Aquaculture

Farmed Fish

The National Aquaculture Act of 1980 defines aquaculture as "the propagation and rearing of aquatic species in controlled or selected environments".

Aquaculture is gaining global importance and plays an important role in global food security. Over half of the seafood that the U.S. imports and consumes comes from aquaculture.

As mentioned before, it is highly unlikely for tuna species to be aquacultured, almost all tuna is wild caught.

Common types of fish that are farmed are catfish, tilapia, and salmon.

There are both pros and cons to farmed fish. Nutritionally, farmed fish are often fed lots of good vitamins and nutrients so that by the time they are filleted their meat is packed with omega 3 fatty acids,

Yet there are cons to aquaculture, most of which affect the surrounding environment.

Additionally, some farmed fish like salmon often have dyes added to their feed, so that their meat appears an attractive orange/pink color.

Feeding farmed fish is costly and requires either large amounts of smaller forage fish (herring, mackerel, etc.) or man-made fish food that often contains corn or grains as their main ingredient.

In open water aquaculture, fish are kept in round pens installed in public ocean waters. This leads to many environmental issues such as:

Mass amount of fish in one area causes an accumulation of waste. This can create a dead zone in the surrounding water, which affects native marine life.
Close proximity of farmed fish increases the risk of health issues and disease. Infected farmed fish can pass these ailments onto wild fish that may just be passing by.

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