On today’s episode, I’m tackling F is for Farmed Fish and Faux Fish.
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Did you know by 2050 with our growing global population, we will need seven percent more protein to feed the world than we have today?
Some of that protein will be farmed fish and some will be fake fish.
Welcome to the F is for Farmed Fish part of the program. Today we’ll explore what farmed fish or aquaculture is, what types of farming are practiced, best edible seafood species to farm, some aquaculture challenges, and lastly success stories in aquaculture around the world.
What is aquaculture?
Aquaculture, or farmed fish, is the rearing and harvesting of fish in water environments for human consumption.
Now anyone who knows me knows I believe that aquaculture will help feed our growing global population, reduce the stresses on wild fish populations while restoring habitats, and will strengthen our food security too. Aquaculture, when done right provides an energy-efficient, hi-protein, low-fat resource.
There are numerous methods of fish farming or aquaculture

* Aquaponics
* Raceways
* Recirculating aquaculture systems known as RAS in the industry
* Open ocean pens
* Sea cages
* Suspension ropes
* Racks and lines (oysters, scallops, mussels, algae)
* Ponds (shrimp, tilapia, mullet and bream)
* Surface lines
* Sea ranching (scallops and cucumbers)

Some farming methods are better than others. But because the list is long and time is limited, if you would like to know more about a specific farming method, shoot me an email. But know this, 95 percent of aquaculture is done in ponds. In the US, 85 percent of aquaculture is done in a RAS.
Of the hundreds of edible seafood’s, which are the best to farm?

* Shellfish, clams, oysters, mussels (all filter feeders leaving the water in better shape than before)
* Kelp (seaweed)
* Crustaceans (shrimp—the world’s most beloved seafood)
* Finfish

Did you know that 50 percent of all fish consumed is farmed? And friends, that number is only going to rise.
And since 50 percent of all fish is farmed and our global population is growing, the need for successful aquaculture is literally a matter of life and death.
Now aquaculture has been around for over 4000 years, first developed in China. In the US, the aquaculture industry blossomed in the 1970s. But not without its challenges.
So what are the challenges of farmed fish?
One of the biggest challenges with aquaculture is fish feed. Both the ingredient list and the FIFO, or the fish in fish our ratio.
Fish need protein. And lots of it. Much of that feed ingredient comes from wild fisheries in the form of fish oil and fishmeal and from pelagic species like anchovies and sardines.
Wild fisheries that we are overfishing.
So here’s a little something to chew on before I dive into the challenges of farmed fish feed.
We already know that 90 percent of the large fisheries, shark, whales, Pacific Blue Fin tuna have collapsed. Wild Atlantic salmon and New England cod are two prime examples of a species that were fished to near extinction. In the last fifty years, fifty-one marine species are extinct due to overfishing.
Overfishing is at a crisis level.
We’re depleting wild fish species to feed farmed fish!
Yeah. That’s crazy, right?
Fortunately, that’s changing for the better. We’ll look at some solutions in a few minutes.
But let’s dig in a little more about the feed.
Fish are the most efficient converters of food to flesh. Or fish in fish out called FIFO in the industry.