The future of food from the sea

“The future of food from the sea” is the title of an important article recently published in the scientific Journal Nature by Costello et al. 2020 (read the article click here). The article describes the need for improved fishery management and a mariculture reform as ways to produce as much animal protein from the sea as possible.

Max Mossler, Sustainable Fisheries UW, has written an explainer on the article that covers the science behind the article, the context of global food production, and what policy could look like by 2050. Read the explainer click here.

Because fishmeal and fish oil are limited resources, the development of technology to supplement fish meal and oil is a big variable in how much food can be produced from the ocean. Researchers ran scenarios reducing fishmeal and fish oil requirements by 50% or 95% from current levels—those technological breakthroughs would increase food supply by 17.2 billion kg and 174.5 billion kg respectively. Fed mariculture currently produces 6.8 billion kg of food per year.