Fish Farming - Foodrise EU

What's the problem?

Fish farming is the fastest-growing food system on the planet, with farmed fish now outnumbering wild-caught fish on supermarket shelves.

But behind this growth is a dark reality: an industry built on ocean plunder and corporate greed that is exploiting fish populations, fuelling injustice, and taking food away from millions of people.

Every year, around one-fifth of the world’s marine catch — wild fish like anchovies, herring, and sardines — is ground into fishmeal and fish oil, primarily to feed farmed fish.

The intensive farming of carnivorous species like salmon and seabass is not only harming our ocean – it is unsustainable and unjust.

It takes up to 6 kilograms of wild fish to produce just 1 kilogram of farmed salmon. That’s fish that could feed people being siphoned off and fed to fish to fuel corporate profits instead.

Much of the wild fish used to feed farmed fish is extracted from fishing grounds off West Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia — robbing people that rely on these fish for survival.

90%

of wild fish used in feeds

could be fed directly to people.

20%

of the world’s annual marine catch

is used to produce fishmeal and fish oil each year. The majority of this goes to producing feed for the aquaculture industry.

6kg

of wild fish is required

to produce just 1kg of farmed salmon.

Our solutions

We’re taking action to stop this toxic industry in its tracks — through hard-hitting investigative research, building public pressure, and platforming the voices of communities on the frontlines.

Exposing the harm and naming it for what it is

We don’t shy away from saying it how it is. Our Blue Empire report laid bare how extracting wild fish from the ocean to feed farmed fish for retail in wealthy markets is not only a shocking squandering of marine life, but also a grave global injustice.

Our report, Blue Empire, reveals how the Norwegian salmon industry extracts nutrition and undermines livelihoods in West Africa.

Demanding big banks stop financing industrial aquaculture

We expose the key players – like big banks and other financial institutions – propping up this toxic industry and demand they stop funding destruction. Our Fishy Finances report revealed how billions of dollars of private and public funding are fuelling the destructive growth of salmon farming.

Our report, Fishy Finances, exposes industrial salmon farming's biggest financial backers.

Standing with communities

We work directly with coastal communities across Europe and West Africa, who are living with the environmental destruction and social injustice caused by industrial fish farming – to expose the damage, build resistance, and push for alternatives.

Our demands

The industry’s terrifying expansion is leading to more fish being extracted from the ocean, harming communities, wildlife and our ocean.

The only way to protect the ocean and communities around the world is an immediate moratorium on new industrial fish farms. In time, industrial fed aquaculture must end.
Sourcing fishmeal and fish oil from food insecure regions is creating competition between food and fish feed. If industrial fish farming companies are serious about feeding the world, this would be an important first step.
Sourcing fishmeal and fish oil is putting immense pressure on some marine ecosystems. A ban on reduction fisheries in these regions would enable them to recover.
Many people don’t realise that most fish we eat are farmed, or that wild fish are used in their feed. While transparency alone isn’t a complete solution, mandating transparency at all levels of the supply chain would ensure companies disclose their feed suppliers. Retailers should be providing this information to shoppers.