Thursday, March 6, 2008

Are we depleting our protein source faster than we can say fish?

Awhile back, I was doing some research on agri and aquaculture production and market demand in various countries in South America. Honestly, I was appalled at the numbers (chart above belongs to Chile). We were chomping down a helluva of pesce if you know what I mean! In Japan, Tsukiji fish market (the world's largest) feeds about one third of its population daily, transacting approximately USD20 million which is equivalent to approximately 17,000 trucks worth of seafood load. Even for less than well-to-do countries like Cambodia, the Tonle Sap lake is dubbed the heartbeat of the country because it supplies fresh water fish to approximately a million Cambodians. Whoa. Hang on a minute. Does anyone know what's the reproduction rate of fishes? At the rate we're chowing down on them, they better be popping babies at F1 speed. However, after a bit more of reading:

The ability of the fisheries to naturally recover also depends on whether the conditions of the ecosystems are suitable for population growth. Dramatic changes in species composition may establish other equilibrium energy flows that involve other species compositions than had been present before (ecosystem shift). (For example: remove nearly all the trout, the carp take over and make it near impossible for the trout to re-establish a breeding population.) - Wikipedia

I realised that it doesn't do the fish community any good too if we keep eating one of their cousins and not eating enough of the rest. Hmm. God certainly is a strategic planner with a cool sense of humor.

I read somewhere that the 'haves' population consists only approximately 20% of total world population. 'Haves' meaning people who can afford to put bread (and fish) on the table 3 times a day. So can you imagine? All those nice scrumptious fish from all over the world are being eaten only by 20% of us?

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