Farmed fish don’t escape on land

Farmed fish produce mountains of poop, they escape and algae deaths is a constant threat. This could be history with contained production facilities on land.

The escape of 160,000 Atlantic salmon in August 2017 from a production site East of Victoria in the US once again triggered the debate on land-based farmed fish.

Less pristine on land?

Norwegian salmon bred along clean and wild coastlines end up on millions of people’s plates around the globe every year. But what if consumers accept the same salmon bred on land? What difference does it make if what you buy salmon produced in the Sherwood Forest, the Pampas in Argentina or the Ruhr area in Germany?

Probably not exactly in these areas, but farmed fish on land is emerging.

1000 tons of copper

The fish farming industry needs to manage not only poop, escape, lice and algae death.

Norway is the world’s leading producer of farmed salmon. This also means that research and investigative journalism in some instances is only available in Norwegian. In the book (in Norwegian) Havlandet journalist Per Anders Todal investigates emissions of chemicals from the industry that is barely talked about.

Todal points out the colossal increase in chemical use the last decade. In 2008 Norwegian fish farm industry used 308 kilograms of sea lice pesticides.

He writes that “use of chemicals in the industry has increased massively the last decade. In 2008 Norwegian fish farmers dispensed 308 kilogram of chemicals to manage sea lice outbreaks. In the worst year until now, in 2015, 43,000 tons were used.”

An increase that has been criticised by UK and the EU. Todal also looks at copper that is being used to control fouling. Copper is poisenes for life in sea. And where copper use in other industries is strictly regulated and drastically reduced, the fish farm industry has gone in the opposite direction.

1,000 tons of copper is leaking from fish farm cages every year. Apparently, according to Todal, authorities have not set a limit simply because it is difficult to measure.

It will take huge investments for fish farmers around the world to go from sea to land.

Farmed fish saves land, water and CO2

The world needs more food using less land, less water and with far lesser CO2 emissions.

In 2018, this study looked at a world that eats more farmed fish. The study projected global food needs till 2050 where the increased need was exclusively covered by farmed fish. Meat consumption was kept at today’s levels.

An area of 58,000 square kilometers (5,800,000 hectares) used for farmed fish could potentially provide 100 million tons of seafood every year. This would preserve an area of 730 million hectares (twice the size of India) as uncultivated land.

On average, we “eat” 3496 liters of water every day in high income countries. This water is used to breed cattle and grow agricultural products. Red meat not only emits lots of CO2. One kilogram steak requires 15,400 liters of water.

Access to fresh water is worsening in many parts of the world. 21 out of 37 known water reservoirs are decreasing every year.

NASA published a study last year showing the change in the Earths water balance. Images from 2003 to 2016 are put together in this model.

Fish farming also requires water

There is limited knowledge about fresh water use in fish farming. But there are obvious challenges: Hydro power to run fish farm facilities requires dams that will take the fresh water from other areas. It will affect local fishermen as has been documented in Mekong, the Republic of Congo and in the Amazon. Floods and drought may also threaten fish farm facilities.

Cover photo of a dried cod from Lofoten, Norway, 2019. Its head will soon be heading to Nigeria where this is regarded a delicacy.