Curtis 1

Micah Curtis
Professor Collins
ENGL 1302
28 April 2016
Aquaculture: The Savior of the Ocean
Overfishing happens when people kill more fish than are being born. This happens
especially with larger fish since they are in high demand for the human population. The removal
of these large top predator fish leads to an increase of smaller fish since there predators are being
caught. This disturbs all marine food chains because the ecosystem cannot sustain such a drastic
change. Increasing the small fish population leads to decreasing amounts of phytoplankton since
there are the main source of food for most ocean animals. The entire food chain is then twisted to
the point that it can no longer support vast populations. This problem is only going to become
worse as the worlds population continues to increase because the demand for fish will rise as
well. There will no longer be enough animals in the ocean to feed the world. This would be
devastating to all coastline countries because their main income and food source comes from
their fishing industries. The survival of certain species of fish and the economy and well-being of
coast line countries relies on finding a solution to this problem. In all landlocked countries the
food source is agriculture. For thousands of years the agriculture industry has been modified for
maximum efficiency. Fish is the last food resource that people have not domesticated; people still
hunt for them instead of raising them in a controlled environment like livestock or farming. The
solution to this issue is for societies everywhere to begin the practice of fish farming. Fish
farming, also known as aquaculture, is simply raising a species of fish in a controlled area to feed

Curtis 2
people. The human population should start using aquaculture for their fish industry because it is
sustainable and will reduce the stress of overfishing on the oceans ecosystem.
The problem with over fishing is that is is not going to go away on its own. Something
has to be done worldwide in order to change the current grim future for the oceans animals. The
world population is projected to be about 9.7 billion by the year 2050, which means there are
even more people depending on fish to survive and to create an income ("World Population). In
2050 there would be an increase in the demand of fish, but more importantly there would be a
decrease in supply. This would cause a massive increase in fish prices and many more people
would be poor and hungry. All of this shows that if the current fishing trends continue, the
oceans population will be greatly diminished and so will all of the coastline country populations.
Fishing is not sustainable because too many people overfish. This is where aquaculture would
come in. Aquaculture will replenish the populations of fish that are overexploited. In turn the
ocean will be reset back to its original form before it was under the threat of fishing industries.
Fish farming is not new, it is a growing technology that will soon be the number one way
of getting fish. This is the start of the blue revolution which is simply the oceans version of the
agricultures green revolution (Miller 285). All the revolution means is that there is a new
technology introduced that modifies the way farming has been done in the past to be more
efficient. Since fish farming is a fairly new idea it has not gone through enough experiments for
people to know the perfect way to do it. There are mainly two different types of aquaculture, on
land and on sea. The better of the two options is fish farming on land. Both have many risks, but
on land the risks are not as severe. Aquaculture done in the ocean offers risks like introducing
non-native diseases into the environment or non-native fishes can escape pens and
potentially outcompete native species (Cousteau). If either of these risks were to happen it could

Curtis 3
cause an even worse chain of events in the fish population than over fishing did. All native fish
would not stand a chance to survive the threats non-native fish and diseases bring. This is why
fishing on land is the safer choice. The fish are completely contained with no chance of escaping,
so they cannot affect any native ocean fish. There will have to be hundreds of small tanks set up
that will be able to hold the fish that are breed at each facility. The tanks will be small in case one
batch of fish become infected, this would save all the other fish from the facility from also
getting infected. Other things needed for the facility would be a waste water treatment system
and a fish feed that supplies all the nutrients they need. The water treatment system is needed so
workers can frequently clean the fish water. If the fish are forced to stay in dirty water they will
either get sick and die or they will make humans who eat them sick. The main thing needed for
the fish to stay healthy is nutritional food supply. Fish will need to be fed an appropriate amount
of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and phosphorous along with vitamins and minerals (Craig).
While this may seem simple if any of this goes wrong the fish will not survive.
The next step in creating sustainable aquaculture is to know which fish to breed. Small
fish that are commonly eaten by humans and larger fish are the first fish that need to be bred.
This is because humans can eat it while more are being grown for the bigger fish. That means
that the facility will start to make a profit before it has really started its goal which is to be able
to produce large fish like blue fin tuna (BFT). Tuna is one of the best fish for aquaculture
because it always is always popular. Since it is in such high demand that also means it is one of
the most overfished species in the ocean. The facility would grow enough small fish to make a
profit from selling them while also having enough to be able to feed a small population of tuna.
The tuna would need bigger tanks and more food since they are much larger than the original fish
that were bred. Once the tuna are grown they can be sold and the facility can grow in size from

Curtis 4
all the profit they make. This would allow the facilitys company to expand and make more
similar facilities. Since fish markets are getting the tuna they need, there is less tuna being
harvested by fishing companies. There are studies that show these results. For example, in 2011
BFT aquaculture constituted 18% of global BFT production (Metian). More tuna sold from
aquaculture means less taken out of the ocean. Aquaculture allows the oceans fish populations to
grow and stabilize on their own without the stress from overfishing.
When aquaculture is stable in producing fish sustainably, there will need to be
international treaties put in place that restrict commercial fishing. In order to get as many
countries as possible to sign the treaty, there needs to be ample amounts of evidence proving that
overfishing is not sustainable. Studies would need to be taken from multiple countries, so not to
be biased. The studies would all need to show the decline in species populations and a forecast
for what the populations will be if fishing is continued without change. Once countries start to
agree there would need to be a council held to discuss the rules and punishment for breaking the
rules for every country that signs. The treaty will need to follow the Kyoto Protocol in that they
have compliance regimes. These regimes would be focusing on assisting party states to achieve
compliance rather than punishing non-compliance (Fitzmaurice). This helps keep peace within
the countries involved. The one rule that has to be included in the treaty is a police of some kind
that will be in charge of monitoring the oceans and fish markets for any kind of illegal fishing
operation. In a perfect world aquaculture would completely replace the need to fish
The treaty will need to focus on reducing the reliance on fishing and increasing the reliance on
aquaculture. Once all steps are followed correctly a sustainable aquaculture community will have
been created and there will be immediate results of increasing fish populations.

Curtis 5
While aquaculture is the best option for increasing fish population, it may not be healthy
for humans. If the fish are not fed correctly, it will cause health problems in people who get most
of their nutrients from fish. The aquaculture fish will not have all the nutrients and vitamins that
the native fish have, so children and adults will start to have certain deficiencies that correspond
to what the fish is lacking. Another problem could arise from fish like livestock being fed
antibiotics in order to stop the spread of diseases. The fish grown through aquaculture will have
very similar problems to livestock grown for food. Overall these problems can be fixed through
careful management and strict health regulations. Livestock is the same as aquaculture except
one is in water and one is on land. This just shows that aquaculture will soon be as big as the
livestock industry.
Overfishing may still work right now, but in the long run it is not sustainable. Eventually
there will not be enough fish in the water for the amount of people on earth. This will cause
widespread hunger and a crash of the worlds economy. Farming fish will solve all of these
problems because if done correctly is will be sustainable. Aquaculture will increase the fish
population while simultaneously feeding the growing human population.

Curtis 6
Works Cited
Craig, Steven, and L. A. Helfrich. "Understanding Fish Nutrition, Feeds, and Feeding." Virginia
Cooperative Extension. Virginia Tech, 1 May 2009. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
Cousteau, Jean-Michel, and Jaclyn Mandoske. "The Future of Sustainable Fish Farming." The
Future of Sustainable Fish Farming. Ocean Futures Society, 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 14 Apr.
2016.
Fitzmaurice, Malgosia. "THE KYOTO PROTOCOL COMPLIANCE REGIME AND TREATY
LAW." EBSCO. N.p., 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
Metian, Marc, Simon Pouil, Andre Boustany, and Max Troell. "Farming of Bluefin Tuna
Reconsidering Global Estimates and Sustainability Concerns." EBSCO. N.p., 1 July
2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. 16th ed. Belmont, CA:
Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning, 2007. Print.
"World Population Projected to Reach 9.7 Billion by 2050 | UN DESA | United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs." UN News Center. UN, 29 July 2015. Web.
14 Apr. 2016.