“The aquaculture industry has moved toward global sustainability” says a study that has just been published by the prestigious scientific journal, in which one of its authors is Dr. Alejandro Buschmann, researcher at the Centro i~mar of the Universidad de Los Lagos, among other well-known researchers.
Research funded by Stanford University’s Center for Food Safety and Environment followed the progress of the industry – after a publication 20 years ago – in which it was pointed out that production depends on fishmeal and fish oil, it had a major impact on fisheries. “Over the years, this diverse industry, which today ranges from huge cages of different species of fish in the open sea, to freshwater tilapia ponds on family farms, has made significant progress toward sustainability…” say the authors, led by the study’s lead researcher, Rosamond Naylor Professor of Earth System Science at Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy and Environment (Stanford Earth).
The article that was already published in the New York Times, in the site https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/climate/salmon-vegetarian-fish.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage, also signals opportunities and challenges that are still around for a sustainable growth. For global aquaculture to fulfill its promise, more effective monitoring measures are needed to help ensure that its environmentally sound systems are economically viable.
Despite the potential of aquaculture to feed a growing world population while relieving pressure on the heavily depleted oceans, the industry has been plagued of questions about its environmental impacts.
The discoveries, publushed this past 25th of March on Nature, could help shape on how consumers think about the seafood they buy and inform gorvernance strategies critical to global food and nutrition security “As demand of seafood around the world continues to expand, aquaculture will continue growing” said Rosamond Naylor: «If we do not do it well, we run the risk of facing the same environmental problems that we have seen in land farming and livestock systems: Nutrient pollution, excessive use of antibiotics and habitat changes that threaten biodiversity»
From Universidad de Los Lagos, doctor Alejandro Buschmann emphasizes the following: “In this work, in addition to the decrease in the use of fishmeal and fish oil, the increased dependence of the food production chain between terrestrial and marine systems was identified, which opens up new environmental questions; in addition, that aquaculture produces the greatest contribution to environmental nutrition in freshwater in eastern countries and that the production of mollusks and algae are the fastest growing sectors in the last 20 years” Said Dr. Buschmann.
CHALLENGES AND UNCERTAINITIES
The researchers’ review considered key challenges and uncertainties, such as the impact of climate change on industry; The adoption of sustainable fishery product certification programs by low-income producers and the ability of seafood and algae producers to benefit from the provision of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration.
Among the main findings of the work, it is noted that freshwater aquaculture (with almost 150 species of fish, shellfish and plants) represents 75% of the aquatic food grown, consumed directly by humans. It also indicates that most of the farmed aquatic animals produced in Asian countries remain in those countries.
Moreover, the study notes that freshwater aquaculture is increasing worldwide, particularly through small farmed farms. The same has occurred with the production of shrimp, salmon and other marine fish, significately increasing the use of flour and fish oil globally. However, the aquaculture sector has done a considerable progress in the efficiency of the use of these resources, reducing almost 7 times the relation between the capture of wild fish and the production of farmed fish. It has been successful in the conversion of carnivores fish like the salmon and the trout, in fishes that are mostly vegetarian.
In the challenges for the industry, the article suggests the need of a better management of the use of antimicrobials to limit the development of germs that are resistant to medicines and the regulation of marine farm sites. Incentives were also recommended for sustainably designed systems, to prevent cross contamination between the fish waste and surrounding waters and an approach of food systems for the governance that considers nutrition, equity, justice and results and environmental compensations in the land and sea. «When it’s done right, aquaculture can play a sustainable role in the global food systems, by providing a greater production of food and benefits for the lifelihoods with a minimum environmental damage”. the study points out.
Original paper attached:
Naylor etal.2021.Nature- A 20-Year Retrospective Review of Global Aquaculture (1)
