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🐟 Fishing series: From the fishing rod to ultra-productive fish farms: Difference between revisions
🐟 Fishing series: From the fishing rod to ultra-productive fish farms (view source)
Revision as of 15:54, 26 February 2020
, 26 February 2020→The fishing industry is divided in 2 categories:
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When comparing these 2 percentages, it is quite astonishing to notice that the act of “catching fish”, aka “capture fishery” actually only represents half of the industry. The other half is organized around “fish farms”, a technic known as Aquaculture. | When comparing these 2 percentages, it is quite astonishing to notice that the act of “catching fish”, aka “capture fishery” actually only represents half of the industry. The other half is organized around “fish farms”, a technic known as Aquaculture. | ||
Let us also note that the value of capture fishery is said<ref name=FAO /> to have reached $130 billion in 2016, while aquaculture was estimated at $232 billion. This proves how profitable this quite “unknown” practice is and explains why it is considered to be the fastest growing sector of the food industry (around 6% growth per year)<ref>In the 90%, the aquaculture sector was growing at a double digit rate, ≈10% per year</ref>. One reason to explain the lack of awareness in the western world towards the scale of Aquaculture production is the fact that Asia represents nearly 90%<ref>Estimated at 89.4% in 2016</ref> of the industry, with China<ref>China alone produced more farmed-fish than the rest of the world combined every year since 1991</ref> alone producing 61.5%. 49%<ref>Percentage by value</ref> of China’s aquaculture production will then be exported to | Let us also note that the value of capture fishery is said<ref name=FAO /> to have reached $130 billion in 2016, while aquaculture was estimated at $232 billion. This proves how profitable this quite “unknown” practice is and explains why it is considered to be the fastest growing sector of the food industry (around 6% growth per year)<ref>In the 90%, the aquaculture sector was growing at a double digit rate, ≈10% per year</ref>. One reason to explain the lack of awareness in the western world towards the scale of Aquaculture production is the fact that Asia represents nearly 90%<ref>Estimated at 89.4% in 2016</ref> of the industry, with China<ref>China alone produced more farmed-fish than the rest of the world combined every year since 1991</ref> alone producing 61.5%. 49%<ref>Percentage by value</ref> of China’s aquaculture production will then be exported to neighboring Asian countries, Americas and, at a smaller scale, Europe. Other large producers include: India (7%), Indonesia (6%), Viet Nam (4.5%), Egypt (1.7%) and Norway (1.7%). | ||
How to explain the exponential growth of the sector? Appart from being extremely productive and practical, what Aquaculture allows is to make use of land where the conditions of the soil and the chemical properties of the water make the land inhospitable for conventional food grain crops or pasture. This applies to, either polluted, over-farmed or | How to explain the exponential growth of the sector? Appart from being extremely productive and practical, what Aquaculture allows <i>in theory</i> is to make use of land where the conditions of the soil and the chemical properties of the water make the land inhospitable for conventional food grain crops or pasture. This applies to, either polluted, over-farmed or deserted terrains. It also allows countries with limited access to the sea to produce fish at a large scale. More than often, however, fish farmers go as far as setting their farms on either: healthy soil, or terrains resulting from the deforestation of peat soils or mangroves. | ||
== So what is Aquaculture and “fish farming”? == | == So what is Aquaculture and “fish farming”? == | ||