Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability

Possible Positives for Wild Fisheries and Aquaculture Coming From a CO2 Fertilization Effect Due to Our Planet’s Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide?

This spring, NOAA announced that for the first time since they have been tracking the carbon dioxide level in the global atmosphere that the monthly average concentration of this greenhouse gas has surpassed 400 parts per million.  In the announcement, they stated that this marks the fact that our burning of fossil fuels has caused this and that half of this man-made increase has occurred just since 1980!

Sea Port has blogged in the past about how human caused global climate change driven by an increasing CO2 level may be the ultimate upcoming challenge to sustainably managing wild fisheries and aquaculture. However disconcerting the news announced by NOAA is, we should open our eyes to the possibility that positive environmental consequences may spring forth from this elevated CO2 level that the seafood industry could possibly benefit from. 

Possible Positives for Wild Fisheries and Aquaculture Due to CO2 Fertilization

of Terrestrial and Aquatic Plant Life

•   An increasing CO2 concentration when combined with adequate fresh water, light, temperature,

     physical space and availability of nutrients may cause dramatic increases in terrestrial plant
     growth and its expansion into nontraditional areas of the globe resulting in:

       

        -  possible increased production of crops for human consumption and for livestock/aquaculture
           feeds

        - possible increased plant production in existing and new emerging grazing areas for livestock
          that may reduce the need for using fishmeal and fish oil as supplemental livestock feeds

•  An increasing CO2 concentration may result in more beneficial oceanic phytoplankton that may

    increase the base of the marine food chain resulting in:

        -  increased production of aquatic organisms higher up the marine food chain that may increase

           certain wild fishery stocks providing greater harvests for our benefit

        -  increased wild and farmed micro and macro algae that humans could consume directly or use
           as feeds for livestock and aquaculture

In Summary:  In our new Anthropocene Epoch, humankind has markedly, factually, and rapidly increased the atmospheric CO2 concentration according to NOAA.  However, our seafood industry may not want to exclusively dwell on the negatives of climate change such as increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification. Our seafood industry should ready itself to rapidly adapt and prosper from any possible positives that may manifest themselves due to the increasing of atmospheric CO2.  While we all strive to reduce our global emissions of greenhouse gases, let us not ignore the possible positives for wild fisheries and aquaculture that may come from a potential CO2 fertilization effect.  

Go Blue! For Our Health – For Our Environment – For Sustainability

Sincerely,

David Glaubke – Director of Sustainability Initiatives