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Ocean Takeover (AKTAIA et al.)

This report contains an executive summary, which is reproduced below.

Executive summary

Take a flight over Greece and they're unmissable, even from thousands of feet up in the air: regular clusters of circular net pens dotted around on the surface of the crystalline waters of the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Seen from above, they look inoffensive, forming neat geometric patterns against the deep, their contents invisible from such a distance. But closer up, they present a very different impression, the water teeming with seabass and seabream in close confinement, condemned to live out their days in captivity in one of the thousands of intensive fish farms that pepper the Mediterranean.

The backdrop to this report is a region under siege: over a vast area stretching from Türkiye in the east to the Canary Islands in the west, large swathes of sparkling blue sea have been taken over by intensive fish farms without the consent of local communities whose lives and natural environment they are now blighting with pollution and waste. Beyond the Mediterranean, along the coast of Northwest Africa and further inland, fishers and communities already facing worsening food security and threats to their livelihoods witness their catches dwindling, and see precious wild fish populations diverted to feed this booming industry.

People in Europe eat the majority of the world's farmed seabass and seabream.¹ However, how many of those people are aware of the extractive nature of this industry that is fuelling food insecurity, environmental degradation and socioeconomic damage on our own doorstep?

This report sets out to remedy that by telling the untold story of how fish farming is ruining the Mediterranean. We focus on Greece, the EU's biggest producer of farmed seabass and seabream, where government plans could result in the dramatic expansion of intensive aquaculture installations in the coming years. This is despite furious resistance from communities horrified at the damage this will do to their environment and to the living they make from activities such as fishing and tourism.

Rapid expansion at a huge cost

This report identifies a radical shift in the way fish are produced in the Mediterranean over the past five decades. In this time aquaculture, and in particular the farming of seabass and seabream, has overtaken wild-capture fisheries.²

Seabass and seabream farming in the Mediterranean Basin are expanding at an alarming rate. Foodrise estimates that Greece, the leading producer of farmed seabass and seabream in the EU, has witnessed a **141% increase in production of these species since the turn of the century.**ª Today, nearly all of the seabass and seabream we eat in Europe are farmed.³˒⁴

Communities that are local to seabass and seabream farms are seeing ecosystems disrupted, waterways polluted, and vital economic activities such as tourism put at risk.

The progressive decline of Posidonia oceanica, commonly known as Neptune grass – an endemic seagrass found exclusively along the coastlines of the Mediterranean Sea – is emblematic of the damage intensive fish farming is wreaking in the region.⁵ This is particularly poignant as it is likely to be irreversible.⁶

A false solution to food insecurity

As our ocean and the wild fish populations it shelters come under increasing threat, we see industrial aquaculture being touted as a solution to ecosystem collapse and food insecurity. But this is a deeply misleading narrative fuelled by vested corporate interests. Our findings powerfully demonstrate that intensive fish farming is a false solution.

Farmed seabass and seabream have a voracious appetite for wild-caught fish, which they are fed in the form of fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO). Regions which produce FMFO, including West Africa, are experiencing a rapid and unsustainable decline in wild fish populations. This decline affects the availability of fish for their diets and livelihoods.

To quantify this industry's impact in food security terms, Foodrise used academic and industry data to estimate how much fishmeal and fish oil is used to produce feed for farmed seabass and seabream.

Globally, seabass and seabream aquaculture produce weekly portions of 200g of fish for around 33 million people, which the aquaculture industry points to as evidence that it contributes to food security. However, our findings show that global farmed seabass and seabream production has a net-negative impact on ocean ecosystems and global food security. If we ate the wild fish – e.g., herring, sardine, anchovy, mackerel and blue whiting – currently reduced down to fish oil and fed to farmed seabass and seabream directly, over 300,000 tonnes of fish could be left in the ocean for ecosystem health and restoration, or more than a quarter more peopleᵇ could be fed a weekly portion of 200g of fish (see Methodology for workings).

Using data from a leading Greek producer of aquaculture feed, which sources fishmeal and fish oil from West Africa and owns one of Greece's biggest fish farming companies, we further estimate that at a minimum nearly one million people in West and Southern Africa could eat 200g of fish a week with the wild-caught fish currently turned into fish oil for seabass and seabream aquaculture in Greece (see Methodology for workings).

Despite this, the industry continues to claim that aquaculture will feed the world. Governments and intergovernmental bodies appear to have swallowed this fishy fairytale hook, line and sinker. Throughout the supply chain, communities and nature are being devastated by this extractive industry. Yet it is receiving millions in EU and government subsidies and the EU is actively promoting the production of farmed seabass and seabream in the Mediterranean.

It's time to put a stop to the aggressive expansion of this destructive industry and urgently enact a moratorium on intensive fish farming across the Mediterranean Basin.

ª This is based on Greek farmed seabass and seabream production of 121,300 tonnes in 2023 as reported by HAPO in its 2024 Annual Report, and production of 50,296 tonnes in 2000 as reported by Globefish in 2006 (Marie Christine Monfort, "Marketing of Aquacultured Finfish in Europe Focus on Seabass and Seabream from the Mediterranean Basin" (Rome, Italy: Globefish, September 2006)).

ᵇ Additional to the 33 million people who can eat a weekly portion of farmed seabass.

Key findings