Seafood is essential for human welfare the world over, as a source of nutrition and as a source of employment. The production of seafood also plays an outsized role in the health of coastal and marine ecosystems, with the two traditional seafood categories (fished or farmed) having very different impacts on the environment. Increasingly though, these two types of seafood production are blurring together. As a consequence, in a study published in the journal Marine Policy, marine researchers call for the use of a third "hybrid" category of seafood production. As seafood production methods shift, the use of this hybrid category should assist policymakers that are attempting to balance human welfare with environmental protection. This study stemmed from a NCEAS working group focussed on globally sustainable seafood and marine ecosystem restoration.
Moving beyond the fished or farmed dichotomy
Dane H. Klinger, Mary Turnipseed, James L. Anderson, Frank Asche, Larry B. Crowder, Atle G. Guttormsen, Benjamin S. Halpern, Mary I. O'Connor, Raphael Sagarin, Kimberly A. Selkoe, Geoffrey G. Shester, Martin D. Smith, and Peter Tyedmers
Marine Policy, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2012.06.015
More information about this working group's research, participants and publications.
UCSB press release
Santa Barbara News-Press
KCBX (radio interview)