With growing seafood demand, improving the sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood is necessary to protect our oceans and seafood supplies into the future. As population increases, global demand for seafood rises. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, by 2030 there will be a need for an additional 40 million tons of seafood. Currently, wild-caught fish make up 57 percent of the seafood consumed, but the amount of wild fish caught is unlikely to increase since most fisheries are fished at or beyond capacity. Current fishing practices can also harm ocean ecosystems by destroying seafloor habitats and killing seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.

To meet the demand for seafood, aquaculture has expanded greatly, increasing 86 percent in the last decade. While some forms of aquaculture hold promise as sustainable options to meet seafood demand, the practices used to farm many species can result in the loss of natural habitat, release of waste, spread of disease, and the introduction of foreign species that harm native fish. Also troubling is the dependence on wild-caught fish to feed many farmed species, a practice that puts added strain on the world's oceans.

With growing seafood demand, improving the sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood is necessary to protect our oceans and seafood supplies into the future.