Shifts in Mediterranean fish farming increase pressure on wild fish stocks

Fish farming in the Mediterranean has increasingly shifted from producing fish such as grey mullet, which are herbivores near the bottom of the food chain, to species such as sea bass, which are predators.

This ‘farming up’ the food chain requires wild fish to be caught to provide feed. A return to farming fish lower in the food chain would use marine resources more efficiently, a new study says.

More information here and Tsikliras, A.C., Stergiou, K.I.,Adamopoulos, N.et al.(2014). Shift in Trophic Level of Mediterranean Mariculture Species. Conservation Biology, Volume 28, No. 4, 1124– 1128.