The oceans are one of our last remaining public resources, essentially off limits to private companies. But this is rapidly changing as corporations eye its contents: the fish that call these open waters home. With soaring world demand for fish, private companies want to increase the supply of cheap fish on the market to satiate consumers, under the guise of world hunger and overfishing, but the real motive is profit. In recent years, corporations have begun to encroach upon our oceans, vying to parcel off the waters into private chunks so they can create massive fish farms and develop private monopolies over the right to fish.

Food & Water Watch’s Fish Campaign is dedicated to fighting this corporate control. We like fish, too, but not the way it’s being served by these companies. Bottom line: Our oceans and fish are not for sale. We don’t want our shrimp or red snapper from privatized fish factories filled with chemicals and antibiotics. We don’t want our oceans polluted with the large-scale production of fish farms that put profit ahead of our health and the environment. We don’t want to see multinational corporations pushing out traditional fishing communities along our coasts, where for generations fishermen have gone out to sea.

Think about this: More often than not, when you buy fish at the grocery store or order it in a restaurant, you’re eating farmed fish. Or, as we like to call it, “pharmed” fish because it’s pumped full of drugs and chemicals. That next tuna steak you eat most likely is not caught by a weathered, bearded fisherman, but by a low-paid crew member on one ship out of a fleet of 50.

Like fish? Then, it’s time to learn more.

• Get started by reading our General Guidelines to Buying Fish.
• Read the interview with our featured Fish Fighter: Father Sinclair Oubre.

Fishy Farms

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is promoting open ocean aquaculture as a way to reduce the country’s $9.2 billion seafood trade deficit and ease pressures on decimated wild marine fish populations. The U.S. government has been pushing to open public waters to offshore aquaculture––growing fish in nets or cages between three and 200 miles from shore. However, commercial–scale open ocean aquaculture will neither ease pressure on collapsing wild marine fish populations, nor eliminate our seafood trade deficit. Fishy Farms: The Problems with Open Ocean Aquaculture explores the environmental, economic and technological problems with commercial–scale fish farms.

Fish Fridays Could be Bad for Your Health

Every year, one out of four Americans, or 76 million people, experiences a foodborne illness, and seafood products cause 18 percent to 20 percent of such outbreaks in the United States. Today, Americans are consuming more seafood than ever, and to meet this growing demand, 81 percent of it is imported. As wild fish supplies wane, almost half of the seafood produced around the world comes from industrial fish farms. These operations satisfy the surging demand for seafood by cramming together fish, which creates conditions for disease and parasites to spread. Many operators address their unsanitary conditions by using antibiotics and chemicals that can leave residues in the fish that people eat. Import Alert reveals that the U.S. government fails to adequately inspect seafood imports for contaminants, filth, and salmonella, which could contribute to food-borne illnesses or other health problems among U.S. seafood consumers.