The fish farming industry has been using inaccurate data to downplay its role in the overfishing problem, a new report says.
The fish farming industry has been drastically underreporting the amount of fish it pulls from the ocean each year to feed its carnivorous fish populations, according to Brigitte Wear of DeSmog. Salmon and trout subsist entirely on other fish and are also two of the most valuable farmed species in the world.
However, according to a study by Science Advances, the industry is pulling 307% more fish from the ocean than previously reported.
According to Wear, 23.4 million tonnes (25.8 million tons) of wild-caught small fish such as sardines, mackerel, and sandeels are ground into fishmeal and fish oil, which are primarily used for feeding farmed fish including salmon, trout, and shrimp.
What the study found was that salmon consume up to six times their body weight in food before they go to market, while shrimp consume 1.5 times theirs. According to the report, this goes against fish farming industry claims that both species consume less or equal to the amount of food they produce.
"What we understand about carnivorous fish farming has relied on the most optimistic data," said Jennifer Jacquet, an environmental scientist at the University of Miami and co-author of the study. "The picture is not as rosy as previous studies led us to believe."
In fact, between the study of how much carnivorous fish consume and a second study of the figures cited by the industry, the researchers found that "the impacts of these industries have been repeatedly underestimated by those in the sector," according to the second study.
They both concluded that aquaculture never produces more calories or nutrients than it consumes and is in fact contributing to overfishing in places such as India and Vietnam, where the feeder fish are harvested from the ocean, leaving less for people in those areas to subsist on.
"On net, it is very clear that the industry destroys food," said Spencer Roberts, one of the project leads and a doctoral student at the University of Miami. "It's not feeding the world but actually starving people."
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Commercial fishing has long been controversial, but progress is being made to try to clean up the industry; legislators in Greece recently banned bottom trawling in national marine parks, and recent studies have shown that the practice leads to increased carbon pollution.
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