Concerns about human and planetary health have led many to prefer locally produced, organic foods. Despite no pesticides or chemicals, the organic label tells nothing about the nutritive content of food. Only healthy soils such as those restored on regenerative farms can produce foods rich in vitamins, proteins, minerals, and enzymes. Local sourcing means fewer carbon emissions and improved freshness.
Because we have depleted our soil over many centuries, but especially in the past 70 years, the fish, plants, and algae we harvest from our oceans are more packed, in general, with protein and micro-nutrients than terrestrial foods. Seafood is an important and growing source of protein for humans around the world. Data from 2020 indicates that more than half the food harvested from the oceans is from aquaculture, namely, fish farms.
After a rocky beginning, large-scale fish farming has become a truly sustainable method of producing seafood. Some categories of aquaculture are inherently sustainable — mussels, clams, and oysters filter pollutants out of water and create habitat for other sea creatures. Seaweed farms are another — they sequester carbon, offsetting greenhouse-gas emissions, and extract nutrients from fertilizer runoff from land, thereby helping reduce algae blooms.
Some farmed species — such as salmon, tilapia, and shrimp — had many negative environmental impacts in the early years of farming but have undergone a transformation due to technological innovations and new practices. Waste has been significantly reduced: AI camera systems track fish movement in their pens to deliver just the right amount of food at the right time. Bioremediation, another improvement, employs filters that provide surfaces for beneficial bacteria and micro-algae to clean up pollutants in the water. These and other management practices, now incorporated into U.S. regulations, have made a big difference. Unfortunately, they are not implemented in many other countries. Since the U.S. still imports around 70 percent of the seafood consumed here, a serious issue remains as to how to get other countries to improve the sustainability of their aquaculture.
California became the first state to set up a statewide network of marine protected areas (MPAs), the largest component of which is in the Santa Barbara Channel. Our local MPAs protect numerous endangered species, sensitive habitats, kelp forests, and deep-sea coral gardens. The success of these zones has been dramatic, essentially dispelling the initial opposition from local fishermen. Species have rebounded, spilling beyond the reserve boundaries, and greatly increasing the catches of fishermen. Because of our healthy and sustainably managed Channel, buying local seafood makes sense, just like consuming local, organic fruits and produce.
“Our planet is 70 percent ocean” says Kim Selkoe, CEO of the local Get Hooked seafood company. “If we fish sustainably and harvest sustainably, we can meet the protein needs of large numbers of people.”
