Fish Caught for Human Consumption Only About 66% of Daily Harvests, Here's Where the Rest Goes

Not all the edible fish caught from the oceans are meant for human consumption; only 66% of daily harvests are being used for this purpose.

The rest are being fed to fish.

Aquaculture, or fish farming, was promoted by environmentalists as a solution to the oceans' fish shortage.

This was meant to be the answer, but because this industry became so demanding, it turned out to be a problem in and of itself.

They began feeding the farmed fish high-protein pellets known as fishmeal, which were created from enormous quantities of fish that were caught at sea and then ground into powder, to fatten the fish faster.

Today, over 30% of all fishes removed from the ocean are fed to other fish on land.

The Outlaw Ocean

The Outlaw Ocean Project is a nonprofit journalism organization with headquarters in Washington, DC.

The organization traveled to West Africa for an offshore patrol to investigate this paradoxical situation where hundreds of fishing boats, including Chinese vessels, trawl for the production of fishmeal, destroying the local food supply and polluting the coastline.

The fifth installment of the "The Outlaw Ocean" podcast from the LA Times and CBC Podcasts, posted on Spotify, discusses fishmeal and the unfavorable effects it has had on Gambia, the tiniest nation in continental Africa.

It was mentioned that almost everyone consumes fishmeal, which was intended to prevent the oceans from running out of fish, however, it is actually worsening the issue.

Bloody Omen of 2017

The town of Gunjur, which has 15,000 residents, is located in southern Gambia along the Atlantic Ocean.

The town's white-sand beaches were bustling with activity in the spring of 2017.

Bolong Fenyo, a wildlife reserve, is located five minutes inland and is intended to protect an oblong lagoon, wetland, savanna, and 790 acres of beach.

The reserve, a wonder of biodiversity, is essential to the economic and ecological health of southern Gambia and annually draws hundreds of birdwatchers and other tourists.

However, the Gunjur community awoke on May 22, 2017, to find that the Bolong Fenyo lagoon had changed overnight, turning a cloudy shade of red as fish carcasses floated to the surface.

Some locals questioned whether the terrifying scene was a bloody sign.

More likely, sudden changes in oxygen levels or pH concentrations caused water fleas in the lagoon to turn red.

There were soon reports that a significant number of local birds had stopped nesting close to the lagoon.

Africa News reported that the Chinese company was obliged to pay 25,000 USD to pay for the environmental damages and testing fee.

Polluting for Fishmeal

According to a local microbiologist, the waters had 40 times as much phosphate and nitrate and double the volume of arsenic that was considered safe.

Only illegally dumped waste from Golden Lead, a Chinese-owned fish processing facility that runs on the edge of the reserve, could be the cause of pollution at these levels.

To quickly meet the rising demand for fishmeal, which would be exported to the Americas, Europe, and Asia for use in aquaculture, factories like Golden Lead and others were built.

Its production is among the fastest-growing in the world in West Africa, where more than 50 processing facilities are active along the coastlines of Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Gambia.

Additionally, they consume a tremendous amount of fish. One plant alone in Gambia imports over 7,500 tons of fish annually, the majority of which is a silvery fish roughly 10 inches long known as bonga in the region.

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Closed Hubs Instead of Jobs

Gunjur's citizens were informed that Golden Lead might bring employment opportunities, a fish market, and a newly paved 3-mile road.

In fact, the plant's foul smell forced the closure of a popular beachfront hotel; there is a noticeable decline in the local fish market, and a pothole-filled road poses a safety risk to both locals and visitors.

The development of aquaculture drastically altered the working conditions for the region's fishermen, the majority of whom cast their nets manually from pirogues propelled by small outboard motors.

The Gambian coast was invaded by hundreds of foreign fishing vessels, both legal and illegal, including purse seiners and industrial trawlers, decimating the area's fish stocks and endangering local livelihoods.

According to a local fisherman who has been selling his catch at the Tanji market, located north of Gunjur, bonga were so common two decades ago that they were occasionally given away for free.

However, the cost of the fish has increased significantly in recent years, making bonga out of reach for many Gambians-half of whom live in poverty.

Today, the Gambia exports a large portion of its fishmeal to Norway and China, where it is used to feed cheaply and in large quantities to raise salmon for consumption in Europe and the United States.

While this is going on, the fish that the Gambians themselves depend on is disappearing quickly, Yahoo! News reported.

Related article: Why the World Needs a Replacement for Fishmeal with Sustainable Functional Ingredient