Fish Farms: Half Full or Half Empty?

Have you ever heard of fish farms, or fish farming? If so, what is your take on it? Have you ever purchased and eaten fish products from your local supermarket(s) that show 'farm raised' on the label? Unless you’re a vegan or vegetarian, it’s likely you have.

Before we get to the technical and subjectively ethical aspects of fish farming, let me ask you this: Where do you draw the line between assisted facilitation of natural biological processes, and direct tampering with them? How much of a 'natural' life cycle remains 'natural' during and after human intervention? Why have we been conditioned to (mostly) compartmentalize GMO’s into merely corn, wheat, and grain products, rather than recognize also the genetically modified animal products we consume?

As a food source, fish have a unique identity throughout the human social spectrum. I mean, besides caviar or Chilean Sea Bass, fish are typically consumed for health purposes, rather than for decadence or gluttony. Following the stroke of midnight after a night in the town, when you’re at a diner with your buddies suffering from the munchies, what’s more likely to be ordered: a burger, tacos, pizza, a cheese omelet—or strip-salmon with a side of asparagus? We assume fish courses to be such quintessential multivitamin-rich meals, yet we usually fail to properly evaluate the actual nutritional value of the fish we are consuming.

The fish farming debate is NOT new, btw. It has remained a 'hot-topic' of debate for quite some time. The livid standoff between environmentalists, marine biologists, ecologists, sustainability advocates vs. GMO advertisers, importer/exporters, lobbyists, etc., is like a UFC event in the octagon of dietary discourse. Surely, a standard hot-point of deliberation among said parties is the whether the affordability and availability of mass-produced food products take precedent over the actual nutrition provided therein. Apparently, major food distributors would rather see the masses simply follow the flock, rather than think for themselves and shop for food as learned consumers. After all, why does every brand of mac-n-cheese on the shelves display “Made with REAL CHEESE” on their box covers? After all, if it’s called 'macaroni and cheese', why is it necessary to further proclaim its authenticity? Shouldn’t it be assumed and assured that there's already actual cheese in it, since it's (legally) advertised as such? Shouldn’t that simply be implied? What’s worse are the asterisks attached to 'cheese', which refer to small-print FDA legitimized jargon, rhetoric, and nomenclature on the back of the box.

Yo may ask yourself why this is not a significant issue of debate... Well, perhaps most Americans are more concerned with selfies on Snapchat, social equity, or Kim Kardashian’s wardrobe, rather than the nutritional value of their cabinet’s contents. Ultimately, a gift and a curse we have as humans is our ever-developing sense of resiliency to life’s challenges. What's important is which battle we pick. You see, many of us can endure long periods of ingesting harmful/unhealthy food products, but not notice it for some time. For example, due to necessity, a struggling single mother may not read the ingredients of what she dumps in her shopping cart. As long as the family is being fed, she’s not likely to confront subtle shifts in her digestive cycle, fatigue, weight gain, or increased dehydration, while just trying to keep food on the table for her kids. Plus, throw commercialized popular American food consumerism back in the mix, and the kids are surely asking for burgers over broccoli any day.

Okay… Back to fish farms (clears throat, knowing personal issues with pop culture should be addressed on other platforms).

The “farming” of fish has expanded to a number of different outlets, but it is still most commonly referred to as Aquaculture. From Wikipedia:

Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is generally referred to as a fish hatchery. Worldwide, the most important fish species used in fish farming are carp, salmon, tilapia and catfish.[1][2]  

There is an increasing demand for fish and fish protein, which has resulted in widespread overfishing in wild fisheries, China holding 62 percent of the world's fish farming practice.[3] Fish farming offers fish marketers another source. However, farming carnivorous fish, such as salmon, does not always reduce pressure on wild fisheries, since carnivorous farmed fish are usually fed fishmeal and fish oil extracted from wild forage fish. The global returns for fish farming recorded by the FAO in 2008 totaled 33.8 million tons worth about $US 60 billion.[4] In 2005, aquaculture represented 40% of the 157.5 million tons of seafood that was produced, meaning that it has become a critical part of our world's food source even though the industry is still technically in its 'infancy' and didn't really become well known until the 1970s. Because of this rise in aquaculture, there has been a rise in the per capita availability of seafood globally within the last few decades.

A singular bay of a Tilapia farm:

An 'open water' carp farm:

Aerial view of a mobile fish farm:

Growing debates about the quality of fish farms and their products have led to some widespread scrutiny:

The Omega-3 Misconception.

• You’re probably consuming fish because of their valuable omega-3 fatty acids. What we don’t realize is that these benefits are reduced by approximately 50% in farmed salmon, compared to wild salmon. This is due to heightened levels of antibiotics, and increasing amounts of grain and soy feed, rather that natural proteins. For example, farmed salmon are much fattier than wild salmon, but contain much less healthy omega-3 fats, and far less protein. 

Growth/Processing Stress.

• Kobe beef if the most highly prized red meat throughout the world. One of the FEW key aspects to the process of raising these elite cattle is stress minimization. It is believed that when an animal undergoes excess or unnatural stress throughout its development and slaughter procedure(s), the meat becomes tainted with acids, and electro-chemical reactions that retract from its nutritional value, and adversely affect its taste. This is consistent throughout fish farms, as the animals are forced to thrive in environments/conditions inconsistent with their natural biological programming. 

Environmental Concerns.

• Fish farms can pollute the local environment and damage nearby ecosystems. The use of concentrated antibiotics, pesticides and other farming chemicals are commonly used to combat diseases, parasites, and minor infections among farmed fish. Many fish farms are run in conjunction with locally flowing rivers and streams, which leads to frequent “escaping” of modified animals. Some farms are literally a series of anchored circular nets in a cordoned section of a particular body of water. These rogue fish then co-mingle in the wild, dispersing foreign elements into the water. One contraversial study, which analyzed a drug used to kill sea lice. It also kills other marine invertebrates, can travel up to half a mile in a life cycle, and persists in the water for hours afterward. Having a weapon for protection is futile, if it’s pointed at your own face. 

The Jevons Paradox.

• The Jevons Paradox posits that demand for resources actually increases, as production means and methods grow in efficiency. Regardless of its validity, it is an extremely retrogressive assertion: one that becomes increasingly frightening as fish farms increase in numbers, yet decrease in quality. Unfortunately, it is already commonly seen manifested in various U.S. markets. 
  

The “Duh” Factor.

• Let’s defer to the principle of Occom’s Razor: all things being considered equal, the simplest explanation is usually correct. Hmmmm… Therefore, if we genetically modify fish in a manufactured environment, compensate for their overpopulation with overmedication, and sacrifice quality for volume in their processing, they’ll likely not be very healthy to consume. 

Realistically, the world’s food problems extend far beyond salmon sterilization systems and tainted tilapia tanks, but that shouldn’t dilute the significance of knowing more about what we ingest and more importantly, how it’s produced. The cost of available foods need also be addressed. Despite a consumer’s level of awareness, he or she may not be able to afford wild caught fish if it’s priced 340% higher than it’s farm raised neighbor on the shelf. Above all, the issue here is mostly a matter of bad prioritization. Tremendous amounts of money end effort are put into setting up and running fish farms, rather than contributing to the improvement and maintenance of natural fish habitats. Simply looking away from a problem doesn’t cause it to disappear.