Mike Velings Promoting The Growth Of Aquaculture

It is no secret that the earth’s population is growing at a rather terrifying rate. It is expected that we will jump from 7.3 billion to almost 9.4 billion people in the next 30 years. That’s approximately 70 million more people per year. 2.1 billion more people, means masses of hungry people. The world is already struggling to keep up with the 7.3 billion we have today. How can we sustain an extra 2.1 billion people only 30 years in the future? Mike Velings argues that fish are the key.

The ocean is home to a vast array of species and is the main source of food for almost 35% of the earth’s population today. The issue is that even at this level of consumption, our global fisheries are almost 2.5 times larger that the sustainable capacity of the ocean (Velings 2015). This means that the worlds food supply is decreasing by almost two fold. At the rate we are hunting fish the ocean cannot sustain which will

His argument begins on a quote from world-renowned sea researcher and explorer Jacques Cousteau; “We must start using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about - farming replacing hunting”(Velings 2015). Velings suggests that if we grow fish farming now it could just be the saving grace that minimizes the number of people starving and suffering from malnutrition in 30 years.

We all know that fish carry some important nutrients for the human body ranging from healthy protein to antioxidants and Omega 3’s. But how much effort, and resources will be needed to farm fish? The presentation explains how farming fish can be more efficient and productive than cloning or farming cows. A single cow requires between 8-9 lbs. of feed just to supply 1 lb. of meat, while fish only require 1 lb. of feed to produce 1 lb. of meat. In addition to this, cows need a lot of freshwater whereas fish may swim around in it but hardly ever drink it (Velings