Genetically Modified Fish In Aquaculture

Now in the 21st century, fish is becoming the world’s largest wild food source. Fish are a very important and highly consumed resource for the majority of the world, but in the wild, it is in limited supply. With commercial fishing increasing higher and higher yields of fish, the supply of available fish is becoming increasingly low. Fishing grounds that once used to be thriving with stocks of fish are becoming an expended resource. “Fish consumption increased by 31% from 1990 to 1997 but the supply from marine fisheries grew by only 9%” (FAO, 1999). With this increase in consumption greatly overpowering the availability, fish will become an expended resource. This is only reinforced with the accompanying insurmountable increase of the human …show more content…
“In fact, worldwide production of farmed fish is now at about 30% of global fish production and is expected to reach 50% in 2030” (FAO, 2000). With the growth of the aquaculture industry, there must be a way to compensate its environmental concerns. Though genetically modified fish bring up concerns regarding its future risks and impacts, it can do some good. A benefit of incorporating these genetically modified fish in aquaculture is that it can assist in increasing production numbers. This is because these fish would grow much faster than normal allowing more fish to be produced in less amount of time. They would also result in cheaper production of these fish, because it would require less time to have to house and raise these fish due to their increased growth rates. Also, these transgenic fish require less food than wild fish resulting in the need for less baitfish to feed them. Genetically modified baitfish can also provide a cheaper alternative because for every pound of salmon being harvested, it requires several pounds of baitfish. Another positive outcome of genetically modified fish for fish harvesting is their change in cold tolerance. This allows farmers to expand their farms to areas that are less populated and that are too cold for wild fish. Though the use of genetically modified fish is mainly proposed to alleviate the economic stress of fish farms, they also benefit in other ways. “Genetically modified fish can ease some of the problems regarding pollution and waste management by providing better disease and pollution resistance. The most important benefit that genetically modified fish would have is on the native and wild species. Implementing this genetically modified fish would help take away pressures of commercial fishing and allow wild fish numbers to build back up and grow. This is all dependent on the