Aquaculture figures

The world popu­la­ti­on is gro­wing rapidly and within the next 30 years the­re will be 10 bil­li­on humans living on this earth. Due to the ten­ding acces­si­on of wealth, the­re will be more and more con­sump­ti­on of ani­mal pro­te­ins. Addi­tio­nal­ly, the incre­asing urba­niza­ti­on of the socie­ty is chal­len­ged by sup­p­ly­ing the­se urban are­as with fresh and afforda­ble food. We are per­ma­nent­ly pushing our glo­bal resour­ces to their limits and the­r­e­fo­re have to face the con­se­quen­ces: for deca­des the ste­ady over­fi­shing of the natu­ral waters as well as the mis­ma­nage­ment of the fishery have led to for­cing the oce­ans to their maxi­mum capa­ci­ty sin­ce the 1990s. Alter­na­ti­ves for the con­ven­tio­nal sup­p­ly of huma­ni­ty have to be found or developed.

The modern aquacul­tu­re is on the rise. In 2014 it alre­a­dy con­tri­bu­ted 73 mil­li­on tons (equ­als 44%) of the aquacul­tu­ral pro­duc­tion bes­i­des the 93 mil­li­on tons (equi­va­lent to 56%) of typi­cal fishery. Ther­eby every second edi­ble fish world­wi­de ori­gi­na­ted from an aquacul­tu­ral faci­li­ty nowadays.

The FAO sta­ted, that in 2013 the­re has been a world­wi­de con­sump­ti­on of around 130 mil­li­on tons of just crustace­ans, mol­luscs, mari­ne fish, freshwa­ter fish and other aqua­tic ani­mals. It is clear, that not every coun­try has the access to natu­ral sea­wa­ter or other exo­tic ani­mals, which can be seen by the world­wi­de pro­duc­tion of aquacul­tu­ral food of about 90% by Asia alo­ne. The­r­e­fo­re, a lot of the­se goods have to be impor­ted, e. g. Ger­ma­ny purcha­sed around 87% of it from other count­ries like Nor­way in 2016. With mari­ne fish being 39% of the total world­wi­de con­sump­ti­on, it also has one of the big­gest eco­no­mic and eco­lo­gi­cal impacts.

Final­ly, all count­ries have to find solu­ti­ons for a regio­nal pro­duc­tion and wit­hout des­troy­ing the envi­ron­ment fur­ther. For ins­tance, the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on deman­ded in the natio­nal long-term plan from 2013, that Ger­ma­ny extends aquacul­tu­ral faci­li­ties, to be pre­cis­e­ly: to dou­ble them. The SEAWATER Cube is our approach to sol­ve this issue by being able to sup­p­ly fresh goods within a radi­us of 50 kilo­me­ters (around 31 miles). As spe­ci­es like sea­bass and seab­ream are being a shorta­ge in Ger­ma­ny, we spe­cia­li­zed on salt­wa­ter fish to redu­ce this deficit.

Further informationen about the SEAWATER Cube

Check out more facts about our sys­tem and the technology.

Refe­ren­ces

— FIZ (Fisch-Infor­ma­ti­ons­zen­trum e.V), 2016. Fisch Wirt­schaft Daten und Fak­ten. Hamburg.
— FAO (Food And Agri­cul­tu­re Orga­ni­sa­ti­on Of The United Nati­ons), 2016. The Sta­te Of World Fishe­ries and Aquacul­tu­re. Rome
— EUMOFA (Euro­pean Mar­ket Obser­va­to­ry for Fishe­ries and Aquacul­tu­re Pro­ducts), 2016. Der EU-Fisch­markt – Aus­ga­be 2016
— Euro­päi­sche Kom­mis­si­on, 2013. Natio­na­ler Stra­te­gie­plan Aqua­kul­tur für Deutschland

Image source
FAO (2016)