Are the world’s fish stocks being depleted to feed farmed salmon?
Both wild and farmed salmon consume small fish and crustaceans as the main part of their diet. Feed given to farmed salmon contains fish meal and fish oil, in addition to vegetable-based binders and oils. A worldwide fishery spanning Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Chile and Peru has been supplying the meal and oil industry for many decades. It produces about 6 million tonnes of meal per year from small, bony fish that are generally not destined for human consumption. Before fish farming, all fish meal was used in feed for land-based livestock. According to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the fish stocks that supply the fish meal industry are not over-fished. The portion now used by the aquaculture industry only takes away from these other industries, and has not increased the amount of fish taken for fish meal. Currently, about a third of the world’s fish meal supply is used in aquaculture, with the remainder going to feed for land animals. Research is ongoing to reduce the am
