The system, spread over little more than an acre of open water and a tiny island, makes up Lafourche Mariculture Inc. Practiced for centuries in its simplest form by those who harvest oysters, crawfish and clams, growing fish in contained, controlled areas is nothing new. What is new is the urgent sense that increasing fish farm production is the only way to meet the world's growing demand for fish. Always looking for a handout, cats are a constant companion of workers at Laforurche Mariculture. As Steve Carter relocates one of the competition, Richard Griffin transfers a crop of hybrid striped bass and redfish from one tank to another. Yet the world consumes 72 million tons of fish.
Aquaculture makes up the difference.
By 2010, the U.N. group said, one in every three meals of fish eaten in the world must come from fish ponds, tanks or cages to meet consumer demand. Already, there's a 50-50 chance that the salmon you buy at the supermarket was raised in a cage, even if it was imported from Europe. Relieving pressure on depleted natural fisheries. Enhancing stocks for sport fishing. Providing jobs for people knocked out of work by the collapse of the traditional fishing industry.