Blue foods have potential to become more sustainable

Subject – Environment

Context – Aquatic or blue foods can be made more environmentally sustainable than they are now, according to a recently released paper.

Concept –

The report, titled Environmental performance of blue foods, was one of five initial scientific papers published as part of the Blue Food Assessment (BFA).
- The BFA is a collaboration between Sweden-based Stockholm Resilience Centre, United States-based Stanford University and the non-profit EAT.
The paper noted that seaweeds and farmed bivalves, such as mussels and oysters, generated the fewest greenhouse gas and nutrient emissions and used the least land and water.
Capture fisheries also resulted in few nutrient emissions and use limited land and water, according to the paper.
- Capture fisheries refers to all kinds of harvesting of naturally occurring living resources in both marine and freshwater environments.
The paper added that greenhouse gas emissions in such fisheries ranged from relatively low, such as for sardines and cod, to relatively high for flatfish and lobsters, compared to farmed fish.
Capture fisheries had the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through improved management and optimising gear types, according to the paper.
Many subsectors among blue foods such as carp and milkfish, also had the potential to improve their environmental performance through improved farm management, reduced feed conversion ratios and innovative technological interventions.