How To Protect The Ocean

The family behind the world's largest salmon farming company built a global industry. Now one of its members is asking how it can be sustainable to grind up fish from poorer countries, ship them across the world, and feed them to salmon sold to wealthier shoppers. In episode 2048, Andrew Lewin follows farmed fish from your plate back to the fishmeal boat to answer him.
More than half the seafood eaten worldwide now comes from farms, and most of it is fed. Andrew breaks down what fishmeal and fish oil are made of, why roughly a fifth of the global wild catch ends up as feed, and how forage fish declines show the strain on the small fish that tuna, seabirds, whales and coastal communities depend on. He also explains why a half-billion-dollar insect farm couldn't replace fishmeal, and how Norway cut marine ingredients from salmon feed while total wild fish use kept climbing.
The fastest fix is already at the seafood counter. Mussels, oysters and clams eat plankton straight from the water and need no feed at all. This is the first of four episodes on fish feed, drawing on reporting from The Outlaw Ocean Project. This week, swap one farmed salmon or shrimp meal for farmed bivalves.
Takeaways
More than half of the world's seafood now comes from fish farms, and about two-thirds of farmed seafood is fed.
Fishmeal is made by cooking and grinding small fish like anchoveta, sardinella and herring, and most of those fish are suitable for people to eat.
Forage fish declines are hitting fisheries worldwide, including Canada's 2022 herring quota cut and Atlantic mackerel closure.
Insect protein and other alternatives remain far too small to replace the fishmeal fish farms use each year.
Norway cut marine ingredients in salmon feed from about 90% to 22% over 30 years, yet industry growth pushed total wild fish use higher.
Farmed mussels, oysters and clams need no feed, making them one of the lowest-pressure seafood choices available.
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More than half the seafood eaten on Earth now comes from fish farms, and most of those farmed fish are raised on fishmeal made from wild-caught fish. Maya Martin, deputy editor at The Outlaw Ocean Project, joins Andrew Lewin to unpack Food for Feed, a five-year investigation that traced fishmeal from the ships that catch it, through the plants that grind it, to the farmed fish on your plate.
Maya explains how forage fish like sardinella and anchoveta are pulled from waters off West Africa, Peru and Southeast Asia, often from stocks that are already overexploited and from communities that depend on them for food and work. She walks through the stench and toxic waste that surround fishmeal plants, the protests they spark, the deaths and injuries of workers, the fire-retardant chemical ethoxyquin, and fish farms built in China's Xinjiang desert whose salmon has reached US institutions. She also shows how the team's Bait to Plate tool lets anyone follow a supply chain end to end, and why third-party certifications have missed many of these problems.
You'll leave knowing which seafood choices avoid the fishmeal problem, from filter-feeding shellfish to local catch you can see come in, and which organizations are pushing retailers and governments to clean up the supply chain. Content note: this episode discusses forced labour, violence, deaths at sea and migrant deaths. Explore the investigation at foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com and baittoplate.theoutlawocean.com.
Links mentioned in this episode
Food for Feed investigation: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com
Bait to Plate supply chain tool: https://baittoplate.theoutlawocean.com
Food for Feed findings: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/findings
Methodology, including country-by-country partner groups: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/methodology
Company and certifier responses (Discussion page): https://discussion.theoutlawocean.com/food-for-feed
The Outlaw Ocean Project: https://theoutlawocean.com
Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org
Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org
Oceana: https://oceana.org
Sea Shepherd: https://seashepherd.org
The Outlaw Ocean Project's New York Times follow-up on eating seafood sustainably: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/briefing/fish-food.html
Previous HTPTO episode with Dr. Marine Cusa (Oceana) on fishmeal: 
Fish Feed in Aquaculture: https://www.speakupforblue.com/show/speak-up-for-the-ocean-blue/podcast-28/
The Squid You Eat is a Mystery: https://www.speakupforblue.com/show/speak-up-for-the-ocean-blue/podcast-82/

Takeaways
More than half of the world's seafood comes from aquaculture, and more than two-thirds of farmed seafood depends on fishmeal and fish oil from wild fish
At least half of the species landed by fishmeal vessels assessed in the investigation are overexploited or worse
Roughly 90% of the catch used for fishmeal is edible for people, and in West Africa sardinella is a staple protein and a livelihood
More than 9.5 million people live within a mile of a fishmeal plant, and the investigation documented at least 80 incidents of civil unrest tied to the industry
Over half of more than 550 seafood companies making strong sustainability claims had documented crimes or concerns in their supply chains
Farmed shellfish like mussels, oysters and clams need no feed, which makes them a lower-impact choice
Your action: look up one farmed seafood product you buy on Bait to Plate and see where its feed came from

Picture a big sign over the seafood counter promising sustainable fishing, with a fish every independent guide says to avoid sitting on ice right below it. In most countries nobody broke a rule, because the word "sustainable" on seafood has no legal definition. In this final episode of our sustainable seafood week, Andrew Lewin walks you through how to see past that sign and choose seafood you can feel good about.
You'll learn how to use the eco-labels and seafood guides that have already done the research for you, including the Marine Stewardship Council's blue tick for wild seafood, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council label for farmed seafood, and regional guides like Seafood Watch, Ocean Wise, the Good Fish Guide and GoodFish. Andrew explains why tuna can be a best choice or one to avoid depending on species, ocean and gear, how to ask the person behind the counter without making them the target, why "local" on vacation deserves a second look, why eating invasive lionfish and blue catfish helps, and how to think about shark on the menu.
Then Andrew answers the voice in your head that says one shopper can't matter. The story of Louisiana shrimp shows how a Seafood Watch rating, the businesses that follow it, and the customers behind them pushed a state to start enforcing sea turtle protections again. Your next seafood purchase is part of that same pressure. Pre-order David Shiffman's book Why Sustainable Seafood Matters using the link in the show notes.
Takeaways
"Sustainable" and "responsibly sourced" have no standard legal definition on seafood in the US or Canada, so treat store signs as marketing
Look for the MSC blue tick on wild seafood and the ASC label on farmed seafood, and use your region's seafood guide
The same species can be a best choice or one to avoid depending on where and how it was caught
Ask the counter staff politely; if they can't tell you where or how a fish was caught, choose something else
Eating invasive species like lionfish and blue catfish helps native ecosystems
In 2013 Seafood Watch red-listed Louisiana shrimp over a law blocking sea turtle protections, and by 2015 the state repealed that law
Your action: download your country's seafood guide and look up one item before your next purchase
Pre-Order Dr. David Shiffman's book called "Why Sustainable Seafood Matters"
Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon
Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca

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Off the south coast of England, about 100 kilometres out, sits Haig Fras, a granite reef covered in jewel anemones and cup corals. For years it was protected on paper, yet heavy fishing gear could still drag across it. In March 2024, that finally changed. In this episode, Andrew Lewin explains why where we fish matters as much as how much we fish, and what it takes to turn a line on a map into real protection.
Andrew breaks down the difference between midwater and bottom trawls and puts the damage shown in the recent Ocean documentary into context. Bottom trawling lands about a quarter of the world's wild-caught seafood, and the impact depends heavily on where it happens. He walks through the research on paper parks, where trawling was more intense inside European marine protected areas than outside them, and the five features that make an MPA deliver results. He also explains how England used public consultations to ban bottom-towed gear over sensitive reefs, and why the same place-based logic applies to fish farms.
The episode closes with a simple action anyone can take. The next time your government proposes or reviews a marine protected area, submit a public comment supporting rules that keep bottom trawling off sensitive habitats. Consultations count comments, and the rules written there decide whether a park is real.
Takeaways
Bottom trawling supplies about a quarter of wild-caught seafood, and its impact depends on the habitat being trawled.
Regions where less than 10% of the seafloor was trawled almost always had sustainably fished stocks.
In a study of 727 EU MPAs, 59% were commercially trawled, and trawling was 38% more intense inside them than outside.
MPAs that are no-take, enforced, older than 10 years, larger than 100 km², and isolated deliver far more fish and sharks.
England's 2024 byelaw banned bottom-towed gear over reefs in 13 more offshore MPAs, including Haig Fras.
Aquaculture now produces 51% of the world's aquatic animals. Look for ASC or BAP labels and seafood guide ratings.
Submitting a public comment during MPA consultations directly shapes the rules.
Pre-Order Dr. David Shiffman's book: "Why Sustainable Seafood Matter"
Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon
Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca

Connect with Speak Up For Blue
Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc
YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube

A Kemp's ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle on Earth, gets swept into a shrimp trawl. It hits a metal grid, slides out through a flap in the net, and swims away. That small trapdoor, the turtle excluder device, is one of the biggest success stories in fisheries management, and in late August 2026 a US federal appeals court upheld the rule extending it to skimmer trawl boats 40 feet and longer.
In this episode, marine biologist Andrew Lewin walks through the bycatch fixes that are working and the fights still underway. You'll hear why North Atlantic right whales get tangled in lobster and crab rope, how weak rope and ropeless gear could solve it, and why the US House just voted to extend a pause on new whale rules to 2035. Andrew also explains what the dolphin-safe label on canned tuna actually covers and why dolphin deaths in that fishery fell from hundreds of thousands a year to roughly a thousand.
Every number in this story depends on someone counting. Andrew draws on his own time as a marine mammal observer to explain why independent fisheries observers matter, the risks they face, and how electronic monitoring is changing the job. This episode is part of a week on sustainable seafood. Pre-order Dr. David Shiffman's book Why Sustainable Seafood Matters using the link in the show notes.
Takeaways
Turtle excluder devices must prove 97% effective at excluding sea turtles in testing, with little loss of shrimp
A loophole for small skimmer trawl boats let turtles keep drowning; a 2019 rule requires TEDs on boats 40 feet and longer, and the Fifth Circuit upheld it in 2026
Rope running from traps to surface buoys is the main entanglement risk for North Atlantic right whales, estimated at about 384 animals
Weak rope and on-demand (ropeless) gear are the two leading fixes for lobster and crab fisheries
Dolphin-safe means no nets were set on dolphins and none were killed or seriously injured in that set
Pole-and-line, troll, and handline tuna carry the least bycatch
When you choose the gear, you choose the bycatch
Pre-Order Dr. David Shiffman's book "Why Sustainable Seafood Matters"