Is it Ok to Buy Farmed Fish?

August 15, 2011 | Author: Kathrine Odelleo | Posted in Popular Diets

As the world’s appetite for fish continues to grow, the option of fish farming is often stated as being the solution to the problem of meeting the ever increasing demand. For the fishermen inhabiting the Amazon basin and the Chinese farmers maintaining carp ponds, the concept of aquaculture forms a part of an ancient tradition, but the rest of the world views it as a commercial enterprise for producing a wide variety of freshwater and saltwater fish.

Aquaculture is a practice where fish is raised in an enclosure – it is both a capital and labor intensive venture hence engaging many people and being their source of earning. Fish production is no longer a reserve of oceans, sea shores and inland water bodies, today fish farming can be done in man made ponds, large tanks and other enclosed structures. This is being done to augment natural sources in an effort to meet the protein requirements of world.

Initially aquaculture was promoted with the main intention of augmenting the population of edible fish, but with the passage of time a lot of problems have cropped up, thus questioning the feasibility of such a project. Aquaculture has been found to have a negative impact on the environment as also the health of the fish eaters because the fish that are bred in captivity are not always very healthy.

Like all species which are bred in captivity, fish in fish farms need to be fed and their diet ranges from being vegetarian to carnivorous, meaning wild fish. Since these are supplied from the natural reservoirs, it puts a strain on the natural cycle and an additional concern is that when a staggering amount of wild fish are crushed into feed for the fish farms, the overall loss of protein is much higher than that produced by the farm.

As far as the marine eco-system is concerned, aquaculture is responsible for a number of negative effects. For instance the net-pens as well as the surrounding areas of such farms are often polluted with waste materials to the extent that it can not only affect the health of the wild fish but also the health of the individual consuming such fish. This disrupts the entire natural balance for the worse and adversely affects every organism involved in the chain.

Sometimes when the fish bred in captivity escape from their pens, they manage to travel far their original location, even though it might be many miles away. In such a situation these farm-bred fish provide stiff competition to the wild varieties and also indulge in interbreeding which can mess up the inherent characteristics. These escaped fish are usually carriers of diseases which may not have existed amongst the wild species previously.

Huge chunks of mangrove forests were cleared to give way to fish farms. In the process the coastal area lost its natural shield against natural phenomena like cyclones, hurricanes, and tsunami. Recent destruction of the coastal region is as a result of such annihilation of a natural barrier by fish and shrimp industries.

As an effective solution to this problem seeking eco-friendly as well as suitable fish farming methods for these fish farms is the appropriate course of action. This is not an easily achievable goal and the farmers must be ready to take up responsibility and the consumers should make healthy choices as well in order to make this objective a reality.

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Author: Kathrine Odelleo

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