Company Message ::.
CHANGE: A Vision of Aquaculture in the 21st Century |
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Improvements in biotechnology have changed various aspects in our lives. It has allowed us to create biodiesel, from soybean oil, to replace fossil fuel in powering our cars. It has helped us manufacture medical vaccines that save hundreds of lives everyday. It has been used to innovate the recycling process and to harvest energy to help in the preservation of our environment. But why haven’t it been utilized fully to change our current methods of aquaculture and to make it environment-friendly? Aquaculture had begun as a solution to supply the demand for fish as its number in the world’s seas and oceans decreased due to various factors. But current practices in aquaculture actually increase the damages done to our aquatic environment. We rely heavily on fishmeal in the formulation of feeds for aquaculture, hence disturbing the natural balance in the marine eco-system. We catch small fishes from the seas to produce fishmeal to feed the fishes that we raise on land, hence lessening the food supply for the bigger fishes in the seas. |
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Somehow, we can see that there is a flaw in logic of our methods as the number of fishes in nature decreases rapidly. It is now time for us to think of ways to lessen our dependency on fishmeal and to restore the balance to our ecosystem. We can begin by switching to a plant-based protein source such as soya bean meal. Using biotechnology we can make soya bean meal more digestible and more nutritious. Through a process of fermentation the anti-nutritional factors present in the soya bean meal is decreased, making it the ideal substitute for fishmeal. But not all fishes can survive on plant-based protein, you think. Then perhaps we should decide to raise more fishes that can grow using plan-based protein and less fishes that need fish meal. Think about it. Do we really need to raise fishes that are dependent on fish meal? Change doesn’t happen overnight, and change doesn’t happen on its own. We need to be the ones to decide to make a difference. Change is in our hands. |
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