The problems of the aquaculture industry
Fish farming poses a number of environmental challenges that need to be addressed for the industry to be considered sustainable, and for consumers to be able to buy farmed fish with confidence in its sustainable credentials.
One of the challenges is to find a source of food to sustain fish in farms that does not solely depend on wild fish being caught. Feeds have been developed with sustainability in mind in recent years, but it still takes between 1.7kg and 4.9 kg (dependent on a number of factors) of wild caught fish to produce 1kg of salmon.
There are a number of other environmental impacts associated with fish farming, such as pollution effects on the seabed beneath and around a cage, diseases amongst stock which can spread to wild populations, ecological effects of fish that escape from fish farms, and from fish parasites and their treatments.
MCS solutions
Please download the Principles and criteria for sustainable fish farming that provides detailed solutions to the issues of environmental concern within aquaculture.
You can also read a recent press release (December 2010) about the use of seaweeds as fish feed here.
