[Music] we are eating more fish than ever 144 million tons of it per year that's more than double what we ate 50 years ago but we're not actually catching more fish how is that possible the answer is aquaculture [Music] aquaculture or aqua farming is the farming of aquatic organisms in a controlled environment it's similar to agriculture but with fish oysters and agi instead of cows chickens and corn it's farming the sea instead of hunting since the 1980s the amount of fish cut at sea has stagnated that's mostly because of overfishing and climate change but even
though wild fish catches are stalling fish farming is booming about 580 aquatic species are now farmed all over the world it is probably the fastest growing food sector and it now accounts for 50 percent of the world's consumed fish there's many different kinds of aquaculture there is um two basic differences so marine aquaculture and fresh water when we talk about marine we talk about oceans so um aquaculture that is a marine aquaculture that's conducted in the sea is essentially the same way you have fences on farms to keep the cows in so we use pens
which are essentially nets there can also be land-based aquaculture of marine organisms so using salt water when we talk about fresh water on the other hand we're obviously talking about organisms and plants that are grown in ponds lakes and rivers aquaculture intends to feed a growing global population healthy and sustainable protein while reducing overfishing at sea the protein that we produce from the sea from the oceans has a lot of nutritional benefits that land-based protein does not have so omega-3s [Music] all sorts of minerals and vitamins aquaculture also creates jobs people are needed for running
and maintaining the aquaforms but there are some real concerns about fish farming badly managed and uncontained facilities have been blamed for polluting the environment pesticides antibiotics and waste some types of aqua farms end up being unsustainable because they raise carnivorous fish which require lots of wild fish for food and in some places natural habitats like mangroves have been destroyed to make space for fish farms started to understand that intensive industrial agriculture is not a good thing and has many many problems in aquaculture we have to take those lessons and make sure we don't repeat the
same mistakes for aquaculture the eu has strict rules to ensure agriculture's health sustainability and growth right now europeans are highly dependent on imported seafood and 70 of the seafood that the eu does produce is concentrated in four member states spain france italy and greece aquaculture accounts for approximately 25 of the consumption of seafood in the european union but only 10 percent is coming from aquaculture within the block guidelines are in the works to reduce red tape around starting new aqua farms improve health measures for the fish and make sustainable aquaculture part of the climate change
solution rather than a contributor to it you
