Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
decisions and strengthen the effectiveness of the public policy process, leading to
more effective fishery management. The United Nations suggests that if fisheries
are managed better globally, we could take 10-20 million metric tonnes more
seafood from the oceans on a sustainable basis (FAO 1996b). Whatever the truth
of that projection, there is no doubt that aquaculture - fish farming - will play an
increasingly important role in fulfilling the world's demand for seafood.
20.6
The blue revolution
Today, aquaculture is the fastest growing component of the global food sector. In
the United States, seven of the top ten seafoods - including shrimp and salmon -
are farmed to one extent or another (Johnson
et al.
2006). Some of these, such as
catfish and tilapia, come entirely from aquaculture operations. Tilapia is a modern-
day seafood success story, rising in a relatively short time from obscurity to the
fifth most popular seafood in the US.
But just as the Green Revolution gave us industrial farming practices at signif-
icant cost to the environment and the social fabric of farming communities, the
blue revolution threatens to dramatically expand industrial fish farming and its en-
vironmental downsides. The enormous promise of aquaculture to help satisfy the
growing demand for seafood is offset by the environmental threats posed by ef-
fluents, exotic species, disease amplification, releases of antibiotics and pesticides,
habitat impacts (mangrove loss, etc.), and the use of low-value fish species such as
sardines, anchovies and capelin to feed high-value farmed species such as salmon,
tuna and shrimp. Farming carnivores such as salmon, tuna and shrimp on an indus-
trial scale has proven especially problematic compared with the relatively modest
environmental impacts of farming omnivores such as tilapia, carp and catfish.
The need for market-based incentives for environmentally responsible aquacul-
ture is clear. From the outset, the MSC was designed to deal only with wild-capture
fisheries. While it was relatively simple for the FSC to extend its remit to encompass
plantation forestry, it would prove much more difficult for the MSC to develop a pro-
gramme to certify environmentally responsible fish farming. Indeed, it is generally
acknowledged that aquaculture has more to learn from the sustainable agriculture
movement than from efforts to reform the way fisheries are managed.
In the absence of a credible, multi-stakeholder programme like the MSC to assess
aquaculture operations for aquaculture, the industry developed the Global Aquacul-
ture Alliance (GAA) and its subsidiary, the Aquaculture Certification Council (see
Chapter 5). The GAA was founded in 1997 and co-located its offices with those
of the NFI, leaving no doubt as to the genesis of the organisation as an industry
body. The GAA makes a good case for the need for aquaculture certification, but
it seems certain that the ultimate effectiveness of any programme to assess and
certify aquaculture operations will require more than the GAA and ACC are able
to provide.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search