Driver, Kelly, and JH Health. “Seafood”. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health, 2021, http://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-production/seafood/.

Who doesn’t love fresh caught fish? It turns out if you do, you’re in the majority. However what does that mean nowadays for our oceans? It’s no secret that we share our oceans, and it’s also no secret that our oceans are in trouble,but it seems there is a solution, and that’s aquaculture. But is it really a solution or is it adding to the problem?

It turns out that raising fish in pools is one of the oldest forms of aquaculture, and it dates back to ancient egyptian times (Driver, and Health), and it’s still happening today. It’s often marketed as a sustainable way to raise rise, while taking the pressure off of wild fish stocks, but is this really the case? Well as it turns out, yes and no, farming shellfish is actually pretty sustainable, and very low risk to the health of people and wildlife, while farming fish like salmon, however, tells a different tale (Driver, and Health). Raising aquaculture fish is known to cause health problems to people and the environment and got so bad that it was linked to raising hogs- yuck. This has stemmed from the fact that the fish are kept in small confined areas, at incredibly high densities, which allows for parasites and other diseases to run rampant (Driver, and Health) and did we mention that most farmed fish are pumped full of medications and antibiotics? (Driver, and Health), doesn’t seem appetizing now does it. And what about the farmed fish escaping? Turns out that’s a problem too, and the escapees are known to cause problems to the natural order of things (Driver, and Health). So if there’s so many problems with aquaculture fish why raise them? Well unfortunately, the oceans that were once plentiful are now suffering with major declines in wild fish stocks, and habitat destruction, leaving us with very little choice but to go with farmed fish. But did we get ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place with our choices? 

Who doesn’t love fresh caught fish? It turns out if you do, you’re in the majority. However what does that mean nowadays for our oceans? It’s no secret that we share our oceans, and it’s also no secret that our oceans are in trouble,but it seems there is a solution, and that’s aquaculture. But is it really a solution or is it adding to the problem?

It turns out that raising fish in pools is one of the oldest forms of aquaculture, and it dates back to ancient egyptian times (Driver, and Health), and it’s still happening today. It’s often marketed as a sustainable way to raise rise, while taking the pressure off of wild fish stocks, but is this really the case? Well as it turns out, yes and no, farming shellfish is actually pretty sustainable, and very low risk to the health of people and wildlife, while farming fish like salmon, however, tells a different tale (Driver, and Health). Raising aquaculture fish is known to cause health problems to people and the environment and got so bad that it was linked to raising hogs- yuck. This has stemmed from the fact that the fish are kept in small confined areas, at incredibly high densities, which allows for parasites and other diseases to run rampant (Driver, and Health) and did we mention that most farmed fish are pumped full of medications and antibiotics? (Driver, and Health), doesn’t seem appetizing now does it. And what about the farmed fish escaping? Turns out that’s a problem too, and the escapees are known to cause problems to the natural order of things (Driver, and Health). So if there’s so many problems with aquaculture fish why raise them? Well unfortunately, the oceans that were once plentiful are now suffering with major declines in wild fish stocks, and habitat destruction, leaving us with very little choice but to go with farmed fish. But did we get ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place with our choices? 

Well it turns out that we’re not out of options yet. As mentioned above, shellfish and crustacean farming is actually very sustainable, and little to no impact or risk associated with it, and some wild stocks have been sustainably harvested, so they’re not crashing, and yes some aquacultured fish are done in a sustainable way too. But the only way to make sure that we keep the oceans productive in the future is limiting our consumption of fish. Y’know i think im seeing a common theme here.