Can we farm the ocean without destroying it?
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2024
- The oceans cover 70% of the world’s surface, but they only supply 2% of its food. Farming fish, the fastest growing food production activity in the world, could change that. But even though it’s been practiced for thousands of years, it still poses environmental challenges. Can we change that?
Reporter: Kai Steinecke
Camera: Tomas McDonagh
Video Editor: Kai Steinecke
Supervising Editor: Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann
We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world - and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
#PlanetA #FishFarming #OceanFarming
Read more:
Environmental performance of blue foods: www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
Background on Feed Conversion Ratio: www.globalseafood.org/advocat...
Carbon footprint comparison of two farming models for producing Atlantic salmon: www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:35 The Feed Problem
4:39 The Energy Problem
6:32 Toxic Fish Poop
7:49 Shellfish's Power
9:06 Magic Seaweed
11:07 Conclusion
We apologize for the bad sound quality in parts of the video - we only noticed it once we were safely back on land and it was too late 😔
It's all good aw planet
Aw
Unfortunately on the coast of the Pacific Northwest, specifically British Columbia, the salmon "farms are being completely shut down. Why? Lice and the excrement is seriously affecting the wild species of 3 types of salmon as well as the food for those salmon.
The resident Orca whales are losing the salmon numbers due to the loss of salmon habitats and the production of vehicle tires made from plastics that contain 6PPD which, when in water and air contact converts to a deadly toxin for salmon and trout.
Check out the materials in your own tires, find out what they're composed of, and realize that if they're plastics, your water systems have microplastics and ozone chemicals draining into water systems.
Maybe best to repost with correct audio levels?
Hi @@DC9848, unfortunately, that isn't possible at the moment but please feel free to turn on the subtitles 🙂
FCR (Feed conversion ratio) is somewhat misleading. The "feed" is very different for the animals being compared. Fish needs a high protein content feed, while the protein content ( and sometimes moisture content) in the feed for other animals are different. Better to look at protein retention. This puts for example poultry on an equal efficiency as fish farming. If fed without fish meal, then you drastically reduce the harm to the marine environment.
Even better than that would be calculating calories per dollar or calories in calories out
FCR of 1 shown in the video seemed awfully suspicious. its like the fish don't poop at all to get a ratio of 1
@@DogeMultiverse That is because the feed is dry, while the fish is not. If you would have taken the same feed, and added water to it so it would have the same water content as the fish the FCR would decrease as the weight of the feed increases because of the added weight of the water. FCR thus implies that "wet" feed is worse that dried feed, which is just ridiculous. This is what I mean that the measurement is very misleading.
@@Saalor100 I'm not proficient in the matter and won't claim to be. From the information here in this thread, I infer how dry feed is inherently better than wet in, if nothing else, shipping costs.
The major factor in shipping of anything is density (weight relative to volume). If an animal feed is water dense, the reduced shipping costs for transporting it become huge. Add in that there is likely also no added cost or effort when the water is added back and that cost differential becomes even more significant.
@@FlyingDwarfman I agree regarding the shipping costs, but the point of FCR is to measure how efficient an feed is converted into the mass of the animal. One flaw in the measurement is that it does not account for the feed composition or dryness. For example would it be more efficient to put effort in raising animals with an FCR of 1, when the feed is dehydrated waigu beef, or animals with an FCR of 0.5 where the feed is grass ( purely hypothetical). It is better to look on how well (mainly) the protein in the feed is preserved into the final product.
I know they sort of target different species of fish but I feel like no matter the impact this kind of farming/fishing has, it has to be immensely better than bottom trawling KMs of ocean floor, just sucks that the fish food is most likely a result from mass/unsustainable fishing endeavors.
@@someguy2135 If Omega-3 can be sourced from algae... that makes fish excrements really valuable?
Absolutely. Plus, its ten times better than cows. Instead of switching fish for seaweed we could grow a little less cows and a lot more fish.
@@someguy2135 The problem with seaweed eating is that is cuts out seaweed for many marine animals. I just want to have plant protoplasm implanted in my skin and I can get energy directly from the sun
I was legit angry for most of the video that you weren’t talking about seaweed….but then you got around to it!
I’m ok with farming fish, but I’m waaaay more interested in farming seaweed and moving more of my diet to incorporate that.
Seaweed is great. But it's unfortunate that too much focus is put on the mass growth rate, when most of the weight is water.
@@Saalor100 good point. Personally, I’m mostly excited about how nutrient dense it can be while also providing filtering for the water that it’s grown in.
@@someguy2135 We do need meat to survive. Veganism is incredibly unhealthy.
Not convincing me!! Fish for life
@@someguy2135 or, do not get children.
as a former fish farmer, we can do it sustainably, just not profitably. It's not about whose making money in this business, it's about who is going out of business slowest.
I mean, if they overfish the stocks, they’re going to run out of revenue sources anyway. Unless they only care about stockpiling their money.
It would be interesting to test the quality of that water.
Everybody trying hard to be a buzzkill know it all.
@@noahway13 Or anyone who has been paying attention for the last 50 years knows that any industrial activity comes with serious consequences on the environment.
I'm not surprised by your conclusions. I'm glad you joined the Marine Institute to get the low-down. I gather that another issue with salmon feed is that it may be made from fish which were harvested from Africa's west coast, depriving many people of food and income.
When I was young I used to watch the mat Geo, discovery chanels .
Now found DW as their representative and find it even better.
A very personable host! For an otherwise "boring" topic, it was presented with quick edits and engaging visuals
Interesting video, so by quadrupling the size of the scallop & algae farm next to fish farm, you will reduce the fish pollution problem by 50-60%? I have also seen concepts where the whole fish farm is movable and operates in the sea rather than a bay. In theory you could have larger nets at sea so the fish have more space to roam
"we are running out of land to produce food"
Not really, we are running out of land to produce food for animals :D Producing animal calories is pretty damn inefficient.
I'm just praying for a day we can precisely genetically engineer animals into vegetables, grow them like lettuce in vertical farms, inject them with nutrient solution and electronically stimulate muscles to artificially produce some stress.
I really look forward to lab grown meat. But at the same time you can't replicate actual animal animal meat and other parts people enjoy eating with it. Before that though, I think we really need to think about how to manage our consumption, and not just food.
Steak on trees :D
really interesting. I would like to learn more. I live in LatinAmerica and few kilometers from the ocean. This is an alternative that needs to be evaluated.
Great points. But the farms that will be running these systems will most likely disregard the guidelines.
Kai is a great presenter. He has great energy and enthusiasm for sustainability.
Thank you for the good information. We're glad you came to Ireland
Thank you for the message in the end! 🙂
The problem with fishmeal is that it depleting West African oceans by trawlers and leaving the ocean with verery little and West African families starving, and many West African youth dying in the ocean trying to get to Europe to find work. So fishmeal is no solution
They should try fish farms.
The fish waste can easily be "consumed" by plant life as a "filter" system.
Which means you will impact the environment by artificially boosting food resources for some species… necessarily at the expense of other species. Which species will thrive ? which species will become extinct from that ecosystem ?
These industries have been playing god for too long. This should be seriously regulated on a precautionary principle.
also, the thousands of species of nearly microscopic planktons and microscopic planktons which already eat and filter all the fish poop and fish waste
people should eat more kelp.
kelp has too much iodine and so can damage your thyroid if you aren’t careful
rather eat nori and wakame
I learned a lot from this video. Thanks
Yeah there's good and bad practices for ocean farming just like agriculture on land
exactly
Great show.
Hats of to Mr. Wan for the call out to them issues. telling it as it is
I work in the land-based aquaculture industry, and I have always been taught that land-based systems are the most environmentally friendly. Therefore, I was quite surprised by your statement at 05:50. Could you provide a link to the study you mentioned? I'm curious to know how accurate it is. If it turns out to be true, it will come as a major shock to all my colleagues. From my understanding, we utilize degassers to mitigate CO2 emissions.
Love you Kai ❤️
This is so awesome and cool. If you are an aquarist or just having an understand of how nitrogen cycle and bacterial growth work, this feels like one HUGE sump and refugium just out in the ocean xD. Well, this is what it's like in the nature and refugium is the ecosystem we tried to replicate in the first place anyway.
I have a Minecraft strategy that might solve the hunger crisis. I usually dig a 64x64 meter square, and within that sqaure, I make multiple levels of farms in this huge underground farm. All the minerals I get from the digging, can be sold or traded with other people on the server.
I would have loved if you had elaborated more on fish alternatives (based on seaweed). The options you mention make sense, but you say it yourself at the end. We need options that do not include eating fish, so why not show how that works.
Well done DW. Factual journalism is possible!
FYI .... Just because fishes have lower FCR doesn't imply that they are better than cattles. Cattles even though they have FCR around 10 are more efficient at converting low grade food material like grass into its own body weight. While fishes since they have poorly developed digestive system requires higher quality of feed. Hence we can't directly compare the FCR as an efficiency of their growth
Using fish to feed fish is obviously unsustainable.
i want to work in this kind of field
Gonna be the guy to say seaweed aren't plants, they're protists.
And they don't taste like fish
They can not replace fish
Is there a way to farm plants and animals that are specially talored to extract manmade chemicals out of the ocean? For example, maybe we can grow algae in locations that have fertilizer runoff and extract the biodiesel or we can genetically modify seaweeds to absorb pollutants and sewage out of rivers.
Awesome video! Whats the name of the song in the intro
yea i would like to know as well
Pls do a bit about insect proteins. I have a snack insect starter kit and i talk about high protein and calories i can really see it being a big part if the Future. I don‘t indulge much coz… calorie’s… but i can see me mixing them in my veg…
Thought i still have to figour out how to cool them. The taste is there and while im not a picky eater. Im not used to it yet
Great presenter!
2nd Error . Kelp kept adjacent to & in fish farms can host small skulpin fish whose main job is eating & controlling sea lice.
Interesting!
You should do a video about this in norway becuse we do it a whole different way
While this is great ideas and should be explored since the more food produced the more we can drive the price of foods down. We are not running out of farmable land. In fact, in the US, we have consistently cut back on how much land we use from year to year. That's due in large part to better agricultural methods.
Making the synth solo 27.5.22 1506pm No Loiter were a made up band who happened to be 2 fellas posing for a photo for myself - as we messed about in Manchester one evening. i hope they did attempt to create some music of a synth nature as that would have been pretty cool... remember the name No Loiter - they were supposed to perform with faux german accents...
I wonder if seaweed reduces methane production in humans like it does with cows... I also wonder how much less of an impact on the environment is the polyculture fish farm compared to, say a cattle ranch producing the same amount of protein.
I liked the video very much, but I strongly disagree with the reporters conclusion. Of course there are emissions in farming, but there are also emissions in farming plants. I really think this farming technology is awesome and should be replicated. I hope scientists find a way around the fishmeal.
Agreed, and also fyi, commercial salmon fish feeds are currently available with 0% fishmeal, but average around 10% in the commercial application if memory serves. Dependent on national laws many companies use trimmings from fish and poultry which would otherwise go to waste, as their protein source. Side note, fish meal from wild-caught fish is commonly sourced from trash fish that aren't fit for human consumption. One of the competitors in the use of fishmeal is the swine industry. but does the swine industry get any media coverage for using fishmeal in their diets.......?
Would growing lots of filter feeding shellfish outside the fish pens reduce the algae blooms?
Yes. They aren't growing enough here in this farm to absorb all of the nutrients, but it is entirely possible to do so. In fact it's possible to grow shellfish in massive enough quantities that you could theoretically grow enough to supply your fish farm with sea-based protein and still have shellfish leftover to sell at market. Or you could just skip the fish and grow nothing but shellfish and seaweed which need no nutrient inputs at all.
So they are pretty much filtering the water the way you would in saltwater tank, thats pretty cool.
Good one and very important topic. However - we do need these farms on land. The level of pollution is HUGE and as you can see hard to offset even by those who try. Most farms don’t. Also; what about the diseases and use of anti-biotics? - what about dioxins? - what about the heavy metals and substances used to clean the cages/nets? - and I could go on. That industry is a mess.
We are running out of land for food, only because we eat to much animal products. By reducing - and even better - cancelling animal products out of our foodsystem, we would not only eat more ethically ( the whole morality is also not enough talked about in this documentary) but also could feed the whole world population.
We should definitely do something about animal agriculture, but also, even with current production we produce enough food to feed 10 billion people, the economic system is the problem, not the amount of land available for agriculture.
How are we running out of land? Last I hear nearly 50% of the food produced goes to waste and landfills. How is this happening?
@@shepherds314 I think that’s more a problem with supermarkets and such stocking too much food in their stores.
Animals are a fundamental part of nature and need to be returned to other farming systems, not removed. We will go backwards even faster without animals involved.
A lot of land can't be used for human food, so the grains for animals are being grown there. Also some products that we consume are divided into two part, one for us, one for animals, like with corn for example. You also just forget about a lot of people, who have health problems and should eat meat. The real solution is lab meat - ethical and takes not too much place. Your takes are destructive (cause it would lower food production) and ignorant of meal traditions and health of a part of population. Hope you become a better vegan one day 👍
In One of my aquariums I have fish tadpoles freshwater clams and snails water is clearer longer than any other of my tanks.
We understand, but the difference in volume between voice-overs and that which is coming from the mics, is also a problem
The conclusion rubs me the wrong way. The question was "can we farm the ocean without destroying it" , not "can we farm the ocean with no environmental footprint/impact ." Of course the answer to the latter is no, how can you cultivate anything without having an effect on the local ecosystem?? What the video has clearly shown, however, is that the impact the farms have on the environment can be mitigated by careful planning and usage of the appropriate techniques where necessary. Why shift the goal post like that?
Because they had a political aim with their video rather than an informative aim.
To be completely honest we should start making floating habitats for people as well as finding good areas with large ocean currents to farm fish in high numbers which would indirectly feed other species possibly 10,000 of miles away. Not also mentioning one could get into the pearl industry if you use oysters for extra revenue.
0:00 No we have plenty of land to grow on, each suburb garden can produce a lot, but people just choose to have the automatic grass robot thats it.
Well it's not just by choice, many home owners associations force people to do the grass thing.
No, I don't believe that we can, not for the number of people we have.
the crux of the matter is the fishfeed made from fish.
so basically eating farmed fish ist the same as eating caught fish multiplied by their FCR.
and since fish feed ingredient is usually caught using ground net trawlers, it is the worst!
considering the state of our oceans we need to have a (at least) 10 year hiatus on commercial fishing.
So cruel to do to salmon! Such amazing creatures. No animals deserve this!
I would guess FCR is very different depending type of food an animal eats. Cows eat grass so they have to metabolize it to make protein for growth. Salmon eat fish meal high in protein. In that way I'd say higher FCR does not mean the animal has bigger footprint - cow feed takes less out of nature systems than salmon feed.
Respect to Neil Ruane, Frank Kane and Joanne Casserly.👌
Most farms don't follow guidelines or even look the other way in testing, you need to research on Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) many companies cover it up and shut other out from speaking on it due to how its managed. Like everything else subsidized by government, to make money and disregard the real issues. If we remove damns and let salmon gain access to their original waters while stopping hatcheries, we may see a big rebound. Its happening on multiple waters but we need to see more!
I love fish 🤤
Man think put seaweed farms at the end of rivers like the Mississippi. All that juicy farm runoff would make them grow like gangbusters. And that's by far where most of the agriculture run off comes from.
Dw plantet A needs to talk about Ecosia they are a search engine that plants tress
bring video on how this world brand like cocacola food products company are doing to minimize the plastic pollution they created but do nothing to control it
Save Our Planet
Also we can feed the fish hemp seeds one of the highest and best quality omega 3s feed doesn’t have to come from fish
But China is already basically strip mining the ocean of fish. Like literally, all of it. Even territorial waters of literally every country with a coastline
Is there not a way to take all the fish poop and make it into exotic plant fertilizer or something???
That is what they are doing. They are using the fish poop to fertilize shellfish and seaweed.
5:55
Kelp is an algae.
This video starts on a complete fallacy. We are not running out of land to produce food. We already produce more than enough food for each person a few times over. The problem is infrastructure to get it to every single person. Let alone the corruption and graft that siphons the money and resources.
This is the best comment so far.
The world food production is estimated to produces food for 10 billion since before 2000's we are currently at 7.7 Billion indicating that every human on this plant can be fed with what we currently have. The west according to statements waist 1/3 of this annually due to supermarkets, transports and restaurants.. mean while children across the world go hungry where ever the US play games.
Good point! You might like our video on overconsumption and climate justice. Check out "Is overpopulation really a problem for the planet?" 👉 czcams.com/video/kUL-q7ptDW4/video.html
Yes, “we” can absolutely “farm” the ocean without destroying it.
3:30
It sounds like a well-oiled system. Sadly for me, what’s important is that fish suffer when they are pulled out from the water as their water bladder enlarges and causes them pain including their eyes popping out. I’ll stick to my vegetables for now.
Actually, there are ways to reduce fish suffering, like Ikejime, which should become the standard. I recall DW making a video on that, but can't remember the channel.
thats not true for shallow water such as salmon farming. Gas bubble disease and swim bladder expansion only happens when you rapidly pull a fish up from the deep. much like the bends in humans.
we can but at the higher cost. which not good with "Bussiness" so not much of ppl actually done.
Shalom, Salam, Peace. We Must Be Aware And Mindful, That We Are The Agents Of Planet Earth's Welfare, So Far We Have Not Learned.
Food production cannot be seperate from public life. This industrial seperation caused this. We're all so detached from our lives.
Getting rid of the fish should be the main focus of this video not just the last few seconds.
Why dont they just make the fishfarms portable? so the fishpoo gets spred..
Already doing it we are farming aquaculture with a flare we're growing Mullicks we're growing seaweed kelp snails all kinds of things that we never had before we're growing? See urchan, see cucumber
Houses are not even design to be sustainable and produce its own food like an eartship and futurefoodsystem
Bunch of dreamers
FCR is kinda a lie when presented in this manner, because you don't need such high quality feed for cows, they eat grass. When you take in to account the availability if grass, beef might be less energy cost.
Behavioural science:
Survival is translational - sexual is rotational.
This is where genetic engineering should come into play. Instead of antibiotics, use bacteriophages, or make salmon more resistant to disease. That’s how u can eliminate the chemical pollution problem.
"We need to get rid of the fish"...no we need to get rid of antibiotics!
7,999,963,700 human population (Worldometer). Population estimates cannot be considered accurate to more than two decimal digits. Your mileage may vary; not to be combined with any other offer. May cause distress, diarrhea, hair loss, weight gain, depression, anxiety, liver damage, double vision, and death by wet bulb temperature..
Fish farms are put in sheltered areas, which they leave a coating of poo on for miles.
There are plenty of plants to eat, at least if one cant be completely vegetarian they can reduce the consumption.
3:19 "Come from places like America, China, but more controversially Latin America..." ok Mr. Wan, just act like there's nothing controversial on anything coming out of China.
Ifi could eat scalop all day but not other meat i'd gladly take that
You start off with a really big misconception: we are NOT running out of arrable land to produce food, we already produce enough food to feed double the global population. The big problem is the bad distribution and waste.
The oceans are dying....Einstein
I farm gmo salmon
Absolutely not! There are several documentaries about saving our Oceans and "fishing" is definitely not acceptable.
Hold. Up. this video started by saying "we're running out of land to produce food" and then suggested that we can grow this food within the ocean. I can't take anything you say seriously, now. For one, the issue with land optimization for farming is more complicated than that. It is intrinsically tied with how much airable land we are using to produce CERTAIN crops and livestock and the lack of rationality and research regarding the ratios of nutrients v. ressources to produce them. SECONDLY, the ocean is not an endless supply of marine life. Infact, we are depleting our ocean ressources at a MUCH faster rate than our land ressources as it pertains to food production. Without being clear, and direct about the differences between suistainable practices concerning the harvesting of marine ressources, and the limits of its capacity to solve our lack of systematic consideration for the optomization of food ressource extraction: you have started this video on blatent greenwashing langue du bois.
runnning out of lnd are you kidding me mate. lol wow city boy right?
“We’re running out of land to produce food” nonononononono we have MORE THAN ENOUGH land. We currently grow enough food to feed the entire human population ORGANICALLY with food left over. We just choose to feed it to animals instead so rich people can have BigMacs and KFC. I’m tired of hearing about issues of “not enough farmland.” We have lots of land we just choose to ignore the cow in the room.
If you're interested in meat alternatives, you might like our video on vegan meat - czcams.com/video/6TvNjOrC9lM/video.html - check it out and let us know what you think in the comments 🙃🍔
@@DWPlanetA This was a bad reply that completely dodged the issue of your making false/misleading statements from the start.
I appreciate one of the messages in this video - that we need to find more sustainable farming practices. What I don't appreciate is misleading people to try to get them to agree with you. This doesn't help convince the people that really need convincing.
Everywhere we go, we destroy.
Call me when you can farm the ocean for potato, vinegar and salt ..