参考答案:
Sample answer:
Aquaculture has both obvious benefits and concerning drawbacks. Aquaculture is more reliable than wild harvesting in the amount of food it provides. Aquaculture is also beneficial in allowing stressed natural fish stocks time to recover without losing fish as a source of protein for growing populations. However, farming fish or seaweed can pollute the environment because some of the fertilisers and feed added for growth end up in the environment instead. It can also be too expensive to start for people who might rely on wild fisheries for their income and food.
Benefits: [2 max]
a. Aquaculture allows for greater control and is thus a more reliable way to produce food than wild harvesting.
b. Aquaculture replaces the consumption of dwindling natural stocks of food fish, allowing natural wild populations time to recover.
c. Aquaculture reduces the need for fishing boats, which reduces the potential for pollution and waste produced in the ocean with capture fisheries.
d. Aquaculture can take place in the ocean or on marginal lands, thus increasing the area where humans can produce food.
e. Aquaculture can provide jobs and income.
f. Technology continues to improve in the industry, allowing greater yields and less waste, as well as reducing the cost of production.
Drawbacks: [2 max]
a. Farmed fish are not generally as diverse or healthy as their wild counterparts, meaning they are more susceptible to disease.
b. Habitats such as mangroves are sometimes destroyed to build shrimp farms.
c. Fish and seaweed farms can pollute the areas in which they are found in a more concentrated way than wild fisheries pollute.
d. Farmed organisms can escape and mix with wild species, which can lead to increased disease and lower genetic diversity in wild populations.
e. Farmed fish require feed - either feed produced on land that could otherwise be used to feed humans, or fish from wild fisheries.
f. Fish in aquaculture farms may live in conditions that raise ethical concerns - overcrowding, harvesting practices, and use of antibiotics.
g. The technology required to farm some fish is more expensive, and set-up costs for farms can also be high, making the industry less accessible to those areas with less economic power, such as LEDCs.
h. Some types of seaweed harvesting can cause harm to the seafloor.
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