ธรรมชาติ 405, 1017-1024 (29 มิถุนายน 2000) | Nature 405, 1017-1024 (29 June 2000) | doi:10.1038/35016500
Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies
Rosamond L. Naylor1, Rebecca J. Goldburg2, Jurgenne H. Primavera3, Nils Kautsky4,5, Malcolm C. M. Beveridge6, Jason Clay7, Carl Folke4,5, Jane Lubchenco8, Harold Mooney1 & Max Troell4,5
Abstract
Global production of farmed fish and shellfish has more than doubled in the past 15 years. Many people believe that such growth relieves pressure on ocean fisheries, but the opposite is true for some types of aquaculture. Farming carnivorous species requires large inputs of wild fish for feed. Some aquaculture systems also reduce wild fish supplies through habitat modification, wild seedstock collection and other ecological impacts. On balance, global aquaculture production still adds to world fish supplies; however, if the growing aquaculture industry is to sustain its contribution to world fish supplies, it must reduce wild fish inputs in feed and adopt more ecologically sound management practices.
The worldwide decline of ocean fisheries stocks has provided impetus for rapid growth in fish and shellfish farming, or aquaculture. Between 1987 and 1997, global production of farmed fish and shellfish (collectively called 'fish') more than doubled in weight and value, as did its contribution to world fish supplies1. Fish produced from farming activities currently accounts for over one-quarter of all fish directly consumed by humans. As the human population continues to expand beyond 6 billion, its reliance on farmed fish production as an important source of protein will also increase.
Growth in aquaculture production is a mixed blessing, however, for the sustainability of ocean fisheries. For some types of aquaculture activity, including shrimp and salmon farming, potential damage to ocean and coastal resources through habitat destruction, waste disposal, exotic species and pathogen invasions, and large fish meal and fish oil requirements may further deplete wild fisheries stocks2. For other aquaculture species, such as carp and molluscs, which are herbivorous or filter feeders, the net contribution to global fish supplies and food security is great3. The diversity of production systems leads to an underlying paradox: aquaculture is a possible solution, but also a contributing factor, to the collapse of fisheries stocks worldwide.
Here we examine marine and freshwater fish farming activities around the world and ask: does aquaculture enhance—or diminish—the available fish supply? This is an important scientific and policy issue, and one that also addresses the common perception that aquaculture is an 'add on' to current ocean fish productivity. Many people believe that aquaculture production will compensate for the shortfall in ocean harvests as ocean fisheries deteriorate, or that fish farming will restore wild populations by relieving pressure on capture fisheries. We conclude that the compensation argument is correct for some aquaculture practices but unfounded for others. We do not find evidence that supports the restoration argument.
Our analysis focuses on aquaculture trends in the past 10–15 years—a period of heightened ecological and economic integration between capture fisheries and aquaculture activities. We limit our discussion to finfish, bivalves and crustaceans, which collectively make up three-quarters of global aquaculture production by weight, and exclude seaweed production1. Ocean fisheries and aquaculture now share or compete for many coastal ecosystem services, including the provision of habitat and nursery areas, feed and seed (larvae) supplies, and assimilation of waste products. Aquaculture and ocean fisheries are further linked economically through competition in world markets for the sale of their products, and biologically through exotic species invasions and pathogen transmission. Each of these connections is examined below.
As aquaculture production continues to increase and intensify, both its reliance and its impact on ocean fisheries are likely to expand even further. The balance between farmed and wild-caught fish, as well as the total supply of fish available for human consumption, will depend on future aquaculture practices. In the final section, we explore technological, management and policy options for sustaining aquaculture production. We argue that farming can contribute to global (net) fish supplies only if current trends in fish meal and fish oil use for aquaculture are reversed and policies are enforced to protect coastal areas from environmental degradation.
Aquaculture is a diverse activity
More than 220 species of finfish and shellfish are farmed; the range includes giant clams, which obtain most of their nutrients from symbiotic algae; mussels, which filter plankton; carps, which are mainly herbivorous; and salmon, which are carnivorous1. Two key criteria, ownership of stock and deliberate intervention in the production cycle (husbandry), distinguish aquaculture from capture fisheries. Fish farming typically involves the enclosure of fish in a secure system under conditions in which they can thrive. Interventions in fish life cycles range from exclusion of predators and control of competitors (extensive aquaculture) to enhancement of food supply (semi-intensive) to the provision of all nutritional requirements (intensive). Intensification implies increasing the density of individuals, which requires greater use and management of inputs, greater generation of waste products and increased potential for the spread of pathogens.
Production practices and their impacts on marine ecosystems vary widely. Molluscs are generally farmed along coastlines where wild or hatchery-reared seed are grown on the seabed bottom or in suspended nets, ropes or other structures. The animals rely entirely on ambient supplies of plankton and organic particles for food. Several systems—ponds, tanks or cages—are used in farming finfish. Most marine and diadromous finfish are reared in floating net cages nearshore, and all their nutrition is supplied by formulated feeds. Carp and other freshwater finfish are usually grown in ponds, often integrated within agricultural ecosystems. Shrimp dominate crustacean farming and are grown in coastal ponds. Farming of both shrimp and freshwater finfish varies in its intensity and dependence on formulated feeds.
Within aquaculture's wide diversity of species and production practices, two distinct subsectors have emerged during the past decade4. The first group includes commercial farms that primarily use intensive and semi-intensive methods to produce medium- to high-valued commodities for regional or global markets. The other group encompasses family and cooperative farms that rely on extensive and semi-intensive practices to produce low-value species for household subsistence or local markets. Some divisions between these sectors are becoming blurred. In China and other parts of Asia, for example, many small-scale farming operations are intensifying as land and water resources become increasingly scarce and valuable5.
Harvested weight and value for some of the most widely consumed aquaculture species are shown in Table 1. Asia accounts for roughly 90% of global aquaculture production, and China alone contributes more than two-thirds of the total1. Europe, North America and Japan collectively produce just over one-tenth of global aquaculture output but consume the bulk of farmed seafood that is traded internationally.
Table 1: Global weight and value for nine of the most widely consumed aquaculture species
The production of carp has increased markedly in Asia (mainly China) for local or regional consumption by relatively low-income households. In contrast, increased volumes of salmon, shrimp and other high-value species have been marketed mainly in industrialized countries. Farmed output and markets for other lower-value species, such as tilapia and milkfish, have increased in both developing and industrialized countries. Most farmed molluscs are still consumed locally and regionally in China and in other developing countries. However, production for global markets of certain species, including the Pacific cupped oyster, blue mussel, New Zealand mussel and Yesso scallop, has increased in several developed countries1.
Market dynamics affecting both the supply and demand for aquaculture products differ sharply among types of fish. Expanding aquaculture production can alleviate pressure on wild fisheries stocks; for example, increasing the production of farmed fish that compete directly with wild fish (such as shrimp, salmon and molluscs) reduces prices and creates conditions that can lower investments in fishing fleets and fishing effort over time. Other farmed fish, such as tilapia, milkfish and channel catfish, provide alternatives to ocean fish such as cod, hake, haddock and pollock. Because niche markets have started to develop for several types of wild-caught fish, however, capture rates have remained high even as the production of viable substitutes has increased4.
The ability of the aquaculture sector to replace or provide market alternatives for ocean catches depends significantly on the economics and policies of fisheries. High fixed costs of fishing fleets, inelastic supplies of labour in the fishing industry, and continued subsidies to the fisheries sector that approach 20–25% of gross revenue globally6 may mean that increased aquaculture production will not result in lower catches of wild fish in the short term. In the case of salmon, increased farm production has not resulted in reduced capture levels despite 30–50% declines in international prices for four of the five main species of wild salmon (chinook, coho, pink and chum) during the 1990s. Salmon catches worldwide actually rose by 27% between 1988 and 1997 (ref. 7). Similarly, despite rapid growth in alternative farmed fish like tilapia, wild capture of hake and had
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