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World
aquaculture harvests nearing wild-catch yields
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Fish farms are close to matching fishing
fleets in supplying seafood to expanding
global markets, aided by the explosive growth
of aquaculture in China for more than a decade,
according to the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations.
But both sources of
supply taken together are unlikely to keep
up with demand fueled
by rising populations and incomes, the organization
concluded in a report published today.
The
main impediments to aquaculture are a lack
of sufficient investment capital in
poorer countries, limited land and fresh
water and concerns about environmental impact,
the report said.
At the same time, most wild
fish stocks are already either overexploited
or at peak
harvests, so there is not much chance of
increasing ocean fishing to fill the gap,
said the report’s lead author, Rohana
Subasinghe, a senior fishery resources officer
at the agency, which is based in Rome.
“
Catches in the wild are still high,
but they have leveled off, probably for good,” he
said.
The limit on wild harvests is also creating
pressures on fish farming, the report said,
as catches of fish for fishmeal have hit
a plateau.
Fishmeal, made by grinding up unmarketable
wild-caught species, is sold as food for
poultry and other livestock as well as for
salmon and other carnivorous farm-raised
fish.
Since 1985, the report said, production
of fishmeal and fish oil has remained flat,
at around six to eight million tons per year,
while demand has grown, with aquaculture
now consuming 35 percent.
Altogether, 50 million
tons of farmed fish, worth $63 billion, was
eaten in 2004, compared
with about 66 million tons of fish harvested
from the wild. (Another 38.5 million tons
of wild fish are used for meal, fish oil
and other purposes.)
The report provides new
evidence that marine fisheries policies need
prompt attention,
said Thomas E. Lovejoy, president of the
Heinz Center, a Washington research group
on environmental policy.
Some useful steps,
he said, would be to set aside areas where
fish can breed safely
and to limit destructive methods like bottom-scraping
trawling, which destroys fish habitats.
“ It’s important to try and restore
what we’ve run down and not just move
onto depleting something else,” he
said.
Source:
The New York Times
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