Press release on the occasion of World Oceans Day, 8th June

One third of wild-caught fish end up in the meat and poultry industries and in aquaculture

About 80 million tons of marine animals are caught every year in the world's oceans; although it is generally known that overfishing is pushing marine life to the brink of collapse: an alarming 80% of the world's fish stocks are depleted, overfished or fished to their sustainable limits. And in predatory fish populations such as tuna, there has been about a 90% decrease.

Despite these alarming figures, one-third of all fish caught in the wild are not destined for human consumption but according to The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are processed to make fish meal and fish oil to be incorporated in the animal feed for chickens, pigs and for aquaculture. Such a waste of natural resources has been criticised by the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund that fights to preserve the marine ecosystem.

It turns out to be a myth that aquaculture is the sustainable and resource-saving solution to overfishing. In fact, to produce one kilo of farmed salmon, it takes five kilos of wild fish used to make fishmeal and fish oil. Tuna farming takes even more; around 20 kilograms of feed is required to produce just 1 kilogram of tuna. Fish, which provide an important source of animal protein ingredients in most developing countries, are thereby being wasted tremendously.

All this is accompanied by a massive environmental degradation: The production of farmed salmon in southern Chile has led to the destruction of the coastal land areas and coastal waters, since antiparasitic drugs and antibiotics used in mariculture (farming of marine organisms in cages in the ocean) may flow out of production facilities into open water without being filtered. Vast tracts of mangrove forests have been destroyed to make way for shrimp farms in Ecuador. Water is contaminated with antibiotics, massive tracts of land are destroyed, unique ecosystems are degraded – that’s the end result of aquaculture.

Fish meal and oil are also used to provide livestock with essential nutrients. In this field, the ecological aspect of aquaculture is not the only one but it is associated with various health problems: meat and eggs that come from animals fed on fish-meal frequently contain high levels of methyl mercury and dioxins. About a year ago, the Ministry of Agriculture of Lower Saxony banned the sale of meat after it was revealed that chickens and pigs had eaten feed contaminated with dangerous levels of dioxins.

The fish meal was banned from feedstuffs in the wake of the BSE crisis, but then the regulations on food were eased again: since autumn 2008, the European Union has permitted the feeding of fishmeal to unweaned ruminants, such as calves and lambs, in liquid milk replacer. As a result, the herbivores fed on fish-meal have been turned into carnivores. The health consequences of this process for people have not been sufficiently explored.

On the occasion of World Oceans Day, the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund once again pointed out that neither fish farming and aquaculture nor adding meat into a diet as a replacement for fish is the right way to stop overfishing.
“Both aspects mutually depend on each other” explained Dr. Maike Förster, biologist and scientific consultant of SAVE. “Whoever wants to make an effective contribution to marine protection, must decide to do without meat and fish for some time; at last until fish stocks have recovered to levels that the natural balance of the ecosystem has been restored”. At the same time, SAVE finds it indispensable to return to traditional environmentally-friendly fishing methods. This means, above all: thumbs down for the use of trawl nets, which stretch for miles and are responsible for deaths of marine creatures, such as sea turtles and dolphins.