We can end overfishing sooner than I ever thought.
Today, I met some people who have the power to end overfishing of our oceans.
Fish farming – aquaculture – has been quietly but surely replacing wild caught fish in the diets of our lives.
When I started in fisheries policy in the 1990s, fish farming was a niche. Over time, it has grown to be an equal supply to wild caught fish.
- 2010: Wild-caught production 75%; Aquaculture production 25%
- 2015: Wild-caught production 50%; Aquaculture production 50%
- 2030: Wild-caught production 25%; Aquaculture production 75%
Fish Farming’s Big Challenge
Fish farming had a big problem. It took between 7-4 kilos of wild caught fish to feed the fish in the fish farms.
For 25 years, no-one thought it possible to find enough a replacement to all the wild caught fish that were being used to feed farmed fish.
It seemed impossible that farmed fish would be able to replace overfished stocks.
Human Innovation
That would need some real innovation. You’d need to a feed source that replaces the EPA and DHA from the wild-caught fish.
Some very clever people at veramaris, inspired by NASA, use a unique marine algae strain to produce that substitute. They have found a way to start replacing wild caught fish.
This will allow, over time, farmed fish to substitute out more and more wild caught.
And, as the demand for wild caught fish goes down, there will be less fishing. Overfishing will soon be a thing of the past.