The Myth of _Sustainable_ Aquaculture (Aquaculture Accountability Project et al.)

As the report contains an executive summary, it has been reproduced here exactly as requested.

Executive Summary

As industrial fishing began to decimate wild fish populations in the latter half of the 20th century, a new industry promised a solution: that farming fish would save the oceans and deliver sustainable protein to the world. This eco-friendly image was carefully crafted by aggressive marketing and lobbying campaigns to win over the public, policymakers, and foodservice leaders, allowing the industry to grow exponentially and surpass wild-caught fisheries in tonnage sold. However, the industry has failed to deliver on its claims, instead quietly inflicting greater harms on the world's oceans.

This report dissects five of the most influential myths that the animal aquaculture industry has used to convince the world that it is sustainable and socially responsible:

► Myth 1 | Fish Farming Reduces Pressure on Wild Fisheries
Reality: Using wild fish for feed exacerbates overfishing

• The most popular farmed fish in the Global North are carnivorous species such as salmon. Farming these fish at an industrial scale relies on millions of tons of small wild-caught coastal fish, like anchovies. Small coastal species, many of which are relied upon by human communities in vulnerable Global South countries, are now being dangerously overfished to feed the industrial fish farming system.
• Industrial fish farming has obscured this reality by enshrining outdated and unscientific metrics into international law, drastically underrepresenting its reliance on wild fish.

► Myth 2 | Fish Farming Meets a Growing Demand for Seafood
Reality: The industry engineers unsustainable demand for seafood

• Studies show that fish farming's growth does not displace wild-caught fishing—it is additive, driving overall fish consumption higher and compounding pressure on ocean ecosystems. This “demand” has been manufactured through deceptive marketing that recasts farmed fish as a clean, climate-friendly necessity, persuading consumers and foodservice to buy more fish.
• To protect its unfettered growth, the industry has manipulated research and pressured policymakers. In Chile, for instance, salmon producers obtained long-term private property rights over coastal waters—effectively privatizing the ocean and minimizing oversight.

► Myth 3 | Farmed Fish Is a Healthy Ocean Protein
Reality: Aquaculture spreads diseases and parasites that sicken fish and humans, and drives the global antibiotic resistance crisis

• Crowded, waste-laden pens and ponds create ideal conditions for parasites and diseases such as sea lice, infectious salmon anemia, and shrimp viruses, causing massive die-offs and spreading infections to wild fish. These same pathogens can persist through processing, putting human consumers at risk of illness.
• These rampant infections necessitate the use of antibiotics and chemicals—and since no aquaculture-specific antibiotics exist, the industry uses antibiotics that are classified as medically important for humans. This dependence fuels the antibiotic resistance crisis, with testing finding antibiotic-resistant bacteria in fish and shrimp on store shelves. Many antibiotics are banned in fish and shrimp in the U.S., but because of limited testing, aquaculture products containing these drug residues can and do reach consumers.

► Myth 4 | Farmed Fish Is a Climate-Smart Food
Reality: Fish farming exacerbates climate change

• Feed production, energy use, and high mortality make aquaculture highly carbon-intensive, with emissions often exceeding poultry and pork, and many times higher than plant-based proteins such as peas or soy.
• The industry also undermines natural carbon sinks by depleting forage fish who drive ocean carbon storage and by clearing mangroves for shrimp ponds, turning key carbon reservoirs into emissions sources.

► Myth 5 | Certifications and Labels Ensure Sustainability
Reality: Certifications and labels are marketing tools, not proof of sustainability

• Leading certification schemes are funded by the very companies they certify and rely on limited, sampling-based audits. This conflict of interest creates the appearance of oversight while masking pollution, disease, and high mortality across certified farms. Despite efforts by concerned environmental advocates to demand more meaningful oversight, the current system is an example of classic greenwashing built to preserve consumer confidence, not ecological integrity.
• Even widely trusted guides such as Seafood Watch lack farm-level data, rating fish and shellfish by species and region rather than by actual production conditions. These broad ratings are now used as powerful marketing tools to steer consumers and institutions toward certified products that perpetuate the harms inherent to industrial fish farming.

Industrial aquaculture has transferred the problems of factory farming from land to sea while masking them through sophisticated greenwashing campaigns. Behind its promise of “sustainable seafood,” the industry perpetuates ecological collapse and public health risks to maintain profit and growth. Because these harms are inherent to fish farming, true ocean protection will require confronting the sheer scale of sea animal production and consumption, particularly by the Global North.