Global seafood consumption has more than doubled in the last 50 years, with demand reaching a staggering 143 million metric tonnes. Today, we’re going to talk more about one of the most nutritious and sustainable proteins available on the planet -- if sourced responsibly.
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Traditionally, seafood is caught in the wild with nets, lines, trawlers, and other equipment. But as demand has increased, overfishing -- catching fish faster than stocks can replenish -- has decimated fish populations and caused the breakdown of marine eco-systems.
Globally, the number of overfished stocks has tripled in half a century, and today, fully one-third of the world's assessed fisheries are currently pushed beyond their biological limits, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Overfishing is closely tied to bycatch—the capture of unwanted sea life while fishing for a different species. This, too, is a serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with hundreds of thousands of sea turtles and cetaceans.
Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, Pacific halibut and orange roughy -- just to name a few of the fish you’ll commonly see on menus -- are considerered over-fished. More than 90 species of marine fishes in Europe’s waters are threatened with extinction due to overfishing; the Goliath grouper is ciritically endangered; and the largest freshwater fish species in the world is now extinct because of human activity. The Chinese paddlefish, sometimes called the "panda of the Yangtze River," was just a few months ago found to have been lost to overfishing and habitat destruction.
Aquaculture is the controlled process of cultivating aquatic organisms, especially for human consumption. It’s a similar concept to agriculture, but with fish instead of plants or livestock. Aquaculture is also referred to as fish farming. According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, aquaculture now represents more than half of global human seafood consumption.
Aquaculture can be an environmentally responsible source of food and commercial products, help to create healthier habitats, and be used to rebuild stocks of threatened or endangered species.
Not only is aquaculture necessary since the waters of the world cannot sustain the dietary needs of the Earth’s inhabitants without being depleted, it is also actually a more sustainable option in comparison to other farmed proteins. Seafood is highly resource efficient — it has the highest protein retention compared to chicken, pork and beef. It also has the lowest feed conversion ratio among the same forms of protein. And aquaculture has lower greenhouse gas emissions than other types of farming.
Fish farms can cause many of the same problems as factory farms on land – waste, pesticides, antibiotics, parasites, and disease – and these issues are magnified because of the immediate contamination of the surrounding ocean water. Escape of non-native species can threaten other local species populations. The large amounts of waste produced by the fish must be removed regularly, and this may cause eutrophication of the surrounding water. Eutrophication is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae. This process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body, causing damage to the entire ecosystem. And these fish need to be fed. They are often done so with pellets made from other less valuable wild fish, which can lead to overfishing of these species.
So, how can you make your most sustainable seafood choice? First and foremost, learn where your seafood is coming from. If buying from a grocery store, check your labels. Look for the “Certified Sustainable Seafood” label from the Marine Stewardship council. This is for wild caught fish. Look for the Aquaculture Stewardship Council or ASC label on farm raised fish. This will tell you if the fish farm has met the standards for responsible aquaculture.
And get to know the Seafood Watch rating of the type of fish available to you. This will tell you which fish are abundantly available and harvested in sustainable ways. Green is a go, red is a no.
No label? No problem. Talk to your fish monger or your server if you’re at a restaurant. Ask them where your fish is coming from. If they can’t answer, the most sustainable option is to skip it.
With an anticipated 10 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2050, the demand for animal protein will increase by 52 percent making sustainable and healthy approaches to feeding the world more critical than ever before.