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Aquaculture — or fish farming — is the fastest growing food production system in the world. It holds great promise to produce high quality and large volumes of seafood, as well as the potential to take pressure off wild caught fisheries. Aquaculture will account for more than 40 percent of all fisheries production by 2020, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
For more information about the impacts from aquaculture, read:
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As the industry grows, it is critical to minimize the impacts of aquaculture on the environment and society. We are already seeing waste products from fish farms changing the nutrient levels of local waterways and leading to eutrophication; escaped farm species interbreeding with wild populations, altering the gene pool; sensitive environmental areas, such as mangroves, being converted to create fish farms; and significant quantities of wild caught fish being used to create fish meal for farmed fish.
Global awareness about the need to reduce the industry's most significant impacts is increasing. This has led to more than two dozen standards or certification programs produced individually by nonprofit organizations, producer groups or industry associations. However, none of the programs are sufficiently multi-species, multi-stakeholder, measurable or transparent to be credible.
Through several roundtables — called "Dialogues" — WWF collaborates with producers, buyers, nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders to develop credible, voluntary standards geared toward minimizing or eliminating the main environmental and social impacts caused by aquaculture.
Learn more about how WWF is addressing aquaculture's impacts on our environment and society:
For more information, please contact us at Aquacultureinfo@wwfus.org.
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