emotions is challenging when it comes to scientific articles and papers.

These texts exist in a bubble of sort, a bubble that doesn’t give an answer to why it was blown.

Pathos within this text is a more existential reasoning as to what it appeals to, without saying it

out right. It talks about a future threat that humanity will face, and it is up to the reader to make

sense of what to do with the information. The only real appeal within this article is the article

itself. The article did not occur in a vacuum, it had a reason to be reason. I sense of wanting the

future to be stable and better than what it is now. Which is having the ability to not need to think

and bear the brunt of a future existential threat brought about by our own doing.

Credibility is the backbone of science; it is no different for this very article. An appeal to

ethos is half of this very article. Many of the data provided within the piece can be connected to

other references of the same topic. Be it future human population numbers that can be attributed

to findings about future human population prospects by the United Nations Department of

Economic and Social Affairs or be it the current statistics of fisheries around the world

referenced by the Food and Agriculture Organization. All of which are used in a serious tone to

portray a very real threat to the future of humanity. The entire article is set up in a way to
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become a source for debate which would mean the article itself is credible in what information it

provides.

The ability to eat and not starve are a very foreign concept for those who live in countries

which are able to support their own population. The fact that this could come knocking on every

corner of the planet is something that we are not ready for. Many movements today want to

hinder food production in certain areas since it produces to much greenhouse gases, all the while

adding nothing substantial to fixing this threat. The best route for hindering food insecurity while

making emissions low will most likely be by marine aquaculture. The future holds many

prospects within this field of work and study. So much to the point to where this article could be

a stepping stone for something larger that could end food insecurity.
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Works Cited

Rebecca R. Gentry, Halley E. Froehlich, Dietmar Grimm, Peter Kareiva, Michael Parke, Michael

Rust, Steven D. Gaines, Benjamin S. Halpern. “Mapping the global potential for marine

aquaculture”. Nature.com. August 14, 2017, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0257-

9.