Having fish for dinner tonight? Chances are fifty-fifty it came from a farm.
A new online report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences notes that aquaculture is expected to hit a landmark by the end of this year – supplying half of the total fish and shellfish people eat in the world.
But that growth in aquaculture is placing pressure on wild fish stocks because farmed fish are often fed less expensive wild fishmeal and fish oil to help them grow faster and become more flavorful. While the industry has worked hard to reduce the amount of fishmeal they use per fish, there is so much more farming going on, aquaculture is increasingly taking a larger piece of the fishmeal and fish oil produced around the world.