Malaysia pursues organic certification for aquaculture

The Malaysian government is setting up an organic certification program for fish and shrimp farms in an effort to boost the country's aquaculture industry.

The head of the Malaysian Fisheries Department, Datuk Junaidi Che Ayub, said the organic certification program would help make Malaysia one of the leading organic fish and shrimp countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Go to the article from FIS >>

The question of organic aquaculture is a complex one. How can something be certified organic when the fish farmer can't control everything the farmed fish may eat or come in contact with? After all, food and other things can flow in and out of those aquaculture pens. It's a subject I'd like to explore further.

The UN's take on aquaculture

I'm reading through the nearly 200-page report from the UN's Fisheries and Aquaculture Dept. on the state of the world's fisheries and aquaculture. Lots of interesting numbers in here.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world. In the early 1950s, aquaculture produced roughly 1 million tons of farmed seafood. In 2006, aquaculture produced 51.7 million tons with a value of $78.8 billion, accounting for a 7% annual growth rate, according to the report.

As I've written before, Asia dominates the aquaculture industry. In 2006, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 89% of the world's aquaculture production in terms of quantity and 77% in terms of value.

In 2006, harvesting food from the oceans, by commercial fishing and aquaculture, provided employment for an estimated 43.5 million people in the world, the report says.

There were 9 million fish farmers in the world in 2006, 94% of which were in Asia.

Humans are eating more and more seafood, but wild fisheries can't meet the demand. The majority (80%) of fisheries have no room for expansion. Here's the breakdown: In 2007, 28% of fishery stocks we either overexploited (19%), depleted (8%) or recovering from depletion (1%). A further 52% were fully exploited and leave no room for expansion. Only 20% of stocks were moderately exploited or underexploited with the possibility of producing more.

In 2006, 110 million tons of fish production was for human consumption. Most of the remaining 33 million tons of production was for the production of fish meal and fish oil.

I'm still working my way through the report and will continue to make notes of interesting figures I find.

The evolution of "watermen"

The Washington Post published a story today about the recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that claims 50% of all seafood consumed in the world now comes from aquaculture. The writer, Juliet Eilperin, spoke with Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association. Belle said fish farming offers people the best chance to make a living from the seas. Belle also revealed some interesting demographics about Maine fish farmers.

"[Belle] noted that three-quarters of his group's members are either current or former commercial fishermen, and although the average age of Mainers with a fishing lease permit is 57, the average for those with a fish-farm permit is 33. 'It's really the next generation of watermen,' Belle said."

Belle's comments highlight the transition we're seeing from a commercial fishing-focused coastal culture to one with more emphasis on aquaculture. This transition from fishing to fish farming is fascinating to me, especially when it's compared to the transition humankind underwent on land almost 10,000 years ago from hunter-gathers to farmers. The latter obviously has had infinite implications for the world we live in today. What will the transition from commercial fishing (the last large-scale hunter-gather industry out there, as far as I can tell) to aquaculture mean for the oceans and for humankind? Maybe it's because I was an anthro major in college, but I find this question fascinating.

Go to the article from The Washington Post >>

Planning, planning, planning

Had some time yesterday to really start planning my reporting trip to Panama and Mexico. One of the first frustrations is that I can't find Puerto Lindo, my destination in Panama, on any map. It's frustrating because it makes logistical planning difficult, but a part of me loves the mystery because it means I'm going somewhere off the beaten path.

As of now, the plan is to fly to Panama City and spend several days in country, visiting Puerto Lindo and an offshore aquaculture operation there. I also plan to speak with local fishermen there to explore the tensions that exist between fishermen and fish farmers. I know the tension exists here in Maine, but what does it look like elsewhere? From Panama I'll fly to Hermosillo, Sonora, and travel on to Guaymas by land. Guaymas is on the Sea of Cortez and is the site of a local aquaculture operation that is trying to farm shrimp offshore in AquaPods, steel-mesh, geodesic spheres designed to withstand open ocean conditions that are developed by a company here in Maine. I'll hopefully spend some time in Sonora talking with fishermen, as well.

When I first told Steve Page, the developer of the AquaPod, about my project, the first thing he asked was: "Do you dive?" Well, I don't at the moment, but yesterday I called up a local dive shop and was told there's a class starting next week. If I jump on it now, I'll be set for my trip in late October. Learning to dive is an expensive proposition, but it's well worth it, I think.

Maine aquaculture company gets first-of-kind lease to farm kelp

Ocean Approved, a Portland, Maine-based aquaculture company, has received a lease to farm kelp on the floor of Casco Bay, according to Mainebiz, a statewide business news outfit in Portland, Maine. The company, which got its start farming mussels, claims the lease is the first-of-its-kind in the entire country.

What's interesting is that the company's co-owner, Paul Dobbins, holds kelp up as the epitome of sustainable aquaculture. "There is zero discharge. We don't feed it any fertilizer, and it's highly nutritious," Dobbins tells Mainebiz. "We see tremendous opportunity for growing vegetables that don't require freshwater, fertilizer or any arable land."

Go to the article from Mainebiz >>

Typhoon ravaged Taiwan's aquaculture industry

Typhoon Morakot, the deadliest typhoon to hit Taiwan in recorded history, caused $126 million in losses for the country's aquaculture industry, according to the Taipei Times. Nearly half those losses came from grouper farming. The industry estimates it will take three years to reach pre-Morakot levels.

Go to the article from the Taipei Times >>

(photo caption: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abickel/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

New report: 50% of fish consumed globally comes from aquaculture

A new study from a team of international researchers has determined that aquaculture now accounts for 50% of all fish consumed globally. The study, titled "Feeding aquaculture in an era of finite resources," also found that the growing aquaculture industry is putting strain on the wild fisheries that provide fish feed for the farmed fish. The findings were published in the Sept. 7, 2009, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, though behind a paywall, can be accessed here >>
Go to the press release reporting the study >>

Ocean Conservancy testifies before Congress

Just days after the NOAA opened the doors for offshore aquaculture operations in the Gulf of Mexico, George Leonard, aquaculture program director at the Ocean Conservancy, testified before a subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Leonard called on lawmakers to provide leadership in the establishment of a regulatory framework for offshore aquaculture operations in federal waters. If the Congress fails to act, he warned, an unregulated offshore aquaculture industry would develop and lead to "severe" environmental consequences.

In his testimony, Leonard cited Chile as an example of what the United States should avoid. According to Leonard, Chile failed to set up a proper regulatory framework for aquaculture as the country's fish farmers increased production of Atlantic salmon by 2,200% from 1991 to 2006. This explosion in farmed salmon came at a cost. By 2007, Leonard says, too many salmon farms were packed too tightly together, resulting in the spread of disease that has led to a 50% decline to date in salmon production. Chile has lost 7,500 jobs from the fallout, Leonard says.

Read Leonard's complete testimony >>

NOAA to tackle regulating offshore aquaculture

Last week, while I was at the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C., prepping for my fellowship, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced its intent to develop a national policy for sustainable aquaculture in federal waters.

A national policy for how to deal with offshore aquaculture may get rid of some of the uncertainty in the industry and allow it to grow in this country.

The NOAA's move was instigated by a proposal from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to allow fish farms in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The council had forwarded the proposal to NOAA for approval. Rather than approve or reject the proposal, the NOAA allowed the deadline to pass, meaning the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council's plan is allowed to take effect by default. Getting any fish farms up and running in the gulf will still take a while though, according to the Houston Chronicle. In the meantime, the NOAA will work on setting up a regulatory framework.

The response was immediate. Christopher Mann, senior officer at the Pew Environment Group, issued a statement the same day calling the NOAA's decision a "recipe for disaster." The Ocean Conservancy called it a "dangerous precedent."

Go to the NOAA press release >>
Go to the article from the Houston Chronicle >>
Go to the article from The New York Times >>
Go to the statement from the Pew Environment Group >>
Go to the statement from the Ocean Conservancy >>

This blog's genesis

In July 2009, I received a fellowship from the International Center for Journalists to cover the aquaculture industry's move offshore. As a journalist in Maine, my initial interest in the story was how the changing aquaculture industry was affecting fish farmers in my state. But as I learned more about aquaculture in this country and around the world, and how the evolving industry may change the face of our oceans, I realized there was a much larger story to tell.

I'll use this blog to trace my progress on the project, which will take me from the salmon pens along the coast of Maine to offshore aquaculture operations in Panama and the west coast of Mexico. My reporting will bring me face to face with the fish farmers and the commercial fishermen who supply this world with seafood, the global demand of which has doubled over the past few decades. I'll explore the history of aquaculture, and what moving offshore -- from net pens close to land to giant cages miles off the coast -- means for the industry. I also hope to explore the industry's impact on commercial fishermen, the oceans and humankind.

The project's genesis came in the form of a press release from Ocean Farm Technologies, a company in Searsmont, Maine, that manufactures large (up to nearly 92 feet in diameter) geodesic spheres that hold thousands of farmed fish. The AquaPod, as the company named it, is one of the first systems designed specifically for farming fish in deep water, where the seas can be rough and the currents strong.

An AquaPod being deployed in South Korea (courtesy/Ocean Farm Technologies)

The company's press release announced its recent sale of AquaPods to an aquaculture company in Guaymas, Mexico, that will use them to farm shrimp in the Sea of Cortez and to a company in South Korea that will farm cod in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. I had known about the World Affairs Journalism Fellowship from the ICFJ and had been keeping an eye out for international stories that had significance for Maine readers. I immediately called Ocean Farm Technologies' owner, Steve Page, to learn more about the company and how it fits into the larger story of aquaculture. What I found out from Steve was that while he was having success selling his AquaPods to aquaculture companies around the world, he couldn't sell one in his own backyard. The reason is that the United States lacks any regulatory framework to license aquaculture operations in federal waters, which stretch from three to 200 miles off the coast. Steve's opinion is that the government is dragging its feet because the aquaculture industry is not a favorite of the environmental lobby or commercial fishermen. This lack of framework means investors for the most part have targeted other countries for offshore aquaculture operations. Aquaculture is growing in developing countries at six times the pace of developed countries. Steve says that uncertainty is the only reason the industry hasn’t taken off in the United States. There are interested investors, interested companies, he says, “but simply no process to obtain a permit in federal waters.”

Meeting the growing demand for seafood is a controversial subject. Commercial fisheries have already been fished to the brink of collapse. Traditional aquaculture, which includes onshore and near-shore operations, already supplies more than half the world’s seafood, the majority of that coming from China and other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea. Near-shore aquaculture faces strong criticism for its negative impact on local ecosystems, from the build-up of fish waste in shallow waters, and its clashes with commercial and recreational uses. Therefore, many marine experts, Steve included, agree that moving the aquaculture industry offshore is the only way to meet the growing global demand for seafood. In deep water, strong currents will wash away the fish waste and will be out of site of land. However, offshore aquaculture has its share of skeptics. Some fear the privatization of the oceans. Others question the sustainability of the industry. Fish like cod and salmon are carnivorous and require fish feed that includes other fish, herring for instance. How can an industry claim to be sustainable, they argue, while it depletes one fishery to save another?

The complexity of the subject is intense and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about getting it all right. But there has to be a beginning somewhere, and this is mine.

-Whit