Annual global shrimp production was 5.6 million tonnes in 2023 and is estimated to reach 5.7 million tonnes in 2024 [1]. Assuming an average live weight per shrimp of 20 grams [2], this means that around 250,000,000,000 shrimp were killed last year. That’s about twice as many as the number of fish farmed each year!
Why is mankind farming one of the smallest of all farmed animals, and in exorbitant quantities? Wouldn’t it be wiser, if at all, to farm large aquatic animals such as the Arapaima, a Brazilian freshwater fish? This would at least significantly reduce the number of animals suffering.
Amazingly, Ecuador is the leading shrimp-producing country, with an area similar to that of the United Kingdom, but only 18 million inhabitants, half of whom live in the coastal region, where one in five workers is employed in the shrimp industry. 25 per cent of the world’s shrimps by weight come from this Latin American country, while China and India, 37 and 13 times larger than Ecuador respectively, each with almost 80 times the population, follow in second and third place only. In addition, more than half of the world’s shrimp weight is produced in Asia, the world’s leading region for aquaculture in general.
Gut gemachte, klare Sendung [1] von «Kassensturz», dank einem prima vorbereiteten Journalisten (Philipp Ruch) sowie Yannick Rohrer von fair-fish und Iris Menn von Greenpeace.
An outlook [1] from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for 2024 predicts a slight increase in fisheries yields of 1.1%, while aquaculture is expected to grow by 3.1%, supported by a downward trend in fish meal and fish oil prices. On the other hand, the value of global trade in fish and seafood is expected to fall by 1.2%, although the volume will continue to increase by an estimated 1.0%.
Graph by the author, based on the fair-fish database
Resources are, as always, limited. Should we then invest in improving some details in the lives of over 500 farmed aquatic animal species, most of which are known not being able to experience welfare in captivity anyway? Or should we rather focus on the few species that possibly may thrive under improved farming conditions?
They are all nice people with nice ideas how to feed the world and save the planet and their own business. No greedy capitalists, they believe to be part of the solution. Persons whom you might like to meet to learn more about their mindset.But…
A Seawater Cube unit and its founders (photo: Seawater Cube)
The German based ‚Seawater Cubes‘ developed a tiny recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) unit consisting of four shipping containers, able to produce nearly 8 tonnes of fish per year. ‚We thought about how to do RAS better and developed the idea of a decentralised, small-scale approach for on-land fish farming and built a prototype of the idea,‘ the CEO says. ‚We’ve achieved a 98 percent survival rate because of the water quality.‘ [2] Fine so—but are the fishes in these narrow tanks eager to survive?
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Good for the fishes?
Seawater Cubes claims that their system helps to keep the stocking density considerably below industry standards, e.g. for Sea bream ’30 percent below the 100 kilo per cubic metres that some scientific papers suggest is possible.‘ Really? This is way beyond usual standards, let alone the species’ natural aggregation habits [3] and its spatial needs for moving horizontally and vertically [4]. At least two of the three founders of Seawater Cubes should know better, having worked for the big RAS plant in Völklingen (Saarland) where Sea breams swim in a huge pool.
Sea breams near Malta (photo: Snorkelling Malta/Wikimedia).
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Good for the farmers?
A second question arises: Who is this system designed for? Seawater Cubes claims that its automated unit can be operated as a business alongside, ‚perfect for farmers who are looking to diversify. The daily operation requires about eight hours a week.‘
C’mon, we’ve been there already, farmers in Switzerland, for example, were promised the moon with RAS modules installed in barns that were no longer in use, a flop. The investment for a Seawater Cube system is about 300,000 euros, an amount that can hardly be amortised by a part-time job.
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What can I do as a consumer?
Should I hope that this business idea fails before many farmers have to realise their own failure? Or at least for the sake of millions of innocent fishes?
I could stop from thinking that I need fish once or twice a week to have a healthy live.
Die Tierschutzkommission der britischen Regierung verlangt einen besseren gesetzlichen Schutz von Fischen während des Schlachtprozesses, dem jährlich 77 Millionen Fische in der Aquakultur zugeführt werden, vor allem Lachse in schottischen Zuchten. Nur Hühner müssen in Grossbritannien in noch grössere Zahl dran glauben.
In the post ‚Is there animal welfare for shrimps?‘ of 05.08.2023 [1] I mentioned that there are a few ’shrimp farmers who really try hard to do the best, also for the animals‘. I have known the company SwissShrimp.ch since its beginnings; if farming shrimps at all, then like this, I have already been quoted as saying.
A study [1] published in 2022 concludes that ’still little is known about some key parameters related to the five welfare dimensions, as they might be applied to penaeid shrimp‘ — in stark contrast to the knowledge on nutritional needs, stress physiology, immunology and disease control in shrimp farming.
Fischzucht in Uganda (Foto: Mohsen87taha / Wikimedia)
Afrikas Schicksal ist es seit Jahrhunderten, von Ländern und Firmen aus Übersee ausgebeutet zu werden. Auch nach dem offiziellen Ende des Kolonialismus hat sich wenig daran geändert, wie die Geschichte des weltweiten Fischhandels zeigt. Und es deutet vieles darauf hin, dass dies auch so bleiben soll, wenn Afrika im grossen Stil in die Fischzucht einsteigt.
Wegen Erkrankung des Inhabers einer Fischzucht im thurgauischen Balterswil musste das Veterinäramt im November eingreifen. Mangels Zeit und Alternativen wurden Tausende von Fischen geschlachtet und entsorgt. Das weckte Kritik am Handeln des Kantonstierarzts, aber auch Fragen betreffend die Verantwortung von Fischzüchtern und das Fehlen eines Notfallplans.
