According to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service, total global fish production, including both wild capture fish and aquaculture, reached an all-time high of 154 million tons in 2011, and aquaculture is set to top 60 percent of production by 2020, reports TheFishSite.com.
Wild capture was 90.4 million tons in 2011, up two per cent from 2010. Aquaculture, in contrast, has been expanding steadily for the last 25 years and saw a rise of 6.2 per cent in 2011, write report authors Danielle Nierenberg and Katie Spoden, Worldwatch Institute.
“Growth in fish farming can be a double-edged sword,” said Ms Nierenberg, co-author of the report and Director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project. “Despite its potential to affordably feed an ever-growing global population, it can also contribute to problems of habitat destruction, waste disposal, invasions of exotic species and pathogens, and depletion of wild fish stock.”
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