Question 15165 — aquaculture and professional fishing

Summary

Mr. Bastien Lachaud draws the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Food to the conditions of breeding and slaughter in the fish farming sector. In 2013, for the first time, men consumed more fish from farming than from fishing, according to an FAO report. This upheaval represents the equivalent of the Neolithic revolution, where for the first time human groups obtained their food more agriculture and livestock breeding, as well as hunting and gathering, thus securing their food sources. If the crossing of the curves is significant, the evolution has been a trend for decades, because production from fishing is confronted with the scarcity of certain species due to overfishing and devastating fishing techniques such as deep trawls or electric fishing. Fishing regulation by the quota policy has led to a relative stagnation of declared catches since the mid-1980s, while fish farming has progressed significantly to the point of overtaking fishing. Fish farming has often been presented as the solution to the problem of overfishing, which depletes fishery resources and threatens the balance of ecosystems. In 2014, the sector's overall production reached 73.8 million tonnes, including one third of molluscs, crustaceans and other animals. However, farming still depends partly on fishing, because of the 90 million tonnes of fish caught each year, around a quarter is used to feed farmed fish. As a result, this forage fish is also threatened by overfishing. To remedy this, the fish are also fed with plant products. However, certain carnivorous fish such as salmon cannot adapt to a completely vegetarian diet: the fish nutrition research unit at the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) is working on a “genetic solution” to select fish that eat the least amount of protein of animal origin. Fish farming is therefore not in itself a solution to the problem of overfishing. But its development to represent industrial sectors furthermore raises the question of the living conditions of fish. Since the question did not arise for wild fish, the living conditions of farmed fish are relatively unregulated. In fact, aquaculture represented only 0.6 million tonnes in the 1950s, and 7.2 in the 1980s, before experiencing very strong expansion: today's regulations are not suitable. Protection associations animals have recently denounced the opacity surrounding practices in aquaculture farms and slaughterhouses through several investigations in France which highlight genetic selection and the deplorable health state of fish. Fish suffer in silence, because the human ear cannot hear them, but that doesn't mean they don't suffer. Because these are raised in very high densities in the ponds, at the limit of saturation, preventing fish from moving normally. The density can reach, depending on the species, up to 50 kilos per cubic meter. As a result, they suffer from a lack of hygiene and oxygen in the pools. To stem diseases linked to such promiscuity, they receive numerous additives in their food as well as antibiotics which increase antibiotic resistance, but also antifungals and other pesticides that contaminate water. A virus has decimated salmon farms in Chile, where an epidemic of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) has spread since 2007. In Canada, sea lice have contaminated salmon, but by being treated with a pesticide - cypermethrin - the aquatic insect has become resistant to it. The salmon that escape will also contaminate their wild counterparts, spreading epidemics. Furthermore, the suffering inherent to transport and slaughter (without stunning, since it is not obligatory for fish) was also noted. However, INRA and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recognize fish as sentient beings and social animals with specific biological and behavioral needs. 91% of French people consider that Fish should be at least as protected as other farmed animals (ComRes survey for Eurogroup for Animals and CIWF, 2018). However, the regulations governing fish production in France and Europe provide almost nothing in terms of limiting their suffering. As such, there does not seem to be any significant difference between conventional breeding and organic farming. Finally, the sector plan established by the inter-profession concerns only profitability objectives and does not provide an answer to the suffering endured by the fish. It also does not meet the legitimate expectations increasingly expressed by society to limit the suffering of farmed animals, and to offer farmed fish living conditions compatible with the biological imperatives of their species, in terms of sociability, diet, and of space, as well as protection by restrictive texts at least similar to that of other farmed animals. Also, he wishes to learn from the Minister the measures that the Government intends to take to strengthen the standards governing the conditions of breeding and killing of fish in the fish farming sector, in order to reduce their suffering, and stop the spread of epidemics caused by excessive concentration in the same space, and what studies are being carried out relating to the consequences of the use of the “genetic solution” aimed at being able to feed normally carnivorous fish with plant products.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.