Summary
Demand for seafood continues to grow with population growth and economies of developing countries grow. As most fish resources are already fully- or even over-utilised, aquaculture will have to grow to meet the increased demand.
As pelagic fish increasingly is used for human consumption and fish oil is increasingly used by food and medicine industries alternative feed has to be developed.With development of sustainable management and production practices the future of aquaculture is promising.
Analysis
As most fish resources of the oceans are close to fully utilized while the population of the Earth still grows and developing economies lead to increasing consumption of proteins, including seafood, not least in population rich Asia which has rich traditions for aquatic food, aquaculture has to grow to meet the increasing demand for seafood.
There are some still un- or little utilized huge resources in the oceans; krill and lantern fish to name just a couple of stocks with a potential in the range of millions of tonnes, but these are still undeveloped and may remain so for several years to come. Environmental concerns will also have to be carefully considered in eventual utilization of such resources and might prove to be serious obstacles.
Current fisheries are in a variety of stages; some fish stocks are little or moderately utilized, while too many are fully- or over-utilised. Too many stocks are not sustainably managed, be it in waters of developing of developed countries. This is valid both for demersal fisheries ("whitefish") as well as pelagic.
Fortunately a growing number of countries have developed science based management systems and this trend towards sustainable management will continue at increasingly strong pace as consumer awareness grows and countries and companies increasingly take advantage of the marketing advantages created by environmental certification and sustainability, forcing others to follow.
Whitefish being more valuable in the marketplace are more popular for farming than pelagic, with the exception of currently developing tuna farming by e.g. Australian Clean Seas. Some pelagic species suffer from lack of markets able to pay sufficient prices to sustain a business while several pelagic stocks as herring and mackerel are increasingly used for direct human consumption. Several stocks are and will continue to be used for production of meal and oil, until now mainly used as one of many ingredients in feed for a wide variety of farmed animals including poultry, pork, aquatic organisms as fish, shrimp and other species, especially in initial growing stages and for breeding animals. As the food additives and farmaceutical industries (e.g. Pronova ) are increasingly sourcing fish oil as raw material it is clear that the animal and fish feed industries have to develop alternative feed sources. This development is already ongoing, not least using agricultural raw material as soya.
Aquaculture converts feed to flesh by far more efficiently than the farming of land animals and thus is competitive in the food markets. Tilapia farming is one of many species and will continue to grow and new herbivorous species will hopefully be added. Farmers of carnivorous fish enjoy higher prices in the marketplace while it can safely be presumed that a growing number of both carnivore and herbivore fish will be farmed in the future.
With sustainable resource management and production practices the future for fish farming is indeed bright.
