3. Contents
What is the Blue Revolution
What is Aquaculture
Importance
Advantages & Disadvantages
Winners & Losers
Challenges faced
Case study: Japan
Case study: Bangladesh
Video
Bibliography
4. What is the Blue Revolution
It is the rapid expansion of intensive,
commercial aquaculture
Came in a decade after the Green
Revolution (1970s; chemical-based
agriculture)
Increase global food production and reduce
widespread hunger
5. What is the Blue Revolution
By 1985, international aid agencies were
pumping $200 million a year
From 1975 – 1985, world aquaculture
output had doubled
Refers to the remarkable emergence of
aquaculture as an important and highly
productive agricultural activity
6. What is Aquaculture
Also known as aquafarming
Defined as the establishment of man-made
enclosures to raise aquatic life forms, such as
shellfish, fish, and sea weeds, for human
consumption purposes
Aquaculture refers to all forms of active
culturing of aquatic animals and plants,
occurring in marine, brackish, or fresh waters
Cultivation of aquatic populations under
controlled environments
9. Importance
20% of the world’s total
animal protein intake is
from seafood (higher in
coastal communities)
Most pearls sold come
from pearl aquaculture
farms
10. Advantages
Generates export revenue that can be used
to pay foreign debt
Contributed to the growth of large-scale
export-oriented agribusiness enterprises in
developing nations
Allows natural populations of fish to
reproduce while farmed-raised versions are
being used for food
11. Advantages
Intensive commercial
aquaculture is
relatively efficient –
beef cattle require 7
pounds of grain to
produce 1 pound of
meat; catfish require
1.7:1
Economic value of fish
is high, hence
potential profits to be
gained by cultivating
in large quantities
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Pounds of meat from 7 pounds of grain
Cows
Catfish
12. Advantages
Fish are given supplement for:
Faster growth = increased output
Colour of meat (e.g. Salmon) = Aesthetically
more pleasing
Antibiotics
These lead to increase in supply and export
13. Disadvantages
Chemical additives like antibiotics and
special feed are administered into
aquaculture cages, which may contaminate
surrounding waters
Fish have less health benefits due to
injection of hormones
Fish in captivity might escape and establish
themselves in new habitat, competing and
degrading native species
14. Disadvantages
As fish are grown very closely together,
they are very disease-prone, which not only
affect fish output, but other marine life as
well
15. Disadvantages
As intensive,
commercial
aquaculture is very
costly, only those who
have enough capital to
invest in commercial
aquaculture actually
benefit from it; Poorer
farmers do not have
sufficient capital
16. Disadvantages
Generated steady flows of polluted
wastewater and contributed to the decline
of wild fisheries (Average salmon farm
produces a volume of effluent equal to a
town of 40,000 people)
Polluted wastewater caused by artificial
feed, chemical additives and antibiotics
Polluted wastewater also reduce supply of
drinking water in the area
17. Disadvantages
Triggers ‘red tides’
outbreak and
pollutes the
foreshore with
waste - an
explosive growth
of toxic algae that
can kill fish and
fatally poison
people who eat
contaminated
seafood
18. Disadvantages
New aquaculture techniques resulted in an
explosive expansion of coastal shrimp
aquaculture throughout developing nations
in Asia and Latin America
19. Disadvantages
Destruction of thousands of hectares of
mangrove forests, which protected
shorelines from erosion and were the
nurseries for thousands of marine
organisms
20. Winners & Losers
Wealthy companies and commercial
farmers benefit from aquaculture
Commercial companies buy poor farmers’
land cheaply
Poor subsistence farmers did not benefit as
they relied on small ponds for local
consumption – commercial farming
destroyed thousands of hectares of
mangrove forests
21. Result of aquaculture
In 1987Taiwan became the largest prawn
producer in the world. A year later disease
struck and production dropped by 70 per
cent.The industry never recovered.
22. Challenges faced
Over-fishing
Fishing activities reduce fish stocks below
an acceptable level
Lead to resource depletion
Modern fishing gear allow more intensive
fishing
24. Challenges faced
Pollution
More than 46000 pieces of plastic litter /
mile2
6kg of marine litter to 1kg of plankton
25. Case study: Japan
First to recognise era of
hunting fish was ending
World’s largest marine
aquaculture industry
Before 1939: 76,000 tons /
year
By 1987: 1,100,000 tons /
year
Along coastlines, Japanese
farm fishes with high
market value
26. Case study: Japan
Disease and pollution problems emerging
Fish waste and uneaten fish food accumulate at
bottom of sea
Sludge below cage sites > 30cm
Stifles growth of aquatic organisms and
worsen water quality
‘Red tides’
27. Case study: Bangladesh
Thousands of farmers have suffered from the
invasion of their ricelands by aquaculture
owners
Destruction to their rice crops by seepage of
salt water from the shrimp ponds
Shrimp owners have been buying up the rice
farmers’ infertile lands very cheaply, rendering
them landless. One study estimated that
300,000 people were displaced from their
farmlands by aquaculture in the Stakhira
region alone
28. Case study: Bangladesh
Disputes between
farmers and aquaculture
owners have often led to
violent clashes
We want our ricelands
back!
29. Video
GOOD: Urban Aquaculture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANpbBZu
5ViE&feature=fvw