European Union fisheries ministers meeting in Luxembourg this week voiced support for expanding aquaculture, mostly to reduce their nations’ dependence on fish farmed in Asia. The industry’s development in Europe has stagnated, they said, in comparison to the explosive growth seen in developing nations like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
Expect plenty of discord and perhaps a little constructive discourse over this issue. Concerns over aquaculture’s impact on the environment, while often justified, created barriers that are slowly crumbling, thanks to more collaborative relationships between industry and environmental advocacy groups, whose respective interests are more aligned than in the past.
I recently spoke with aquaculture expert Albert Tacon, who this fall will be a visiting professor at the University of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands. Simply put, we must produce the food we eat, said the noted researcher and former United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization advisor, and educate consumers about fish farming and its rightful place in the food-supply puzzle.
There is much apprehension concerning aquaculture in North America and Europe, yet Tacon is optimistic that public sentiment will change. He also noted that transparency is essential in building consumers’ trust.
“It’s the consumer that calls the shots, by buying the products or not,” he said. “But we need to produce fish and government’s got to create an enabling environment. All we need is a good management plan and we can do it in a sustainable way.”
In China, Tacon said, a fish farm is seen as no different from a field of plants. It is ironic, he added, that so much of the fish farmed in developing nations in Southeast Asia ends up on dinner plates in North America, Europe and Japan — the developed nations. It behooves these large markets to lessen their dependence on imports and bring the source closer to home.
Cultural attitudes toward aquaculture are as varied as the many species of fish produced around the world. The European Union and the United States are each examining whether expanding aquaculture can flourish in their waters, benefit their economies and stabilize seafood supplies in the face of declining fisheries.
Back to home >
