aquaculture

Roland K Mod 9 3/16/15 Question: What benefits can arise from the further/continuing development of aquaculture? Thesis: The continued growth of aquaculture will benefit the United States, dramatically improving our personal health, and moving us towards being a leader in the Aquaculture Industry Outline: Imagine a beautiful blue covering around 71 % of the world! Inside of this is over hundreds of thousands of different species. This is the ocean, and its inhabitants. Farming these inhabitants in specific areas is called Aquaculture. Since the 1970’s and 1980’s, U.S Aquaculture and seafood in general have been a vital part of the way the U.S works. Numbers have shown that since the 1970’s and 1980’s, the U.S has consumed 28 more percent of seafood overall from 1980 to 2008. As another source puts it, since 1973 we have more than doubled the amount of seafood we eat. Not only are humans eating fish and other aquacultural products, but other animals are eating aquacultural products because of the creation of fish feed. With the meteoric rise of aquaculture over the past decades, many are wondering whether or not we can provide further benefits for aquaculture. However, this is not the only matter. Others are wondering if we can even keep the benefits that we are currently getting from the Aquacultural industry. The Government, with now so many issues to handle, are wondering whether or not aquaculture can create and keep benefits by the further development of aquaculture. The answer the Government should have is that the continued growth of aquaculture will benefit the United States, dramatically improving our personal health, and moving us towards being a leader in the Aquaculture Industry. First off, aquaculture is the process of farming organisms in the ocean, specifically cultivating oceanic populations under a controlled environment. In short, it is farming (growing/raising in certain environments) animals/plants in the sea such as fish, crustaceans, and algae, and then selling them to the open market. This is different from commercial fishing, which is where you catch fish, but not for the purpose of developing fish. Commercial Fishing’s purpose is to simply catch fish and sell them for the goal of making money. This implies that they aren’t necessarily as careful when it comes to making sure certain types of species are being left to survive. However, Aquaculture makes sure to preserve the biodiversity of life in the sea, and prioritizing preventing the extinction of aquatic species. In essence, Aquaculture’s primary goal is to sell sea products, but also continue to develop and preserve them for as long as possible. But because of Commercial Fishing, this results in overfishing. An effect of overfishing is the hinderance of the growth of aquatic species, possible extinction of species, and the overall population of aquatic species. There are two types of aquaculture: pisciculture and mariculture. Pisciculture is the method of ​
raising fish in enclosed environments, usually with the purpose of raising fish as our food but at the same time preserving their lives. This varies from mariculture, which is where there is the farming of marine species in the open ocean, a part of the ocean, or areas filled with seawater. Pisciculture is with the purpose of commercialization, while Mariculture is just for the of raising life. Now, another thing to address is trends of the industry. Aquaculture has grown in production over the past 50 years to now an equivalent production of 68.3 million and 106 billion dollar production. Not only that, but aquaculture is responsible for 50 percent of the world’s fish food supply. The reason aquaculture has flourished so much is because of the demand for food resources, the growth of our economy, and the opportunity to export other areas. However, these factors have not been reached to their full capabilities, and require more effort and pursuit to create an unstoppable industry. Another piece of information regarding Aquaculture is another statistic showing the true rise in the Aquaculture industry. It’s already ever­so popular and is one of the fastest growing parts of society. Farmed fish is now one of the things we normally have, even with subtle changes to the actual fish. To compare this growth, a statistic shows that in the 1970’s only 6 % of our fish came from aquaculture. But 36 years later, specifically 2006, it has nearly jumped to almost 50 %! What is even crazier is that by 2015, it is predicted that the amount of food production from aquaculture is projected to be at around 39%! That is more than ⅓, which shows how important Aquaculture has become for us. Now, the next thing this speech will provide is how and why aquaculture provides healthy benefits. The reason why fish is considered to be so healthy is because of its large amounts of proteins and amino acids, making it even healthier than certain foods made on land. Also, fish oils have the ability to reduce piling of cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular diseases and cancers, which are both strong health benefits. Another reason why Fish have such a great health future is because facilities can monitor the quantity and quality food fish receive. This affects the amounts of fat and flavor in the fish, which when done correctly, can create immense nutritional benefits for the fish. And since some areas don’t fish, we would be providing these healthy benefits globally. But, to insure Aquaculture will provide promising health benefits, we must put more development into the idea. As we produce more and more, the facilities producing will have to make more products for raising the fish. Or, they will lower the quality of the products, with the results most likely being the latter. This would have a disastrous affect on people’s health and also aquaculture facilities. Furthermore, the lower qualities of facilities can result in residue from the hazardous products they used to feed this fish, which would harm consumers by putting unhealthy chemicals into our bodies. If we research, we can have a better understanding of health and ways to reduce risks. Fish and fish oil consists of high protein. They have nutritional benefits such as a balanced amount of amino acids, its high­digestibility, a consistent nutritional supply, and widespread habitats. Fish oil has high health benefits because it’s strong in omega 3 fatty acids. This has shown to produce healthier diets, which also helps produce healthier products. Thus, fish would not only be healthy source, but also things like roe would be very suitable as well. Aquaculture is also key for animal health because with our demand for quality health products to fight against sickness, we need to be able to develop new drugs (medical purpose) and other medication in order to fulfill this demand and need. The future for Aquaculture can be bright, but it depends on how we develop and address this industry. For example, The crustacean sector of aquaculture still depends upon fishers for gains in nutrition such as fish meal. Reliance on this is clearly shown for finfish and shrimp. However, these crustaceans and fish will eventually be depended on to provide a source of food for us, the humans. We were projected in 2006 to consume 3724 thousand tonnes of fish oil or 16.6 million tons of fish. However, species such as salmon, trout, eel, and other fish have been decreasing in number since 1995. This is troublesome, and if we falter, it would most likely because our dependance, our future (fish), is destroyed along with us. If we don’t develop these industries, we will fail. But if we engage more with the Aquaculture industry, we will flourish. Another reason why we should develop Aquaculture is because there is a growing likelihood that our future conflicts will be caused because of the feud over resources. Even war precedents have shown this to be true. For example, researchers point to the French and Russian Revolutions being caused by lack of food. The scale of conflict could be even greater due to the growing human population. Governments are also aware of this as well, for even the CIA and UK Ministry of Defense acknowledged famine to be a huge catalyst for war. What this shows me is the disturbing lack of resources can lead to. Even the CIA, one of the smartest groups in terms of identifying problems, admitted famine was a huge problem! If we don’t address food insecurity, global conflicts may be on the horizon. Fish is a huge food source in areas like Africa and Asia. If this falling of fish were to occur, Asia and Africa would go through a huge food struggle (and potentially fighting others for resources). Also, if fish were to cease to exist, the marine ecosystem would be wrecked. By removing a huge group in the ecosystem, many different animals in the food chain would unnaturally grow in abundance. This would also be a very unpredictable situation, something we can’t afford to have. This stresses the need to invest in the development of aquaculture! If not, we won’t even have a future, as this evidence describes. And although some argue that this increase in production is a bad thing, I disagree. By having higher food production, it will result in more job opportunities for everyone. More jobs for everyone will result in a better economy! Adding to that, more food in the world will also mean less value for these products. This could mean the lowering of food prices, which everyone would be happy with! Another question that people may have is why do we specifically need Aquaculture, rather than other forms of fishing? It’s because if we don’t our future will die!In 1950, we had estimated we were catching 20 million tons of seafood. It eventually came to 90 million in 1980, but would fall over the years, and still to current day. Now, instead of limiting amounts of fish we catch so we can keep the living cycle to continue, we are fishing until every single fish has been caught and eaten. Eventually, the fishing industry will have a major collapse. As a result, the world’s largest ecosystem will fall with it. Research estimates that by 2048, fish will be in major peril. If this happens, the possibilities are devastating, such as economic collapse and possible warfare. Something I would also like to bring up before the end of this speech is on our current importing reliance. The U.S’s frequent consumption of seafood has been growing for some time now, having increased 28 % overall from 1980 to 2008. In 2008, U.S citizens spent a total 46.8 Billion Dollars for fishery products. Farmed seafood has the type of food we look for because it has a predictable supply trend and also because of its freshness. Yet despite consuming so much, we import 84 % of the seafood we consume, with a value of nearly 14.2 Billion Dollars. This statistic made us the world’s leading importer of fishery products, and also helped to create a 10 Billion dollar trade deficit in 2007. Well, where do we get all of these products? From primarily developing countries in places such as Asia. Unfortunately, it seems unrealistic for us to keep on depending on them. As our total human population increases, demand for aquafood will surely skyrocket because of its dietary importance to developing countries. Research done estimates that by 2050, our population will DOUBLE! And, with the inevitable disputes over the seafood economy, it could potentially disrupt the multibillion dollar industry. Consequently, things like imports can be stripped from us. If we don’t invest in developing our oceans and the things within them, we will have only a miniscule amount of seafood resources to hold onto. Overall, the continued growth of aquaculture will benefit the United States, dramatically improving our personal health, and moving us towards being a leader in the Aquaculture Industry. To think the fate of the U.S could potentially depend on such a seemingly weak organism is somewhat ironic. Now, with a full sense of the risks and ideas, it is imperative that we address this issue and build towards the future. Works Cited 14, Aquaculture 285 (2008). ​
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