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- Next Gen is not currently cost-efficient
- Next Gen is not currently completely feasible
- Enforcement of regulations in regards to fishing technology is difficult and not cost-effective
- Inertial resistance to change
- Current technology is already efficient at tracking and catching fish (though not selective enough)
- Once catching what we want through selectivity is achieved, more regulations will be need to prevent overfishing of species we want
TEAM 1 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Our research has shown that aquaculture is a necessary part of our final solution. According to a study done in 2003, nearly 31% of all fish sold commercially, comes from Aquaculture. There are three different types that can be used in various locations all over the world.
Type 1: Intensive-Man Made Facilities
- Man Made fish farms, which can be productive in virtually any type of climate
- Fish are farm from birth until when they are harvested and sold
- Require much monitoring to maintain health of fish
Type 2: Extensive-Pond/Lake
- Farming occurs within a natural or man-made ponds and lakes
- Fish can be farmed from birth to mature age, then released into wild or farmed until they need to be harvested
- Facility must be near a source of fresh/running water to prevent disease and interference with local ecosystem
Type 3: Extensive-Open Cage
- Occurs in large cages in the ocean
- Can either be mobile or stationary
- Much care needs to be taken to prevent nutrients from feed from destroying ocean floor
All three of these methods can be effectively used in helping the oceans fisheries. Some ways in which they can help are:
- Helping to rebuild crashed populations (using open cage aquaculture)
- Providing more food for carnivorous fish (farming prey fish so that others have enough food to eat)
- With the new regulations that are proposed, aquaculture can be used to make up for any lost revenue (especially with Tilalpia, Alaskan Salmon, Catfish, Shrimp and Mollusks)
- For overfished populations, aquaculture can help to rebuild the population by either 1) allowing young fish to be released into the wild; or 2) using aquaculture as the only source of the certain fish and prohibiting fishing of the wild fish, so that the population may regrow to a sustainable level.
In the end, the solution for aquaculture largely depends on the type of solutions put forth by everyone else. Once we have decided how much the above solutions will affect the fish trade, we can determine on a larger scale how much aquaculture we will need in our final solution. For further information, please see our the Team 1 Wiki or contact any of the members of our team.