In honor of World Oceans Day, and recognizing the urgent need to address the problems facing our oceans, we urge the UN FAO revise their position on sustainable aquaculture to EXCLUDE carnivorous fish farming. The signers of this letter represent a wide range of international organizations and local communities that have studied or experienced firsthand the deleterious impacts of industrial-scale open net-pen fish farming. So, when the FAO’s goal calls for a 75% growth in global sustainable aquaculture by 2040 compared to 2020 levels, we are deeply concerned about how you plan to achieve it.  Aquaculture includes multiple types of production, some of which are sustainable, such as the farming of kelp and other aquatic plants, as well as the cultivation of a wide range of bivalve creatures such as mussels, clams and oysters in small scale operations. However, it also includes the farming of carnivorous fin fish[Figure 55 on page 104] (e.g. most commonly salmon, sea bass, sea bream, and tuna) which, when cultivated in marine-based net pens, is not sustainably farmed anywhere in the world. 

Your own research acknowledges that, “Unfortunately, production and distribution of aquatic foods are not without problems. Strategies to deliver healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems do not adequately include the critical long-term impacts of overfishing, habitat degradation and unequal access to resources and markets.” 

More and more evidence keeps coming to light on the unsustainability and environmentally damaging aspects of industrial fish farming. For example, studies have linked the following problems with fish farms: 

• increase in harmful algal blooms, exacerbating impacts from global warming
• negative impact on critical Posidonia meadows
• mass fish die-offs
• use of the carcinogen formaldehyde
• large amounts of microplastics and debris left behind in the waters by the fish farms
• high volumes of wild-caught fish used to feed farmed fish which are often taken from food-insecure low and middle income nations to develop farmed fish for consumption in industrialized nations
• prophylactic and overuse of antibiotics

These negative impacts will only increase as ocean temperatures continue to rise. The bottom line is that in our current world there is NO farming of carnivorous fin fish which is environmentally sustainable. We need concrete, enforceable international standards for the remediation of damaged environments and the expansion of genuinely sustainable aquaculture options. 

In April 2024, a Manifesto for a European Ocean Pact written by the European Ocean Pact Stakeholder Group, recommended that in order to pursue a strong and sustainable blue economy, the European Union should, “Promote a more sustainable consumption of seafood and aquatic food in the EU, notably through the development of least impact aquacultures (sustainable and herbivorous fish farming, multi- trophic aquaculture, shellfish farming and algaculture).” Notably absent from this list is the cultivation of carnivorous fish farming. 

If the FAO’s aggressive goal of reaching a 75% growth in aquaculture includes expanding the farming of carnivorous fin fish, it would be catastrophic. In light of the above, we ask that the FAO stop supporting and promoting marine based open net carnivorous fish farming (salmon, sea bream, sea bass, trout) which are destroying our local environments, depleting wild fish stocks and harming local economies. We ask the FAO to revise their position on sustainable aquaculture to EXCLUDE carnivorous fish farming. 

Learn more at fishfarmsout.org