The sea can feed the world - using the oceans to grow food

The sea can feed the world -  Interesting article on using the oceans to grow food

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/0322/1224292768324.html

Im glad there are folks working on this!!!

ive thought about this before but dont live near the oceans. I was thinking of permie methods for enabling fish to breed better, and other means.

In addition to setting up artificial corrals for habitat you could get algae to bloom as well and raise tons of one of the fish that breed well, and are at the bottom of the food chain. Plant eaters. Something humans like... In that way perhaps we could focus fishing on those, and let the rest grow back in in full numbers, perhaps a bit higher since we could set up habitat as well.

the same holds true with lakes and rivers. Im guessing not all or even most permies might agree, Im not sure... but to me I think if we dont do such things it will be much worse then if we did.

Yes, I agree....I also remember something Bill Mollison said in an aquaculture course - that the potential yield in aquaculture systems typically will far exceed the potential yield in land based systems.  Apparently the folks in Hawaii used to 'farm' small bay's in this way.

As populations continue to rise, and farmlands shrink through urban sprawl and erosion, mankind is going to need to learn to better utilize our vast oceans.  Several earlier attempts to farm the seas have failed due to greed...the ROI was not high enough to sustain interest.
Many kelps/seaweeds are very nutrient & mineral rich.  As populations outgrow the capacity of land based farming, mankind will need to look seaward for survival.
Cap'n John

Until the people doing it, (read GOVERNMENTS) quit dumping everything from household trash to radioactive waste in the oceans I will continue to not eat anything that comes from them.

I have to say I"m with Kurt.  I used to work for two oil and gas companies in Texas and I know how much crap they dump.  I wouldn't eat anything that came from the ocean. 

It is a good point. but still worth doing imo.

Seems like with 40 percent of the phytoplankton gone and many fish species endangered, not to mention being the toxic waste dump for the planet, the poor sea is doing about all it can right now. 

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/abs/nature09268.html

The Japanese have been farming seaweed as suggested in the article for decades, if not centuries.

From a permaculture perspective, farming the oceans is all about creating edge... yes to artificial reefs... the zone along the shore and shallows are the most productive regions.  Any solid structure provides the foundation for an entire food chain. 

I use to fish a lot in the great south bay off long island.  They made some artificial reefs out of used tires chained together and sunk in the bay (scary toxins?).  The productivity of these structures was stunning in relation to the rest of the mostly flat-bottomed, sandy bay.  We would catch crazy amounts of blackfish there. 

Seaweed and algae are some of the most nutritious foods on earth, and also among the most efficient in terms of turning sunlight into food.  Sea veggies also do not have the problems that animal seafoods do in terms of bioaccumulation of toxins higher up the food chain. 

You see most of the problems with toxicity in top predators like tuna & dolphins...  of course, shellfish that filter shallow waters near cities are going to be toxic. 

Stacking functions, we would look at offshore wind & wave farms providing structure for a polyaquaculture including both sea animals and sea vegetables.  Don't know if any seabirds are worth eating.

H Ludi Tyler wrote:
Seems like with 40 percent of the phytoplankton gone and many fish species endangered, not to mention being the toxic waste dump for the planet, the poor sea is doing about all it can right now.   

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/abs/nature09268.html

I see that as all the more reason to take action. I guess by 2050 many fish species will be fished to near extinction. many are there now.

The only official "answer" Ive seen is stop eating fish, and thats well and good, it would work. but many poorer countries especially would have to change their entire lives...

Setting up the habitats does wonders. Of course we need to get the junk out of the water to..... I certainly agree, and stop putting it there to begin with.

yukkuri_kame wrote:
Don't know if any seabirds are worth eating.

The residents of St. Kilda (off the west coast of the Shetland Isles, Scotland) subsisted on a diet that consisted mainly of seabirds and sheep (fulmars, ganets, puffins) for at least 2000 years, possibly longer.

Apparently seabirds are an acquired taste and very oily according to a book I read on St . Kilda.

Back in the sailing days, once the chickens quit laying and had been consumed, the focus was on catching albatross...large bird, lots of meat.  I would presume they must have been quite gamey.