Aquaculture Can Help Feed the World's Growing Populatin

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Much like land, the Ocean holds bounty for humans, the riches coming in the form of fish. With 90 million tons of seafood being fished from the ocean every year (Walsh, Ramzy and Horn). The Ocean, once looked at as an endless source of food, has continued to become more depleted over the last five decades. The Food and Agriculture Organization reports” that 32% of global fish stocks are overexploited, depleted or recovering and in need to be urgently rebuilt”. (“The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture”) While larger species of fish such as marlin, swordfish and tuna have been fished out by as much as 90% (“The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture”). As the world’s populations grew to 7 billion people, so did its taste for fish. Today, global demand for seafood has reached 38 pounds of fish per year, The United States alone eats 7 million pound of seafood annually, (Walsh, Ramzy and Horn) And the United States Departments of Agriculture (USDA) recently upped the recommended consumption of seafood to more than twice what the average American eats today, now 8 oz. or more a week (www.cnpp.usda.govs). With the worlds fishing fleets wild catch plateauing in the mid 90’s (Walsh, Ramzy and Horn), the Oceans wild fisheries can simply no longer keep up with global demands for seafood, not alone, anyways.
Aquaculture can help the ocean feed the worlds growing population and in turn, help the ocean to replenish the wild catch fisheries.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, “the propagation and rearing of aquatic organisms in controlled or selected environments,” as defined by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.nmfs.noaa.gov/aquaculture). Aquaculture has been around for thousands of years, with evidence of fish...

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...en farmed and wild-caught fish, as well as the total supply of fish available for human consumption, will depend on future aquaculture practices (Walsh, Ramzy and Horn),

Worked Cited
Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA): The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture. (2010). Web. 01 Dec. 2013
Department of Agriculture (USDA): www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines. (2010). Web. 01 Dec.2013
Sharpless, Andy. Interview by Esther Sung .The Perfect Protein: Q&A with Andy Sharpless, 2013. Web. 01 DEC. 2013.
Simpson, Sarah. "The Blue Food Revolution." Scientific American 304.2 (2011): 54-61. EBSCO. Web. 17 Sept. 2013.
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): www.nmfs.noaa.gov/aquaculture. (2013). Web. 01 DEC. 2013.
Walsh, Bryan, Austin Ramzy, and Robert Horn. "The End Of The Line." Time 178.3 (2011): 28-36. EBSCO. Web. 17 Sept. 2013.

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