The way we fish is unsustainable. With rising global demand for seafood, fishing operations continue to catch more fish than our oceans can naturally replenish—a rampant, environmentally destructive process called overfishing. Such practices of overfishing also threaten the survival of non-target species—a process known as bycatch—including seabirds, dolphins and marine turtles as well as key predator populations, including sharks and rays. If we hope to provide for future generations, and to protect the marine environment upon which aquatic organisms and processes rely, we need to change our approach to fishing. 

Aquaculture, also known as fish farming, promises a more sustainable alternative to traditional methods through the controlled cultivation of aquatic species in coastal waters, rivers, and terrestrial tanks for future processing and distribution. 

While aquaculture is an increasingly popular approach that generates about half of all seafood for human consumption, aquaculture is often regarded as the new Blue Revolution set to inherit Green predecessor’s problematic and environmentally-destructive legacy. Similar to the Blue Revolution, the Green Revolution, beginning around the 1960s, sought to address issues of food production and malnourishment through new techniques and technological innovation such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. However, the ensuing environmental degradation now serves as a focal point of criticism and contention over the true cost of the Green Revolution’s success. These concerns are not unfounded, arising from evidence of environmental harms caused by fishmeal production as well as cramped or unclean conditions of containment, which can encourage transmission of disease and parasites to organisms in surrounding waters.

We can neither deny the positives of aquaculture and its contributions to methods of sustainable production nor neglect developments by experts and fisheries to improve this imperfect process. For instance, non-fed aquaculture, a decades-old major contributor to current production, consists of organisms such as filter feeding fish, marine bivalves, seaweeds, and sea cucumbers that take in waste and excess nutrients from the surrounding water. In doing so, non-fed aquaculture minimizes the spread of pathogens without requiring production or consumption of unsustainably sourced, antibiotic-rich fishmeal. Similarly, integrated aquaculture can help address issues of waste assimilation and water quality while supporting traditional fishing practices that have relied on these forms of cultivation centuries before heavy industrialization. 

Despite its controversies, aquaculture, as a prominent, but still developing practice, provides numerous pathways for improvement and correction in light of the Green Revolution’s consequences. As a result, the net environmental impact of the Blue Revolution on the marine environment remains to be seen as aquaculture systems present varying obstacles and opportunities for sustainability. However, in taking the optimistic stance that the Blue Revolution can succeed in areas where its terrestrial counterpart failed, it still stands that many aspects of capitalist development, such as our emphasis on innovation and heavy use of technology and synthetics, greatly affect our social structures, consumption patterns, and environmental interactions. As much as aquaculture plays a role in alleviating global concerns surrounding pollution, overfishing, and rising demand, it will remain an imperfect solution unless we address the underlying mechanisms that drive environmental degradation and improve our relationship with the marine environment.