Fish farming may be answer to depleted oceans

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A senior EU official recently said that fish populations are so depleted that when today’s children are adults, there may be no fish left to eat. This has led some to find a solution in fish farming.

Farm fishing started in the 1970s and has grown so that today 90% of the Atlantic salmon we eat comes from farms.

Environmentalists have long criticized fish farming for the pollution, the antibiotics used and the lower-nutrient levels in farmed fish. But Time Magazine’s Bryan Walsh says that environmentalists are changing their mind, after watching how quickly we’re depleting fish in the ocean — especially as people in countries like China move up into the middle class and want to eat more fish.

Walsh argues that improving fish farming techniques may allow us to conserve the wild fish left in the ocean, what he calls the “last wild food.” He also says that conservation measures can help. Fish that are lower down on the food chain are more sustainable, because they don’t have to eat other fish–depleting stocks further.

> Read Bryan Walsh’s article in Time.

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