Fish farming and sustainability.
Can you imagine if in order to eat chicken or beef we would need to hunt them ourselves in their habitat? Surely there would not be many cows and chickens left, perhaps the plains and other natural habitats of these species would be very deteriorated. Simply because a lot of meat is needed to feed us all, it was necessary to think about raising these animals in an orderly and planned way which would allow us to feed us without irreversibly damaging our environment; this is what we know as sustainability. Although there is still much to improve, sustainability is nothing more than securing the needs of today without compromising future needs. Fish and therefore also the oceans are suffering because of this lack of sustainability. We fish more than we need and indiscriminately, ie we fish what we do not want or need, contaminating and damaging with our fishing boats the natural habitat, etc. Part of the solution to avoid all this is what we know as fish farms or fish factories; just like we do with chickens or cows, we can do with fish. There are many types of fish farms, from large cages in the sea where they are fed to grow, to large ponds on land where they are also fed until they reach a suitable size to be consumed. Currently among the fish that are most farmed are salmon, tilapia, carp or catfish. These farms not only allow us to raise fish for consumption but also to protect those species that are in danger of extinction, increasing the population to normal levels so that they can continue to live among us. There is no perfect solution, both at sea and on land. We must continue to develop and research these alternatives to improve them, in the meantime, the best we can do is to interest ourselves, to learn and thus seek a balance between traditional and alternative ways, between what you like or what you don’t know yet. For example, when you go to the market, check the labels of the foods you buy, what they are made of, what their origin is, you will see words like an organic, wild, local product. And when you don’t know something, ask your parents and in this way, you will become an informed citizen, a responsible consumer. By doing this we can preserve the future of the oceans, and species, including ours.