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| Fisherman from Pulau Aman taking us out to the Fish Farm Pens |
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| Fish Farm on the Malaysian Coast |
With that in mind you would think that the farming
of fish to feed an ever growing human population would be a great idea. In fact
I thought so for a long time. But when I looked at the practice of fish farming
more closely (from a basic ecology perspective) I realized that the story is not quite as rosy as I thought
originally.
In the warm tropical waters of Malaysia (and neighbouring
countries) a number of species of marine fishes are farmed. Just off the shores of Pulau Aman in Malaysia there are dozens of farms that raise Sea Bass, Snapper
and Grouper. We asked one of the boat captains from the village to take us out to see the farms and he took us to one that was operated by the Malaysian government. The majority are privately operated.
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| Fish Farm on the Malaysian Coast |
We were shown the different pens where the three species are raised. The Snapper and Sea Bass are fed in their marine sea
pens for 8 to 10 months while the Grouper take 12 months to reach marketable
size. It was interesting to learn that the Sea Bass and Snapper are primarily raised for local markets while the
Grouper are raised for the more lucrative "live fish" market to be taken by ship to Hong Kong
(the key market).
So, what’s the issue?
Most fish each other fish (they are piscivorous) and as I learned when I
visited Chile during Catt-Trax 2 farmed fish are fed fish, in the form of
pellets … but pellets made up of ground sardines, mackerel and anchovies and
other small fish species.
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| Fish Feed for the Fish Farm |
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| Fish Feed for the Fish Farm |
And depending on whose formula you use, it can take 4
to 5 kg of small fish (converted into fish meal) to create 1 kg of farmed fish.
So the issue is that we are taking protein from the sea (that could feed a growing human
population) and we are converting it into a smaller amount of protein by
feeding it to carnivorous farmed fish (such as Sea bass, Sapper, Grouper in Asia
as well as salmon and trout in North America, Europe and South America).
It’s like taking four or five loaves of bread and tearing
them apart and putting them back together as one smaller loaf of bread. Is that
going to feed the world?
The manager of the fish farm also pointed out that he was having great difficulties with fish mortality and disease. There are many other issues related to fish farms that are cited by conservation groups. I am most certainly not against farming ... I just want to ensure that we do it in an ecologically sensible manner and there is a net benefit for a planet that needs food.
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| Fish Farm Manager Explaining Some of the Challenges |
