The research presents evidence that this production for use of global aquaculture supply chains is precipitating the collapse of stocks and compromising food security
Based on findings from on-the-ground investigations carried out in India, Vietnam and The Gambia in mid-2019, a report “Fishing for Catastrophe: How global aquaculture supply chains are leading to the destruction of wild fish stocks and depriving people of food in India, Vietnam and The Gambia”, from Changing Markets Foundation, launched this week, presents damning evidence that the production of fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) for use in global aquaculture supply chains is ‘precipitating the collapse of fish stocks, compromising food security, and destroying the social and economic fabric of communities living adjacent to historic fishing grounds at a time when the oceans are being pushed to the brink by the impacts of climate change, pollution and overexploitation’.
The report highlights that increasing demand in major markets – notably China – has spurred the growth in West African FMFO production in the last decade: ‘according to UN Comtrade figures, in 2016, West Africa produced 7% of the world’s fishmeal. Some countries have experienced a particularly steep rise in production; for example, half of Mauritania’s fish catch is used to produce fishmeal. Shockingly, in The Gambia, where GDP was a mere $1,700 per capita in 2018 and people rely on fish as a staple food, our investigation found that the combined catch of just one of the country’s FMFO plants accounted for approximately 40% of the country’s total reported fish catches in 2016. Gambia’s fish catch is turned into fishmeal at a rate of 5 kilos of fish for 1 kilo of fishmeal and exported abroad, mainly to China’.
The investigation in The Gambia covered the three FMFO plants in Sanyang, Gunjur and Kartong. The key findings include:
FMFO destined for human consumption is being exported without legally required food-safety certificates.
Pollution from FMFO production is damaging The Gambia’s budding ecotourism industry.
At least one Gambian plant sells most of its fishmeal to Vietnam; it is then relabelled on the black market for re-export to China, the world’s largest aquafeed producer. This circumvents more stringent Chinese food-safety controls and the absence of a fishmeal export agreement between The Gambia and China.
For Dawda Foday Saine, from The Gambia National Association of Artisanal Fisheries Operators (NAAFO), and Secretary General of the African Confederation of Artisanal Fishing Organisations (CAOPA), “Gambian fishing communities are the first victims of the activities of these fishmeal plants that are mushrooming in the whole of West Africa. Together with other members of CAOPA, local fishers are asking for the progressive closure of these plants.”
This position is echoed by The Changing Markets report as it concludes that, given endemic ecological and social problems in FMFO supply chains, and global fish stocks dwindling to historic lows, FMFO from whole wild fish has no place in the future of feed.