With the U.S. facing a 'seafood trade deficit,' the industry wants to grow more fish in the ocean - but others say not so fast.
By Marc Gunther, Fortune senior writer
CNNMoney.com, June 8 2007: 10:58 AM EDT
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Next time you order a shrimp cocktail, eat a bagel with smoked salmon or enjoy a tuna sandwich, know this: The world's appetite for fish is growing a lot faster than the oceans can supply them.
Global fish consumption has doubled in the last 40 years, outpacing population growth. In the U.S., seafood sales have grown by about 10 percent a year since 2001. Nutritionists tout the health benefits of eating fish. But most ocean fisheries are fully exploited or overfished.
What to do? The seafood industry wants to grow more fish on farms, which already cultivate shrimp, salmon, oysters, clams, catfish and other species - providing nearly half the world's fish.
New legislation proposed by the Bush administration would make it easier to develop industrial-scale aquaculture in ocean waters. Today, U.S. aquaculture is concentrated in lakes, ponds and waters close by the shore.
"If we expect people to eat seafood twice a week because it's good, we really need to get aquaculture going in this country." says John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, a Washington-based trade association.
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