Production Is Still Increasing, But Not Fast Enough
According to research conducted at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the growth rate of fish-farming practices peaked in 1996 and is now in decline. The study found that if the world were to rely exclusively on aquaculture to meet seafood demand at the current rate of production, we would create a seafood shortage of about 71 million tonnes per year by 2030. To meet demand, production would need to grow at three times the current rate. UBC conducted a Q&A with the co-authors of the study, Dr. Rashid Sumaila and Dr. Muhamman Oyinlola, to discuss why the world cannot rely solely on farmed seafood to meet the demand for fish.
Dr. Sumaila, a professor in UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the school of public policy and global affairs, believes that most of the problem stems from over-optimism towards seafood farming production. According to Dr. Sumaila, there tends to be a focus on the growth rate in the industry, and aquaculture is popularly proposed as a solution to food security caused by overfishing and climate change. But, according to the data, aquaculture already peaked at 14% in 1996 and has been declining since.
This figure refers to the average growth rate - production is still increasing, but not quite as quickly as people seem to think. Dr. Sumaila believes that this is the nature of any industry, where initial growth is fast until it reaches a peak and tapers off due to inevitable constraints. In the case of fish farming, constraints include things like adequate space, access to water, and availability of fish necessary to generate fishmeal.
Dr. Oyinlola, a co-author of the study, is a postdoctoral fellow at the UBC department of zoology and the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique. Dr. Oyinlola observed that Atlantic salmon saw the biggest drop in aquaculture production growth per species. The growth rate fell from 314% in 1970 to 0.9% in 2018. One of the biggest surprises of the study, however, was the decline in the growth of shellfish farming. Shellfish farming doesn’t require fishmeal, so there are fewer constraints for farming shellfish than finfish.
Aquaculture Cannot Solely Support the Demand for Fish
For more information about the study conducted at the University of British Columbia, go to News.UBC.ca:
“We can’t just rely solely on aquaculture for our seafood needs. Leaving aside technical, environmental and economic reasons for not doing so, wild fish is fish for all, in a sense. While 201 countries cumulatively caught 60 percent of the total global wild fish catch in 2018, China alone produces 60 per cent of the world’s farmed seafood, and Asia produces 90 per cent. If you have money, you can afford to buy farmed seafood, but what if you don’t? I would love for fish farming to feed everyone perfectly but it’s not a reality: Aquaculture has a role to play but we shouldn’t give up on our wild fish, and that means rebuilding and conserving them. We need aquaculture, we just need to manage it wisely, and not oversell its potential.”
What surprised you most from the data?
Source: Seafood Farming’s Growth Rate Has Already Peaked, And Now It’s In Decline - University of British Columbia
Photo Source: WIX - www.wix.com
Written by AQUAMERGE
November 14, 2022