Fish farms put squeeze on marine resources

Sarah Boesveld
September 8, 2009
The Globe and Mail

Half of the fish eaten globally is now farm-raised, but the surge in fish farming has put a significant strain on marine resources, a new international study has found.

Fishmeal and fish oil, made from wild forage fish such as anchovies, have long fed farmed Atlantic salmon and other carnivorous fish. But consumer demand for long-chain omega-3 fatty acids has caused the aquaculture industry to balloon, squeezing the fish-food supply so far that alternatives must be relied upon to avoid a forage fish wipeout, says lead study author Rosamond Naylor, professor of environmental earth systems science and director of the program on food security and the environment at Stanford University.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

See the research paper on which the article is based. "Feeding aquaculture in an era of finite resources"