Aquaculture. No, it’s not a typo. Instead of farming cultivated plant foods we’re farming fish. And this year, we’ve reached a tipping point of sorts. The Washington Post reports that now, over ½ the fish consumed in the world will have been raised in pens, rather than caught. The implications are enormous.
Several years ago, I began the marine biology course that I taught at TA with a graph that showed the projected decline in ocean fish. The numbers of fish had been declining for several decades, but the frightening part was the projection out to the year 2050. The endpoint for this graph suggested that the oceans would be depleted of all fish. In other words, while a few species might survive in unique niches, fish - from the sharks to the scavengers – would disappear from our oceans. The oceans in a sense would become relatively lifeless pools of flooded sand.
The predator prey relationships of the past have been permanently altered given the huge increase in human population (from 1 billion to the current 6 billion in about 150 years). That increase, coupled with a commensurate increase in the world’s taste for seafood has lead to some drastic over fishing. Cheap, smaller fish are also being caught in massive numbers to be ground up into fish meal, to be fed to poultry, pigs, and ironically – farmed fish. In other words, fish are being hunted and caught to feed people. And fish.
Another article this past week discussed the imminent demise of the large blue fin tuna, a magnificent half-ton beast that is capable of swimming 3000 miles without stopping. Tuna, it seems, is about to become a victim of the global sushi craze. Tuna can’t be farmed. They are too large, too energetic, and they require too much space.
But other species can be grown from “egg-to-plate” as they say. Salmon are probably the best known and most popular of the farm-raised fish. Once considered a delicacy, salmon has literally become the “chicken of the sea”. I remember salmon selling for about $10/pound in the 1970s – that’s probably something like $25/pound today. Now, I see it selling for as little as $3.95 locally. Salmon, and now other fish, are becoming cheap and plentiful because they are being farmed, raised in huge circular pens like the one pictured above.
The fish are born into the tanks. They are raised on a diet of unused poultry trimmings from the millions of chickens that are raised in dark boxes, corn meal, and antibiotic powders. Not being free to swim the oceans, the fish also accumulate more body fat than a free, “wild” fish. This trait is particularly noticeable in farm-raised salmon. Genetically chosen for hardiness, and the ability to live in these conditions, the fish that you are eating are different from the fish your grandparents ate.
Shellfish too, are being farmed. Scientists report that some Chinese bays are so congested with nets, traps, and pens that they have become un-navigable. Lest you think this is an “Asian problem”, let me assure you that New England is one of the fastest growing fish farm regions in the country.
This is an unsustainable practice. As we deplete the oceans of its largest fish, and its small foraging fish, we are decimating the two ends of the oceanic food chain. Krill too – the small shrimp-like plankton that lays the foundation for the oceanic food web is also being sieved out of the Antarctic waters at alarming rates. Such over-fishing can lead to an environmental chain reaction of sorts. In the 1970s and again in the 1990s Peru exploited its anchovy population. Anchovies are small foraging fish. Not only did fish stocks decline, but so did local sea bird populations that depended on the small fish for their food. It took a change in government in 2006 to place restraints on fishing. Restraints that have lead to a recovery of the ecosystem.
That was the experience of a small, regional ecosystem. What happens when we deplete an ocean? What happens if the chain reaction truly starts, and species begin to disappear at an accelerating rate? What happens if the projections are correct, and the oceans do become dead zones in the next few years? What does it mean if the earth no longer has seafood?
What will happen to our poultry industry? What will happen to us?
Maybe we're the chickens who have lost their heads.
16 comments:
If you pick up any magazine... by the cash register... manly those girly ones.. you will find them screaming with the newest diet and fad eating trend. Most of these diets consist of fish. Scientists have found that fish are healthy way to consume meat with the Omega 3's and such. So as the article, "Farm-Fresh Fish -- With a Catch" in the Washington Post says, as people move to the cities, the amount of fish consumed has increased and so has the demand. In order to keep up with the demand, fish are being farmed and fed chicken as it is said and Mr. Enlger has pointed out. The problem with this is what the fish is consuming. In order to live in a cage as pictured and eat such a diet, antibiotics are needed (footnote: in America, the vast majority of antibiotics are used in our food as in for animals). SO we have the antibiotics, and organism not in its natural environment... and I think it is clear that the same nutrients a wild fish gets differs from the farmed fish, and the new diet fad may not be as good as advertised. Sure it will eb healthy but you are not getting all of the benefits. I knwo it did nto say this, and I am not a scientist, but I would assume that there would be a difference in the craved omega three.
Also, if we are farming all of this fish, obviously we are fishing or hunting less because we have our own source of easy kill. SO the question arises in my mind, what is happening outside of these farms, in the wild. The entire balance is probably off. By this time in the human relationship between fish and humans and the predator prey relationship, the fish universe has adapted to us hunting. I am assuming since it has, and we no longer hunt them as much because we have our own source, that things are off balance because we no longer are a part of the chain or cycle.
~Becca~
Thanks for the first response Becca.
Actually, we are fishing less and farming more BECAUSE the entire balance is already off! We have already taken so much out of the ocean, that fish populations have been dramatically - possibly permanently - lowered. This has effected the balance within oceanic food webs. Some species, like the Blue Fin Tuna take decades to reach full maturity, and will never return to their former status.
Quite simply; the fish just aren't there to be hunted as they used to be.
This was a pretty interesting post. I eat fish quite often, and go fishing quite often, so it was interesting to hear about the impact that fish farming is having on the population of fish. Something interesting: my ski coach, Korry Vargo, is a full time salmon fisherman in Alaska for the entire off season, and he and his entire crew are against farming (probably because it depletes their importance in the market. Pretty interesting, though.
-Tyler
Its not always the taste that counts. I hate the way that people are ordering, eating, growing salmon. It’s a truly despicable thing, and to think that only a few decades ago Salmon was the fish of the wealthy and now its no more than tuna. Maybe Paris Hilton (or next generation her children) will ask if this is a bird or a fish. It would surprise me very little if the befuddlement was made again especially as fish are now being fed to poultry and chicken leftovers are fish food… they have almost become a strange two sided creature.
I love the ocean, I can’t imagine a beach with out palm trees, a reef with deadly silent coral. To imagine a beach with out seagull squawking overhead, begging for your food, swooping low into the ocean for a silvery glint that is a darting fish. This is just one of many thing that would be effected; the looks.
Having been lucky enough to have visited tht Caribbean, perhaps at a time when what I saw was a struggling effort and soon will be no more than a memory, I care what happens. Has nobody wondered why we don’t as frequently see thriving reefs and bountiful schools of fish like we do in Finding Nemo? Maybe the real quest is fining harmony with the sea.
Being guilty myself, of the sushi crazy, adorent of seafood, friend of a shark killer (no really!) I find myself struggling in the midst of a crisis, to eat or not to eat, is almost the question.
If I give up sushi I will be one of few, or perhaps the only one who will give up this luxury taken for granted. If I discontinue the family tradition of fresh homemade Pella on Christmas eve, that will also be a problem, if I convince a good friend he should no longer go play “great white hunter” and shark fish, well I can’t even go there, because I know he wont…
It’s hard to find a balance in such a developing world, we never have needed to stop, look and listen as we do now. We need to do these things, perhaps the warning signs are being ignored like a late person in NYC.
Quoinascotsi (major spelling error!)…. Life out of balance, its what we are and have been for years, no decades now.
What will happen to us? All we have is now lets try and make it worth the while, like I said, I love the ocean and all it has to offer, I don’t want our welcome to wear out on this planet, after all it’s the only one that has chocolate!
-Caileigh
Koyannisaqatsi! But that's OK!
Great response Caileigh- thanks!
Mr E
It is really sad how we're on our way to whiping out an ocean filled with life. It is hard to imagine an empty ocean. Once you get rid of the fish, it sets everything else off and kills off the bigger fish, and soon enough all of the fish are gone. It's scary. I mean, to me, an ocean isn't an ocean unless it has creepy fish lurkng under me or giant monsters in the dark part that I can't see.
But, with our increase in population, how else are we supposted to feed ourselves? People just aren't catching enough to feed our demand, so it seems. If we need to satisfy the consumers, then we need to farm these fish. It's a sad thing, thinking about an empty ocean, but it's also a sad thing to see a lack of food, or really expensive food. Either way, you're losing.
-Magg!e
yah, when I was in Florida a few years ago I drove by a fish farm, it looked really nasty. The smell was...bad.
My dad also has a thing or two to say about over fishing. He takes people flyfishing for striped bass in mass and has seen the # of fish in his area drop drasticly in the past few years. The reason is the big breeder fish (the mom fish stuffed with eggs) are caught in huge nets in the spring down south. Bummer, beacuse the law protects the large fishing corps./boats.
yah, when I was in Florida a few years ago I drove by a fish farm, it looked really nasty. The smell was...bad.
My dad also has a thing or two to say about over fishing. He takes people flyfishing for striped bass in mass and has seen the # of fish in his area drop drasticly in the past few years. The reason is the big breeder fish (the mom fish stuffed with eggs) are caught in huge nets in the spring down south. Bummer, beacuse the law protects the large fishing corps./boats.
-cc
This is kind of crazy. The more we try to make things convienent for are selves the more inconvienent for the enviornment and eventually our selfs they become. What happens when that eventually does come, we may not be able to bounce back as easly as we think.
So much of what we do has us feeding animals (fish...) stuff that not only would they not be normaly eating, but adds to the distuction of other areas of the world.
Okay so, we lose the sea animals no big deal right, not so much. We still need them around they have imporant "jobs" in the world just as we do.
I thought this was quite an intriguing article. The tought that it has come to actually farming fish because there is a decreasing numbers of them is frightening. The oceans and seas cover most of the earthand the idea that by 2059 there could be o more fish puts so many things out of whack. Does the fact that the fish are farmed rather than caught affects the flavor? I need to know.
-The Bird
I think if we're not already the chickens without heads, we soon will be. over fishing is terrible a and I understand why people do it, but still! If these people knew the full extent of what they were doing perhaps they would stop. But there's such a demand for food and fish and people don't ever stop to think of the implications of what's happening when they buy this food. They just want the taste. Even if it doesn't taste all that great.
Doing things like this really takes away from the greatness of the regular caught fish, the 10$ a lb salmon. It's harder to appreciate spending that much money on something so good when you can get it for alright for really cheap.
It's just one of those things in society that is people being ignorant, but we all do it so it seems ok. It's probably not, because soon we'll all be chickens without heads and without fish from the ocean.
-Laura
"Maybe we are the chickens who have lost our heads" um... i guess so. but i do agree that the thought of "growing" fish, and thus depleting our oceans is not a happy one. In fact, its really dissgusting. I dont know about any of tyou, but i used to watch this little kid show (when I was a little kid, just to throw that out there) called the wild thornberries where this girl went around the world with her naturalist parents, sister, brother taken from the wild and best friend chimpanzee and she herself could talk to this chimpanzee and all other animals. ANYWAY what im getting at is there was the one show where she and her family wnet to the Gallopigos islands to see turtles while she was there see made it easier for a finch to cath larva by giving him a needle to poke into the trees, then all the other finches wanted needles, and he gave them some. Then all the larva started to dissapear because all the finches were eating them. without the larva, none of the fish could eat and without the fish, the penguins couldn't eat. so she feed the peguins. but then all the penguins wanted tuna! it was preety crazy for a nickalodeon cartoon. things started spiral out of control because even little larva effected the entire eco system of the islands. sooooooo, what i am trying to say is that everything has an effect. EVERY LITTLE THING. no matter how small. if something as small as a bunch of finches eating to much larva could effect an island so much, than just think of what draining he entire ocean could do to the planet. I think that before people do stuff for their own convenience (such as growing tuna, or giving a talking finch a needle so he can catch larva better) they should really thing about the consequences and whether or not they outway the benifits.
~erika
Why? Why do we continue this way. When I read articles like these, my mind just stops and tries to process what is going on with our world, our land our seas. Then I realize that this is not OUR world but everythings world. The more we stress the world the more we stress everything. We are threatning everything that lives. Fish, little fishes, big fishies, red fish, blue fish. Humans are hurting every part of the earth.
Their are no other speicies as harmfull as humans. No other kind is out to cause exstinction to another species. Except us. Humans sometimes think other animals should not be a part of this world, but I think we are the ones who dont belong.
These are all great comments. Lui's last comment touches on an interesting them - that humans are the species that do not respect the normal predator/prey relationships. Other species leave enough to allow prey populations to replenish themselves, but humans ten to take, and take some more. This difference between the "leavers" and the "takers" is a major theme in the next book we will read during the Zoology part of the course - the wonderful science fiction fable Ishmael.
I wouldn't say I was a headless chicken.... and I love fish as well as fishing. I went to a salmon farm in 8th grade. They had what looked like dog food that we would throw in the pools, then the water would start to bubble and hundreds of salmon from this tiny pool would suddenly surface to get the food. In 10 seconds, the food would be gone and the water would become calm again. I also saw they nursery where the eggs are raised. The whole production was quite amazing and very interesting.
Fish are an important resource. Losing fish is losing lives. The extinction of fish is the beginning of the end.
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