Predicted Worldwide Growth of Aquaculture

[drseafish]

Some of you may be interested in this article from a food website which gives an insight into current thinking in the area of aquaculture from the food producers perspective.
Aquaculture grows in importance as demand for fish increases

By Ahmed ElAmin



04/09/2006 - To feed the world's increasing appetite for fish, food processors are going to have to turn to commercial aquaculture farms for their supplies, according to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report.

A levelling off of the amount of fish caught in the wild, coupled with a growing world population and increasing per capita demand for fish, means a shortfall in supply, the FAO stated. The shortfall will have to be made up by supplies of farmed fish. However, aquaculture might not be able to deliver the goods.
Nearly half the fish currently consumed as food worldwide are raised on fish farms rather than caught in the wild, the FAO stated in the report. Aquaculture now provides 43 per cent of the fish consumed by humans, compared to just nine per cent in 1980. Commercial aquaculture companies now provide
About 45.5m tonnes of farmed fish, worth $63 billion, is eaten worldwide each year. Meanwhile levels of captures of fish in the wild have remained roughly stable since the mid-1980s, hovering at around 90 to 93 million tonnes annually. Of the wild fish caught about 60 million tonnes is destined for human consumption.
Since there is little chance of any significant increases in catches beyond these levels, companies are going to have to use more farmed fish to meet any supply shortfall, the FAO says.
Globally, consumer demand for fish continues to climb, especially in affluent, developed nations, which in 2004 imported 33 million tonnes of fish worth about $61 billion.
The FAO's report estimates that an additional 40 million tonnes of aquatic food will be required by 2030 -- just to maintain current levels of consumption.
The FAO also found that the wild fish stocks are in poor condition to meet any further increase in demand. Of the nearly 600 wild fish species the UN organisation monititors, 52 per cent are considered fully exploited while 25 percent are either overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion.
Twenty per cent of the species are moderately exploited, with just three percent ranked as underexploited.
"Catches in the wild are still high, but they have levelled off, probably for good," stated Rohana Subasinghe of the FAO's fisheries department.
The only option for meeting future demand for fish, Subasinghe argues, is by farming them. However, she finds that the aquaculture sector might not be able to expand sufficiently to meet that demand.
"Aquaculture could cover the gap between supply and demand, but there are also many forces which could pull production in the opposite direction, making it difficult for the industry to grow substantially enough to meet demand in the decades to come," she stated.
Aquaculture has been experiencing a boom since the mid-1980s, sustaining a growth rate of around eight per year, according to the FAO figures. Today it continues to expand in almost all world regions, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa.
The FAO is concerned that momentum could taper off if governments and development agencies don't adjust their policies to respond to emerging challenges that threaten to damper the sector's future growth.
One serious bottleneck, says FAO, is the lack of investment capital for producers in the developing world. Another is a shortage of land and freshwater for use in aquaculture. Rising energy costs also pose a problem, and environmental impacts and questions of product safety continue to require attention.
gency's report also points to doubts regarding future supplies of fishmeal and oil, used to feed carnivorous cultured species, such as salmon, grouper and sea bream.
Increased demand could also squeeze supplies of fishmeal and fish oil used for livestock feed. The bulk of fishmeal is used for livestock feed, chiefly by the poultry sector. Aquaculture now accounts for 35 percent of the world's fishmeal supply.
"So as aquaculture's fishmeal needs grow, competition with terrestrial livestock for a limited resource will intensify, with ramifications for both price and availability," the FAO stated. "Key to resolving the dilemma will be continued progress in improving the efficiency of feed formulations -- reducing the amount of fishmeal they contain -- and coming up with adequate vegetable-based additives."
The report calls for global and national policies to be put in place to cater for the growing appetite for fish.
"Markets, trade and consumption preferences strongly influence the growth of the sector, with clear demands for production of safe and quality products," the report stated. "As a consequence, increasing emphasis is placed on enhanced enforcement of regulation and better governance of the sector."

[x]

I read the FAO report a couple of days ago and it struck me the only way to get more out of aquaculture was to focus more on farming herbivorous fish - there's no way even the current levels of farming of salmon, cod etc can go on, much less rise. Wild fish stocks will simply not support it.

Another point that annoyed the hell out of me all over again was to see that the poultry industry is one of the biggest consumers of fishmeal/oil. I guess the price we pay for cheap chicken is the devastation of the worlds fish stocks.

Give that the efficiency of fish or poultry in converting fish protein into bodyweight is about 1:5, it's a huge waste of fish resources which would be better used directly for human consumption.

[corbyeire]

but sandman - it obviously pays to make the 5:1 conversion

there must be loads of tax breaks/incentives, as im sure you know - otherwise it wouldnt have gotten off the ground and to catch the fish directly would make more sense/money :?:

the fact that it pays to catch 100 fish to then go and grow 20 and sell on making profit than to sell the origional 100 is just all wrong

[x]

Commercial fishing as an industry is not commercially viable without fairly heavy subsidies. Simple as that.

Cheaper fuel, grants, low interest loans, various tax breaks - all are effectively subsidising an unsustainable industry.

I'd love it if I got subsidised diesel, 10s of thousands of Euro in grants, cheap loans and so on for my business. But I don't. I get taxed to death so commercial fishing, fish farming and all that jazz can get handouts.

Something is waaaay wrong with this country. I'm sure anyone in business (other than commercial fishing) would agree.

[corbyeire]

it was all bourne out of trying to make jobs in economic blackspots in the arse end of nowhere in the late eighties

[x]

Didn't learn much from the programmes developed by the Congested Districts boards, did we? :lol: How many piers were built under them that are dry at low water for example.......ok, it kept plenty of men in a job when there was no other way to earn a living.

But subsidies to commercial fishing are a global problem. I'm neither kidding nor wrong when I say that if subsidies to commercial fishing worldwide were to be stopped tomorrow, it'd instantly stop an awful lot of the overfishing that goes on.

And these subsidies should be stopped, if for no other reason that they are an unfair competitive advantage given to certain businesses (ie commercial fishing) that the rest of us have to work to support with our taxes.

They are nothing more than a thinly veiled bribe from government to buy the votes of the catching community.

[x]

Just to back up the above....

See http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ ... e_id=10862

You'll have to register (free) to read the article.

It neglects to mention the stg?4 million grant fromthe Norwegian government or the fact that Under the EU-Mauritania agreement, renewed for 5 years in August 2001, the European Commission pays the Mauritanian government ?430 million in return for access to fisheries resources for about 170 EU fishing vessels, including 15 pelagic freezer-trawlers of unlimited capacity.

So, there go your taxes, and everyone's fish.