Is the Samonix salmon farm planning to feed their fish on ground up wild fish? Interesting article in the Guardian.
“In a report presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June, Elisa Morgera, the UN special rapporteur on climate change, said using nutritionally valuable fish to produce fishmeal and fish oil raised “serious human rights concerns” because it could reduce people’s access to food.
Changing Markets Foundation said the consequences were already visible in Senegal, a west African centre for fishmeal and fish oil production, where factories compete with local communities for the same fish.
Ganesh said: “A large share of those fish come from much poorer communities where that fish is an essential source of nutrition, but also really essential for the livelihoods of coastal communities and artisanal fishers.” Women who process, smoke and sell fish also risk losing an important source of income.
Annual fish consumption per person in Senegal fell by more than 10kg between 1999 and 2019, according to the report. A 2021 Changing Markets Foundation investigation estimated that enough fish to feed 33 million people across west Africa was instead being turned into animal and aquaculture feed each year.
The foundation said the FAO’s target could be met while keeping demand for whole wild fish well below 2020 levels by reducing fishmeal and fish oil use and directing more growth towards species requiring fewer marine ingredients.”
Article: Grinding up fish to feed to fish is ‘absurd’: fears over UN aquaculture plan
Huge rollout of fish farms could harm ecosystems and threaten vulnerable communities’ food sources, say experts