Many tout aquaculture—the farming of finfish or shellfish in pens in oceans and other bodies of water—as a potential solution to reduce the burdens of overfishing. In actuality, industrial aquaculture has intensified the depletion of our ocean resources, added new threats to our marine ecosystems and wildlife, and created new risks to human health and the environment—all to the detriment of traditional fishing economies and the public. The rapid increase in demand for fish and fish products has outpaced our regulatory agencies' ability to manage emerging environmental and human health threats from the aquaculture industry. Center for Food Safety (CFS) is proud to be the largest national nonprofit litigating on aquaculture issues and is currently fighting for stronger regulation and better management of this unsustainable and polluting practice.

See our full factsheet about the harms of industrial aquaculture below.

FINFISH AQUACULTURE: A FALSE SOLUTION TO OVERFISHING REFERENCES

1. Win, T. L. (2018, July 9). World's fish consumption unsustainable, U.N. warns. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-fisheries-hunger/worlds-fish-consumption-unsustainable-u-n-warns-idUSKBN1JZ0YA
2. Report highlights growing role of fish in feeding the world. (2014, May 19). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/231522/icode/
3. McKeever, A. (2022, February 7). How overfishing threatens the world's oceans—and why it could end in catastrophe. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/critical-issues-overfishing
4. Id.
5. Carballeira Braña, C. B., Cerbule, K., Senff, P., & Stolz, I. K. (2021). Towards environmental sustainability in marine finfish aquaculture. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.666662/full
6. Id.
7. Nichols, A. (2019). Legal barriers to pesticide and herbicide use in commercial aquaculture. Sea Grant Law Center. https://nsglc.olemiss.edu/projects/ag-food-law/files/pesticide_herbicide_use_in_commercial_aquaculture.pdf
8. Lalonde, B. A., Ernst, W., & Garron, C. (2015). Formaldehyde concentration in discharge from land based aquaculture facilities in Atlantic Canada. Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology, 94(4), 444–447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1493-9
9. Bunin, L., & Harsh, C. (2014, October). Like Water and Oil: Ocean-based Fish Farming and Organic Don't Mix. Center for Food Safety. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/like-water-and-oil-aquaculture_54029.pdf
10. Id.
11. Carballeira Braña, C. B., Cerbule, K., Senff, P., & Stolz, I. K. (2021). Towards environmental sustainability in marine finfish aquaculture. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.666662/full
12. Jones, M. (2018, June 26). Noise pollution overlooked in fish welfare. Aquaculture North America. https://www.aquaculturenorthamerica.com/noise-pollution-overlooked-in-fish-welfare-1976