Global Fish Crisis

80% of the world’s fish stocks are now ranked as over-fished, depleted or fully exploited.  Without sustainable aquaculture it is likely that fish will disappear from our oceans and from our diets.   

Unfortunately, farmed carnivorous fish (such as salmon and tuna) also contribute to the future of empty oceans and empty nets – latest reports suggest that it takes 4 to 5 kg of wild fish to produce 1kg of farmed salmon as they require 50-60% of their feed to be fish oil and fishmeal.  In comparison, Lake Harvest tilapia is fed with 5% of fish oil and fishmeal.  

The industry uses a fish-in fish-out ratio which shows the significant differences between salmon and tilapia:

Salmon                    4.9 : 1 

Tilapia                      0.4 : 1

(Tacon & Metian 2008)

The United Nation’s FAO reports that fish populations targeted for fish oil will be depleted within SIX years and those targeted for fishmeal will be depleted by 2030.  Aquaculture that depends on high levels of fish meal and oil input can destabilize the marine food web with a negative impact on marine wildlife.

As aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of world food economy, Lake Harvest wants to pioneer the importance of sustainability.  We do not want to see fish disappearing from our diets.