Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies

Abstract

Global production of farmed fish and shellfish has more than doubled in the past 15 years. Many people believe that such growth relieves pressure on ocean fisheries, but the opposite is true for some types of aquaculture. Farming carnivorous species requires large inputs of wild fish for feed. Some aquaculture systems also reduce wild fish supplies through habitat modification, wild seedstock collection and other ecological impacts. On balance, global aquaculture production still adds to world fish supplies; however, if the growing aquaculture industry is to sustain its contribution to world fish supplies, it must reduce wild fish inputs in feed and adopt more ecologically sound management practices.

A practical approach to increasing intakes of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids: use of novel foods enriched with n-3 fats

“…A major hurdle to the generalized worldwide enrichment of foodstuffs with fish oil is the limited availability of fish stocks, and the possibility of decreased supply and increased cost of fish oil (Naylor et al, 2000). The use of renewable terrestrial sources of n-3 PUFA therefore becomes important.…”

Eco-certification of Farmed Seafood: Will it Make a Difference?

“…Local effects include discharge of untreated effluents, spreading of aquatic animal pathogens and invasive species, and habitat alteration and related loss of ecosystem services. More global impacts involve release of greenhouse gases, unsustainable fishing behaviors in response to growing demand for fishmeal and fish oil, and, possibly also from an ethical and global resource management perspective, transformation of fish resources from human food to animal feeds (Naylor et al 2000;Pauly et al 2002;Klinger and Naylor 2012). Table 1 summarizes key environmental impacts of aquaculture production.…”

“…Other impact categories, for instance land use and eco toxicology, are also potentially relevant but were not included in this study. As utilization of forage fish for aquaculture feed has been considered a major challenge for future aquaculture development and expansion (Naylor et al 2000), biotic resource use was assessed based on how standards address inclusion of fish meal and fish oil in feed. To provide an overview of the results, a scale ranging from 1 to 3 was applied:…”

Bernoulli was ahead of modern epidemiology

“…Sir -The 300th anniversary year of Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli's birth is an appropriate time to reveal that he was, by a long way, the first to express the proportion of susceptible individuals of an endemic infection in terms of the force of infection and life expectancy 1 .…”