If you think that farming fish rather than catching wild ones, is a better way to go as it could be helping the environment, then you have a rude awakening before you.
The fact is that global fish supplies are dwindling dramatically.
In just 50 years, we have seen the number of large fish drop by 90%. That means only 10% of fish such as tuna, marlin, swordfish, sharks, cod and halibut are in our oceans.
If that isn’t reason for concern, then I don’t know what is.
Why are they disappearing?
- First of all, because of irresponsible fishing practices where only 5% of the contents scooped is used and the other 95% thrown back DEAD into the ocean.
- Secondly, because fisheries are taking too many fish. Studies prove that fisheries cause diminishing fish communities to 1/10th of their size in 10 to 15 years.
- Thirdly, because much of the fish caught is used in agriculture and aquatic culture feed.
One could logically think at this point that we should be supplementing wild fishing with farmed fish.
Sadly, this is not the right idea.
- Farm raised fish eat fish meal that comes from wild caught fish. It actually takes 1.9kg of wild fish to produce 1 kg of farm-raised fish. Where is the logic in that?
- Fish waste and uneaten feed cover the sea floor which generates bacteria that use oxygen vital to other fish and thus disease and parasites can run rampant in packed fish farms.
- So pesticides are fed to the fish and these build up in sea floor sediments often causing resistant strains of disease that infect both wild and domesticated fish.
Don’t the above problems sound a lot like what land based factory farms go through?
And to top it all, we don’t know what else could be lurking in these farmed fish.
Staying away from farm raised fish should not be a hard decision to make especially considering that
studies have found levels of PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin and mercury to be higher in these fish than in wild ones.
Actually staying away from most fish is really recommended as toxic pollutants have been found in wild fish too.
But you want to get your Omega-3. Where are you to go?
There are other options.
- First you can track down a source of wild fish that is free from toxins and which is sustainably harvested.
- The other choice is to get your omega-3 fat from an alternative source like plants.
Where there is a will there is always a way.
I enjoy fish a lot but I certainly don’t eat as much as I would like knowing that it comes at the cost of my health and the environment.
Tags: farmed fish, omega-3, pesticides, toxins
