Comparing the ethics of capture fisheries and aquaculture

Abstract

The fish sector (wild or capture fisheries and aquaculture) is an important global source of food, income, livelihood, and culture. Aquaculture currently supplies 42% of the world fish production and is predicted to soon eclipse capture fisheries. The balance between these two production systems in supporting global seafood consumption has serious implications for food security, income distribution, ecosystem services, and overall sustainability. Here, the ethics and sustainability of capture fisheries and aquaculture will be analyzed and compared. An innovative practical ethics approach will be presented which adapts the ethical matrix, a conceptual tool that analyzes the welfare, freedom, and justice of different interest groups, and Rapfish, a semi-quantitative, rapid appraisal technique used to evaluate the sustainability of fisheries. In analyzing the ethics of seafood production and consumption, the roles of the law, market, and citizen are emphasized. Based on rapid appraisal case studies of large- and small-scale capture fisheries and carnivorous and omnivorous finfish aquaculture, it is argued that all three are essential for creating ethical and sustainable seafood production systems.

Appendix A. Ethical matrix for seafood production systems (updated from Lam and Pitcher, 2012).

System	Welfare	Freedom	Justice
Natural			Ecosystem
Ecosystem	Ecosystem integrity; protection of biodiversity, food webs and habitats	Preservation of adaptive capacity and resilience to anthropogenic perturbations (e.g. fisheries, pollution, etc.)	Productive: stewardship, conservation, protection Restorative: damaged ecosystems restored
Fish populations	Fish stock abundance and genetic conservation; fish welfare, including minimal genetic mixing or lice and diseases from farmed fish	Limited migration barriers and access to feeding or breeding habitats	Productive & restorative: policies for sustaining fish biomass, growth and reproduction
Human			Social
Society	Minimal environmental and social externalities (costs) from private enterprises; sustainable flow of aquatic resources for benefit of present and future generations; healthy economy and environment	Freedom to information and to express concerns about the management of resources to ensure it benefits all of society	Distributive: fees collected by management agencies distributed to social programs Retributive: compensated for ecological harm caused
Government agents	Alternative management and policy choices to serve public interests	Freedom to decide based on transparent information, open participation in public debates, and co-governance	Social: transparency; accountability; liability; access to information
Fishers and fishing communities/aquaculture farmers	Work and social security: adequate income and safe working conditions; poverty eradication; health care, educational and other capacity-building opportunities; cultural diversity respected	Freedom to choose fishing and alternative livelihoods; empowerment of fishers, including women and ethnic minorities; distinct identities of indigenous communities and cultural rights to fish in traditional fishing grounds recognized; food sovereignty in fish production system	Distributive & retributive: participation in decision-making or co-management; equitable and secure access to and use of resources; fair treatment in entry, use, credit, market, trade, subsidies, regulations, policies, and law; compensation for equal work and social inequities
Consumers	Food security: access to safe, nutritious, affordable, and sufficient food	Food sovereignty: freedom to choose food through eco-labeled choices of responsibly harvested seafood and culturally appropriate foods	Distributive: equitable access to food; no trade barriers; balance low trophic level fish consumed for food and forage fish converted to fishmeal
Other stakeholders	Non-consumptive uses also valued in resource decisions	Freedom to compete for share of resources; participatory decision-making and collaborative governance	Distributive & retributive: equitable share of and access to resources for food, income, livelihood, culture, and recreation; dispute resolution for resource conflicts
Interaction			Ecosystem & Social:
Overall system	Economic viability and stability; sustainable development; safety; competitive industry	Conditional freedom or privilege to fish (fishing rights with societal obligations); small-scale equal opportunity as industrial-scale enterprises	Productive, restorative, distributive and retributive: ecosystem-based management; historically based restoration; cross-sectoral equity in law and taxes; compensation for harm