Aquaculture: Opening up a can of worms

The world's appetite for fish is growing, and fish farms are the only way forward. But when it can take up to 4kg of wild-caught fish  to produce 1 kg of premium farmed fish such as salmon, sustainability and food safety are crucial and growing issues.

By SAM BLISS

A sea of luminous eyes stare out of the metallic confines,  their pupils gleaming off the artificial light overhead. Too many to count, they loiter, waiting expectantly for their regular meal. But soon their fate will be reversed, and the feeders will become food. These farmed barramundi are market size and will be harvested, ready for weekend diners at chic restaurants all over town.

Today, nearly half all seafood for consumption is farmed. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) says the world’s oceans are either fully exploited or over-exploited and any increases in global consumption of seafood must be met by aquaculture.

As population increases faster than the supply of fish, aquaculture will attempt to compensate this shortfall. Set to become the dominant seafood production method, the debate over aquaculture and sustainability has never been more important.

Australia's developing  aquaculture industry has to meet stringent health and sustainability guidelines, but that's only a small part of the local market.  Seventy per cent of the fish Australians eat is imported, mostly from Asia, and much of it does not meet the same standards.

“Minimising adverse environmental interactions will be a major goal for the next decades,” the UNFAO says. In Australia, the main issues are environmental management standards, and standards for aquaculture products imported from overseas.

Located in Werribee’s outskirts, amongst steel suppliers and car servicing outlets, is MainStream Aquaculture, one of the largest barramundi producers in Australia.

Managing director Boris Musa gives a tour of the premises. The first stop is a nondescript prefab building made from corrugated iron slabs. Inside, modern science reigns, with huge tanks that rise from floor to ceiling and sophisticated technology designed to breed barramundi year round.

With four different broodstock rooms, Mainstream is possibly the only barramundi farm in the world that can provide fingerlings (young fish) like clockwork every month, a feat that is reaping rewards. Once it reaches full capacity, one in every two barramundi consumed around the world will have originated here. “It’s really quite phenomenal what we’re doing here on a small and efficient footprint,” Musa says.

These promising figures reflect the Australian aquaculture industry, now worth a billion dollars and developing rapidly. In Victoria, The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) is confident the value of aquaculture will reach $60m within a year, almost triple the 2005 value.

As aquaculture expands, social and economic benefits do too. Aquaculture is located almost exclusively in rural areas and the job-creating potential is high, making a significant contribution to regional development. It creates demand for educational and training services, extension services, infrastructure and locally produced goods.

Furthermore, lofty profits can be made from selling high-quality fish like abalone and mussels both locally and abroad. For example, Mainstream Aquaculture exports barramundi to valuable markets in 14 countries in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Despite these strengths, the aquaculture industry is working hard on its environmental image. Concerns include the levels of fishmeal required to feed carnivorous farmed fish, damaging natural ecological systems, waste, viruses and how farmed fish are obtained or bred.

Disease outbreaks are recognised as a significant constraint to aquaculture production. In 1995, a herpes virus hit southern Australian tuna farms. As these were offshore, the virus caused a sea of dead fish. On top of that, local seabirds, from Australasian gannets to penguins, starved.

In 1999, sardines were wiped out in South Australia. And sea lice have been found in Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout in Tasmania. Unfortunately, disease can naturally occur when fish are stressed.

But Australia has implemented strict compliances, such as quarantining new stock, maintaining water quality and regular monitoring. As a result, no major outbreaks have occurred in recent years.

The issue of fish feed is paradoxical, with world aquaculture production currently adding to net global fish supplies, although much results in a net loss of fish.

University of Melbourne researcher and sustainability advocate John Ford highlights how aquaculture systems can use two to five times more fish protein than is present in the farmed fish.

“The reason they use so much fish content is because the fish grow faster. You can feed them mostly vegetable matter, soy based protein and such, but it’s simply not as economic. There’s a real economic driver, to give them high protein feed,” Ford says.

Others support high ratios of fishmeal to maximise omega-3 levels.

“Omega-3 is not actually produced by the fish itself. It comes from plankton originally and basically works it way up the food chain to sardines, which are made into fishmeal,” he says.

Back in Werribee, Musa has moved from the hatchery to the production facility, which raises and harvests barramundi for restaurants and markets. Mainstream Aquaculture places emphasis on sustainability. On the question of fish feed, Musa says Mainstream Aquaculture makes use of biological levers so that fish in their broodstock population often convert at around 1:1.

“For every kilo of food they eat, they add a kilo of weight, which is incredibly efficient,” he says. “From our selective breeding programme, we produce fish that demonstrate a higher appetite with a more efficient conversion ratio.”

The production facility is full of circular tanks that look like giant versions of those inflatable kiddie pools found in backyards across Australia. The din of circulating water is constant.

Musa finds a handheld net and casually scoops it into one of the tanks. At least a dozen barramundi flounder about as he highlights their size and girth.

“Our facility here uses a renewable, geothermal aquifer for its water supply. We have no direct contact with the natural environment. We carefully manage all of our inputs and outputs. We’re completely organic and don’t use vaccinations,” he says.

While MainStream Aquaculture is working hard to maximise fish feed ratios, the environmental impacts of fish feed depend of which species are being cultivated. WWF and other conservation groups list shrimp, tuna and salmon as species with bad conversion fish feed ratios. Salmon, for example, requires 4kg of wild-caught fish to produce 1kg of farmed salmon.

Ford says Australians could help reduce these bad fish feed ratios by not eating from the top of the food chain. In his opinion, this affects market dynamics and dictates supply and demand of fish species, which results in profitable high-end fish being cultivated.

“Although people pay a lot of money, you can’t feed the world that way,” he says. Instead, he advocates diversifying the fish species we eat with more varied aquaculture established in the region.

Environmental efficiency is reliant on strong government regulation and industry practices, and these working harmoniously together. It appears that, by and large, these management standards are working.

“We’re doing a reasonably good job in Australia in managing our environmental impacts of aquaculture,” Ford says. “We can’t use the chemicals or antibiotics causing concerns elsewhere.”

The Marine Stewardship Council, which certifies sustainable seafood, rewards and encourages good practice in aquaculture. Manager Charlotte Cornell says Australia's government regulators do a  good job.  “Australia has some of the best-managed fisheries in the world,” she says.

Despite maintaining strong management standards for the developing aquaculture industry in Australia, 70 per cent of fish eaten here is still imported and not subjected to the same stringent management standards.

In fact, predictions indicate that imported seafood will increase threefold in Australia over the next 40 years, from the current level of 200,000 tonnes, to meet burgeoning demand.

As Southeast Asia produces 90 per cent of the world’s aquaculture, it is no surprise that China, Vietnam and Thailand, along with New Zealand, are the main seafood exporters to Australia.

At present, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, as part of the Imported Food Inspection Scheme (IFIS), conducts testing of imported fish, but their focus is on food safety and biosecurity.

A review of protocols for imported seafood found that the 2007 federal government perceived seafood testing was lagging behind international standards and best practice.

Inspections are carried out on all initial consignments of fish. Once a company has demonstrated compliance five times, the rate is reduced to 25 per cent. After 20 more consignments, this is further reduced to 5 per cent. If a shipment fails, the inspection rate will increase to 100 per cent again and the cycle resets.

In 2008, this scheme found approximately 2 per cent of seafood did not comply with regulations. E. coli, salmonella and histamines were some of the substances found.

While imported seafood goes through food safety tests, sustainability is harder to gauge. On this issue, Ford  says imported produce doesn’t adhere to the same standard as homegrown products.

“It’s not that imported fish is inferior,” Ford says. “But if you’re concerned about sustainability or what has gone into these fish, it’s incredibly difficult, almost impossible to find out that information.”

This opinion is in line with the 2008 independent Beale review, commissioned by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). The review states: “Imported food legislation does not empower Australia to require competent authority certification of imported food from the exporting country.”

Instead of simple end-product testing, the review recommends greater use of foreign government certification arrangements and compliance agreements with exporting countries. It also stipulates that importers should develop food safety and traceability systems. This means that greater scrutiny should be placed on overseas seafood producers at all stages of production.

A 2009 CSIRO report supports this view. The report claims it is more efficient and economical to test at various points along the food production and processing chain, from farm to fork, rather than solve the problem at the end.

However, these changes have not yet been implemented so seafood continues to be produced and imported that does not promote sustainability. On March 21, for example, a food importer was fined for not testing 1500kg of prawns that were released into Australia without authorisation.

Meanwhile, in Werribee, the aquaculture tour is nearing its conclusion. Musa, clad in a MainStream Aquaculture branded polo shirt and jeans, discusses importing. He says many international producers have a heavy emphasis on sustainability, but there is still the minority that don’t assign the same values.

“Product is coming in from emerging jurisdictions that doesn’t have the same level of environmental or health standards we apply here,” Musa says. “There’s a cost associated with that. For us, it means our product is more expensive.”

As the managing director of MainStream Aquaculture, Musa believes public awareness is key and could shape the future of aquaculture. The more people aware of sustainable aquaculture, the more likely it is to thrive.

“The typical consumer wouldn’t know that some aquaculture finfish are injected with six or seven antibiotics,” he says. “Or the environmental impact that a number of aquaculture organisations have. These are things we need to educate the consumer about.”

“If we don’t, then while our type of aquaculture might be the most sustainable, it’s not going to be the most economically attractive.”

For John Ford, the key is asking questions about purchases, especially with imported seafood. He advocates learning about countries with similarly high standards as Australia.

“When it comes to farmed product, particularly farmed prawns and catfish, “there are great operations, but there are also some pretty poor operations. At the moment, in the marketplace and supply chain, they’re not differentiated,” he says.

The MSC, the organisation Cornell works for, attempts to bridge this divide and inform consumers on sustainable seafood. They carry out independent assessments of wild fisheries to gauge their sustainability.

“The MSC is there to complement and add value in the marketplace to certified sustainable fisheries,” Cornell says. However, Australia still lags behind the US and Europe in terms of demand for sustainable seafood. Charlotte highlights some figures, “In the marketplace, we have around 250 MSC labelled products on supermarket shelves, whereas Germany has over 5000.”

The aquaculture equivalent of the MSC is the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. This has even less market penetration in Australia. Tasmanian salmon producer Tassal is the only company in Australia to have gained ASC accreditation.

As these consumer-based ventures are slow to reach Australia, GoodFishBadFish, the website Ford contributes to, helps break down the proliferation of information. It compiles various sustainability guides of various fish species.

“There’s really only so much information we can take in,” Ford says. “But for those who want to be informed, it’s a good place to go.”

Other information sources include the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Sustainable Seafood app, which informs its users on the level of sustainability for a specific fish species. Also helping to promote sustainable seafood are a number of celebrity chefs and food writers, influencing consumption habits.