Fish farming – good or bad?

Fish farming can solve or alleviate many problems in today’s society, most notably starvation, but there is the question of what the consequences may be, and if they are worth it. I will just give you some food for thought (pun not really intended) about this issue, which might not be as clear-cut as one thinks.

This post is more speculative, or theoretical if you will; it is not solidly fact-based, as I have not done in-depth research on the topic. I merely present my thoughts and ideas on the subject, and warn you not to take everything I write for certain!

Fish farming, or aquaculture, is basically growing large amounts of fish or other aquatic organisms in a controlled and (usually very) restricted area, either with or without chemical aids to enhance growth rates and overall yield.

Aquaculture accounts for about 50 % of the world’s seafood today, including both marine and freshwater animals. It is thus a hugely important global food source; what happens within this branch can have a strong influence on food around the world. This also shows how well-established fish farming is in the food production business, so what we need to ask ourselves is whether we should promote and develop it further, restrict it, or maybe abolish it completely. I will not give my opinion yet; first, I want to present the pros and cons in a neutral fashion, and conclude by evaluating which weight the heaviest.

You should note already that this is essentially an issue of practicality versus ethics – do the practical advantages of aquaculture outweigh the ethical dilemmas it produces?

The main practical advantage of fish farming is its efficiency in food production. So many people around the world are starving this very moment. Fish is a highly nutritious food source, rich in protein, good fats and vitamins, and is therefore a key part of any healthy diet. However, many argue that farmed fish is less healthy than free-living, caught fish, which tend to be poorly exercised and stuffed with chemicals I have no clue what they do. Though, this strikes me as painting the picture in black and white, since there are many ways in which free-living fish can catch parasites, diseases, infections and environmental poisons – lead being a notable example! Still, let us accept the view that aquaculture produces food of lesser quality. After all, many of the free-swimming fish that get ill naturally die and sink to the ocean floor and never make it to our table, while it is more likely that whatever screening processes the fish farmers make to inspect the quality of their fish before selling them makes a mistake or two and lets some bad fish through.

However, those favouring this viewpoint are missing something very important: overfishing has severely reduced the natural fish stocks. Recall that aquaculture generates about half of our fish; it is not only because it is a successful method in itself, but also because wild-caught fish is in sharp decline. Fish farming provides an essential alternative. It can help feed more mouths and give the natural fish populations room to recover. Consider that the starving people in the world will not be picky about the health of their fish. Indeed, the more nutritious food they are given, the better, no question, but I think that in this case the need for quantity is vastly greater than the desire for quality. Again, remember that 50 % of all fish food comes from aquaculture. Think about what would happen if we cut that away in favour of the healthier wild fish: the wild catchment rates would have to increase dramatically to meet our ever-increasing food demands, and the natural fish stocks would plummet beyond any prospects of recovery within our lifetime. In other words, we would have good food for a short while, and then all be starving. So, aquaculture is a viable strategy in the long run. When it all comes around, two farmed fish probably fill your stomach better than one wild-caught.

Thus, I think that the practical advantages of fish farming are rather clear. However, I do not wish to encourage expansion to the effect that all our fish is farmed. I imagine a scenario where farmed fish constitute the base of seafood, with wild-caught fish is an alternative for those that have the option to prefer it!

There is a final practical point worth to think about: (farmed) fish may be a better source of meat than cattle and other domestic land animals, since they do not occupy large areas of fertile land (domesticated grazers take up vast fields of soil that could otherwise go to producing crops, fruits and other food or energy products), and they produce far less greenhouse gases (or maybe none at all) as metabolic by-products. Thus, expanding the fish industry by means of developing the aquaculture to supplement not only the natural seafood, but also other food products that are less environment-friendly, could be wise in the long run!

However, we should first consider the ethical issues of fish farming. Fish are, after all, living animals, that feel pain and distress probably not much different from the way you and I. Therefore, I understand that many find the though of raising individuals crammed together in containers, barely able to move as they wish, and being fed food from God-knows-where with all sorts of unimaginable chemicals. I would not wish such a gruesome life for anyone, if I had a say in the matter.

But, as always with ethical dilemmas, it is never black and white. Think about the people that go hungry on this Earth. Think about the poor fish farming entrepreneurs that desperately need to make a business to support their family, as well as give food to their community, and how opposition to fish farming would thwart their hopes. Think about all other organisms in the seas and lakes whose survival depend on the fish community – imagine how many other animals would starve and die when humans deplete the fish stocks, if aquaculture is banned on ethical grounds. Animal rights advocates tend to forget about other consequences beyond animals suffering, just as business people tend to forget about anything that does not fill their pockets. Ethical debates demand all sides to understand all views and take all arguments into account in order to make a fair judgement of what to consider overall right or wrong.

Now, indeed, one wonders what rights we have to impose such an appalling life on other animals – what rights we have to cultivate other individuals to live for the sole purpose of growing to become a succulent fillet on our plate. We should respect other’s lives! No one of us would like to be in the fishes’ shoes, and one should treat others as one wishes to be treaded by them. Having this viewpoint it is easy to neglect all favourable aspects of aquaculture as unimportant, if you only look at it in an absolute sense. It then all melts down to whether the ends justify the means and all those other sorts of clashes between subjective viewpoints that never lead anywhere useful.

Note that I am not saying that I do not agree that fish farming is an immoral activity! I am merely saying that denouncing it completely and definitely on that ground is irresponsible, since the same argument can easily be used against them: consciously condemning millions of people to starvation is also immoral!

What I want to say is that we have a responsibility to explore all aspects of this issue, as it affects the lives of so many individuals – humans, fishes, and other aquatic organisms. 

I will leave my contribution to the discussion there, and give you a few guidelines for more research, in case you found these questions as interesting and important as I do. If you have spare time, or otherwise, I strongly encourage you to go look the facts up for yourself! It is better for you to explore on your own, rather than me telling you what to think! Don’t you agree?

The Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO of the UN) has, among many efforts to promote high-quality aquaculture, developed and published a Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, not only providing guidelines for good and viable aquaculture, but also the setting standards internationally for how fish farms should be handled. I have not read it myself, but I would recommend you to skim through it to perhaps get a general idea of what sorts of questions and problems this organisation addresses, and how it intends to solve them.

Below are a few useful YouTube videos by the FAO of the UN. These only give the ‘positive’ side of aquaculture, so watch them with a critical mind.