Fishing for feed in China: Facts, impacts and implications

Abstract

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Farming fish in the sea will not nourish the world

“…Demand for marine feed ingredients has already altered marine ecosystems 56 . Increasing demand further has the potential to cause unsustainable levels of exploitation of some fish stocks 57 and to compromise the food and nutrition security of nutritionally vulnerable populations if utilization of fish in aqua-feeds competes with human consumption 58 .…”

Intensification, regulation and diversification: The changing face of inland aquaculture in China

“…Although some commercial data suggest that this is likely to be an over-estimate, the proportion of global fishmeal that is taken up by Chinese carp culture is significant. The Chinese fishmeal industry itself has received significant criticism for being indiscriminate and unmanaged, contributing to considerable economic damage to regional fisheries (Cao et al 2007 , 2015 ; Chiu et al 2013 ; Zhang et al 2019 ), not only in Chinese waters but also further afield, such as in African fisheries (Hicks et al 2019 ; Pauly 2019 ) as Chinese fisheries become critically overfished (Zhang et al 2019 ). Growing pressure on supplies has led to increasing dependence on soybean imports, from the USA and South America, for use in all livestock production, increasing food insecurity by dependence on external markets and contributing to more widespread global environmental degradation (Roberts et al 2015 ; Newton and Little 2018 ; Malcorps et al 2019 ).…”

Sustainable Exploitation of Dominant Fishes in the Largest Estuary in Southeastern China

“…In recent years, the dramatic decrease in coastal fish resources and significant changes in catch composition in China caused by continuously increasing fishing pressure have attracted a lot of concerns [12,41,42]. For instance, a drastic decline was reported in CPUE in 2011 down to 0.86% of 1959 in the Bohai Sea [12,43] and to 53% of 1991 in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea in 2000 [44]. Meanwhile, local high-valued and large-sized catches disappeared while small fishes with lower trophic levels and minor economic value became dominant.…”

“…Catches of C. lucidus in Fujian Province recorded by the Chinese Fishery Statistical Yearbook had declined from 30 thousand tons in 2005 to 21 thousand tons in 2017 [10], accompanied by a trend of species miniaturization [22]. The present extensive capturing capability of the fishing gears with small mesh sizes and the overloaded fishing efforts not only captured a large number of immature individuals [12,58] but also ruined the fish habitats [14]. Under this scenario, urgent and effective countermeasures should be deployed so as to prevent further resource degradation or even species extinction in the Min River Estuary.…”

“…However, the catch composition has shifted from traditional large-sized species with high trophic levels to small-sized and low-valued fish species ("feed-grade fish"). These low-valued fishes accounted for 35% of the total catch in China's exclusive economic zones [12], reflecting a common phenomenon of "fishing down" [13]. The excessive and aimless exploitation without fishery stock assessment resulted in a short-term increase but subsequently a long-term decline in both the yield and the economic value of Chinese coastal fisheries [14].…”