January 29, 2020 — The increasingly worrisome impacts of climate change may not mean the end of seafood on our plates, a new study suggests. In a new paper entitled The Future Of Food From The Sea, researchers found that the ocean could supply over six times the amount of food that it does today—that’s 364 metric tons of protein—but only if we change the way we govern, manage and consume the world’s fish supply. To put it bluntly—if a little too simply—if you’re ready to eat less wild Atlantic salmon and more sustainably farmed seaweed and mussels, keep on reading.
“We’re all used to headlines in the newspaper about the demise of the oceans,” lamented Christopher Costello, PhD, an economist and one of the lead authors of the study who presented the findings on January 16 at the Washington, D.C. offices of the World Resources Institute. “It’s easy to come away from those headlines, many of which I think are quite accurate, thinking a sustainable future ocean will provide less food,” he added. But this shrinking ocean-based food supply isn’t a given, urged Costello. Just the opposite could be true, in fact.
“Food from the sea is uniquely poised to contribute to food security,” Costello explained, because it has a low carbon footprint, is highly nutritious and is far more environmentally efficient to produce as compared to other animal proteins.