5-year investigation by a non-profit journalism organization: “A dirty secret behind the farmed fish you eat”

Why it’s important: Urbina told Axios that he hopes the seafood industry “starts to be more transparent and accountable to its supply chains.” He wants diners and shoppers to “think more about the fact that the price of seafood is not (just) what we see on the menu.”

• And he wants governments advanced economies to “take into account how they largely offset the costs on (developing) countries”.

Main conclusions: Over the past 60 years, the amount of fish we eat has increased double, Urbina reports for the New York Times Magazine in an article titled “The Dirty Secret Behind the Farmed Fish You Eat” (giveaway link).

• To relieve the pressure On the oceans, humans have turned to aquaculture – or fish farming – and today, more than half of the seafood we eat comes from these farms rather than the ocean.
• But there is a catch: These farmed fish are fed smaller fish taken from the ocean. This means that large quantities of wild fish are being caught to support the booming aquaculture industry.

Statistics of the day: “A fifth of all fish removed from the world’s oceans are now used for purposes other than human consumption, primarily to make fishmeal and fish oil.” Urbina writes.

• “Some of the most popular The types of seafood consumed in the United States – salmon and shrimp – are primarily imported from farms that use fish meal. They end up in supermarkets across the country…and appear on the menus of hundreds of thousands of restaurants and cafeterias, including those at the Capitol where senators and congressmen eat lunch. »

Behind the scenes: Urbina made six sea voyages, including the South China Sea, the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, and the North Atlantic Ocean. “These expeditions involved boarding fishmeal vessels to examine logbooks, inspect living conditions, interview workers, and document potentially illegal practices,” he told me.

• “On earth, I visited fishmeal factories and aquaculture sites in Senegal, Thailand, Peru, Gambia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Greece and India.

What’s next: The Outlaw Ocean Project has released a “Bait to Plate” tool that Urbina hopes other journalists will use to trace seafood from ships and processing plants to downstream brands and consumers, “including what is known about possible crimes or other types of concerns within these supply chains.”

• Go deeper: read the broader investigation by an international team of journalists based at the Outlaw Ocean Project, “Animal feed: Tthe price paid beyond the base” (no paywall).
• What you can do: “How to Buy and Eat Seafood Responsibly” (NY Times giveaway link).