3 ms·

Why science fiction and not plain old fish farming?

oftenwrong 6y ago
And/or an international agreement to reduce fishing, and outlaw the import of fish caught outside the bounds of that agreement. Similar international agreements have worked relatively well to cut down on things like chemical weapons and anti-personnel mines.
- yisonPylkita 6y ago
  I see little bit of difference between man killing weapons and food
rdtwo 6y ago
Currently fish farming is often just fish recycling. Conversion of lower quality feed fish into higher quality market fish.
- ip26 6y ago
  The most depressing part is the feed fish are often healthier for you than the farmed fish. We go through this whole process and the result is half as much fish as we started with, and it's worse for you.
  - GordonS 6y ago
    The fish feed of today contains far less animal protein than it used to - a lot of the protein now comes from soy. Salmon farming, for example, can be incredibly efficient - Norwegian salmon farms typically get 1 kg of fish for every 1.15-1.2kg of feed. That's an amazing conversion factor. That said, there are serious welfare concerns with fish farming. Even in Norway, which has some of the highest standards in the world, sea lice are a huge problem, and the mechanical and chemical treatments used are horrible. Another issue is the welfare of "cleaner fish", which are places in cages to eat lice from salmon - AFAIK there are still no regulations around their welfare, and mortality rates are shocking[0] https://sciencenorway.no/animal-welfare-fish-farming-salmon-industry/every-year-50-million-cleaner-fish-die-in-norwegian-fish-farms/1631228 https://sciencenorway.no/animal-welfare-fish-farming-salmon-...
    - ip26 6y ago
      Maybe this information is out of date, but these are the issues I was referencing: Anchovies, sardines and other palm-sized, schooling fish are caught in the ocean and processed into fishmeal and oil to feed to other fishes and crustaceans that are raised in aquatic farms around the world. https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/06/14/key-ocean-fish-can-prevail-with-changes-to-farmed-fish-livestock-diets/ https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/06/14/key-ocean-fish-ca... Every year, millions of tons of wild fish, like sardines and anchovies, are caught and processed into fishmeal and fish oil, which is used to make feed for farm-raised species. https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/aquaculture/wild-fish https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/aquaculture/wild-f...
      - GordonS 6y ago
        It's true that a lot of wild catch still goes towards fishmeal; my point was simply that things are improving a lot there, at least for salmon (I presume it's the case for other species too, but I don't know that).
blaser-waffle 6y ago
Fish farming isn't easy and doesn't scale well. No idea how well artificial meat is going to scale, but we already know the challenges and costs of farm raised fishes. IIRC, the biggest issue was disease and waste concentration.

And/or an international agreement to reduce fishing, and outlaw the import of fish caught outside the bounds of that agreement. Similar international agreements have worked relatively well to cut down on things like chemical weapons and anti-personnel mines.

yisonPylkita 6y ago
I see little bit of difference between man killing weapons and food

rdtwo 6y ago

Currently fish farming is often just fish recycling. Conversion of lower quality feed fish into higher quality market fish.

ip26 6y ago
The most depressing part is the feed fish are often healthier for you than the farmed fish. We go through this whole process and the result is half as much fish as we started with, and it's worse for you.
- GordonS 6y ago
  The fish feed of today contains far less animal protein than it used to - a lot of the protein now comes from soy. Salmon farming, for example, can be incredibly efficient - Norwegian salmon farms typically get 1 kg of fish for every 1.15-1.2kg of feed. That's an amazing conversion factor. That said, there are serious welfare concerns with fish farming. Even in Norway, which has some of the highest standards in the world, sea lice are a huge problem, and the mechanical and chemical treatments used are horrible. Another issue is the welfare of "cleaner fish", which are places in cages to eat lice from salmon - AFAIK there are still no regulations around their welfare, and mortality rates are shocking[0] https://sciencenorway.no/animal-welfare-fish-farming-salmon-industry/every-year-50-million-cleaner-fish-die-in-norwegian-fish-farms/1631228 https://sciencenorway.no/animal-welfare-fish-farming-salmon-...
  - ip26 6y ago
    Maybe this information is out of date, but these are the issues I was referencing: Anchovies, sardines and other palm-sized, schooling fish are caught in the ocean and processed into fishmeal and oil to feed to other fishes and crustaceans that are raised in aquatic farms around the world. https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/06/14/key-ocean-fish-can-prevail-with-changes-to-farmed-fish-livestock-diets/ https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/06/14/key-ocean-fish-ca... Every year, millions of tons of wild fish, like sardines and anchovies, are caught and processed into fishmeal and fish oil, which is used to make feed for farm-raised species. https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/aquaculture/wild-fish https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/aquaculture/wild-f...
    - GordonS 6y ago
      It's true that a lot of wild catch still goes towards fishmeal; my point was simply that things are improving a lot there, at least for salmon (I presume it's the case for other species too, but I don't know that).

blaser-waffle 6y ago

Fish farming isn't easy and doesn't scale well. No idea how well artificial meat is going to scale, but we already know the challenges and costs of farm raised fishes. IIRC, the biggest issue was disease and waste concentration.