Change for Aquaculture Industry: Vancouver Courier

With the catch of wild fish in decline, consumers turn to farmed seafood. “Aquaculture is already a $244-billion industry … and is the fastest-growing sector in the global food industry,” notes a new Nature Conservancy and Encourage Capital report, as reported by Nelson Bennett for the Vancouver Courier. The planet has limited food-production capabilities, and a growing population cannot rely on wild-caught fish: “60 per cent of the world’s wild-capture fisheries are harvested at their maximum sustainable levels, and 33 per cent are overfished. Climate change already appears to have hurt some wild fisheries – southern range Pacific salmon being one of them.” New high-cost aquaculture technologies include large open-ocean farms that minimize contact between wild and penned fish, preventing the spread of disease and pests like sea lice. Norway built the world’s first open-ocean salmon farm, about 40 kilometers off the coast, at a cost of $300 million. Environmental groups oppose fish farming due to pollution and habitat impacts, and Canada has imposed a moratorium on new farms. Still, the report suggests that aquaculture is efficient and sustainable, requiring limited land while providing top nutritiion. New technologies do not require aquaculture facilities to be located in traditional fishing communities and could bring the farms closer to markets. – YaleGlobal

Change for Aquaculture Industry: Vancouver Courier

The world has reached its limits on wild-caught seafood; increased demand is met with aquaculture and new technologies which require large capital investments
Nelson Bennett
Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Read the article from the Vancouver Courier about aquaculture.

Read the report “Toward a Blue Revolution” from the Nature Conservancy and Encourage Capital.

Read “2018: The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture” from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: “Since 1961 the annual global growth in fish consumption has been twice as high as population growth…. The contribution of aquaculture to the global production of capture fisheries and aquaculture combined has risen continuously, reaching 46.8 percent in 2016, up from 26.7 percent in 2000”:

80000000+tons  Africa	1983 Americas	3348 Asia	71545 Europe	2945 Oceania	211

(Source: Toward a Blue Revolution)

Aquaculture represents 48 percent of fish produced in 2016

(Graph excludes aquatic mammals, reptiles and plants. Source:  2018: The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)

Traditional fisheries representd more employment than aquaculture in 2015

(Source: 2018: The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)

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