Like Water and Oil

Ocean-Based Fish Farming and Organic Don’t Mix explains why not every type of aquaculture system or fish species can be certified organic, drawing from the scientific literature and experiences and mishaps of the conventional aquaculture industry. It discusses the large number of unpreventable fish escapes documented around the world and explains how weak reporting requirements allow underreporting of the vast number and volume of escapes that occur. The Report summarizes the array of synthetic, toxic substances and radionuclides that have been regularly detected in the marine environment and how the exposure and accumulation of these substances in farmed fish cannot be avoided. Negative impacts of open-ocean fish farms on ocean ecology are examined in terms of the spread of pathogens and pollutants, the alteration of marine food webs and the behavior of wild species—sealing the case that open ocean facilities can never be organic.