The use of medicines, wild stocks to feed farmed fishes and the ongoing climate crisis could sink the $230 billion fish farming industry, reports an investment network.
The fish farms have overcome wild fisheries now and have become the main seafood provider today. However, global heating, overuse of antibiotics, reliance on wild stocks for feeding as well as poor governance have altogether posed a serious risk to the fish farming industry today, warns Fairr (Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return).
The fish farming industry is the fastest growing food production sector in the world but sadly, it has been hit by the governance scandals recently. In the month of April, the seafood buyers in the US had lodged a class suit alleging the price fixing imposed by the salmon producers in Norway following the spot raids conducted on the fish farms in Europe by the European Commission investigators.
Fairr’s report discovered that fish oil and fishmeal are required for farmed shrimp and salmon, thus making the sector extremely dependent on the fast-depleting wild-caught fish stocks. Almost one fifth of worldwide fish production is used for fish oil and fishmeal production, the report said.
Besides this, wastewater and sewage discharged from the fish farms also is linked with the development of toxic algae as well as unclean drinking water. Moreover, dependence on antibiotic in the fish farms boosts antimicrobial resistance.
As a precautionary measure, Fairr suggested following good management measures, which includes using probiotics in order to lower the use of antibiotic, and substitutes of fishmeal, which includes fish feed made using bacteria and increased cultivation of oysters and mussels that don’t require fishmeal-related feed.
