Mark Bittman on the Future of Fish

[dogfish]

Mark Bittman on the Future of Fish

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 11.18.08

But the biggest consumers of these smaller fish are the agriculture and aquaculture industries. Nearly one-third of the world’s wild-caught fish are reduced to fish meal and fed to farmed fish and cattle and pigs. Aquaculture alone consumes an estimated 53 percent of the world’s fish meal and 87 percent of its fish oil. (To make matters worse, as much as a quarter of the total wild catch is thrown back — dead — as “bycatch.”)
It takes three pounds of forage fish to feed one pound of farmed salmon. Bittman points out that aquaculture is following the pattern of livestock agriculture:

Edible food is being used to grow animals rather than nourish people.

.

3 pounds of forage fish for one pound of salmon? That's a pretty lousy return on investment.

[voyager35]

Sometimes I wonder what great plans they will have to save the fish for the future. I see our catch as fishermen decreasing every year. We couldn't keep any fluke last year. what's next?