The Road to Sustainable Aquaculture

Have you ever thought about where your seafood comes from? Surprisingly, most people don’t. I know I never questioned anything before I was introduced to the world of Aquaculture. I assumed, as many other people do, that the finfish and shellfish we see in grocery stores and restaurants are being caught in wild fisheries. Once I learned more about sustainable seafood, I was amazed at the impact it had on not only Canada, but the rest of the world as well.

My Aquaculture journey started in 2016 when I enrolled at the Dalhousie Agriculture Campus in Truro, Nova Scotia. I had never even heard of the word “Aquaculture” but, once I saw the large holding tanks containing numerous species such as Atlantic salmon, Rainbow trout and Artic charr, I knew I was interested in learning more. I changed my Major from pre-veterinary medicine to Aquaculture and took the leap to learn about something I was completely unfamiliar with. I had no idea just how passionate I would become about the Aquaculture industry and the benefit it can have on helping create a more sustainable food supply.

There has been an ongoing controversary amongst the Fisheries and Aquaculture industry regarding sustainability for decades. Many global fishing industries are not sustainable in their current practices, and countless populations of aquatic organisms are on the decline due to overfishing. To continue to keep up with the protein demand of the rapidly increasing human population, Aquaculture must come into play. Aquaculture is needed to fulfill the production gap that enables wild populations to have time to repopulate and be properly managed. 

Aquaculture can be executed in different ways such as cultivating the desired species in a land-based or ocean-based operation and using flow-through or a recirculating aquaculture system, without ever having to disturb the wild population. Under this controlled environment, aquatic organisms can grow as fast or slow as desired due to continuous monitoring. Manipulation such as temperature, lighting and feed conversion ratios all have a large impact on growth and allows for all stages of the life cycle to occur at various times. This is important when providing grocery stores and restaurants with finfish and shellfish all year round. Imagine how much pressure this takes off the wild populations that are trying to recover from years of overfishing?

I chose to start my career here in PEI, as it has a large bioscience and Aquaculture industry. I didn’t see myself working strictly on a fish farm, but I wanted to contribute to the improvement of the industry.  Although CATC is not directly involved in producing Aquaculture for consumption, we do support the industry by providing research-based solutions to improve the sustainability of fish farms all over the world. Examples include but are not limited to improving water quality, reducing diseases, and improving feed formulas. Sustainable Aquaculture is essential to ensure the long-term health of aquatic ecosystems on our planet. By taking on sustainable practices, the industry can continue to keep up with growing demand for seafood in a way that helps the environment, not disrupts it. We have a mission ‘to feed the world, support the environment and sustain the planet’ and everyday provides a new challenge to do better.