November 3, 2025
Fish-Feed Feud Frenzy
The Problem with Farmed Seafood
Feeding fish with fish sparks a seafood civil war
TLDR: Farmed seafood relies on grinding small wild fish into feed, and recent collapses show how fragile that is. Commenters split: some cheer algae-based alternatives and prizes like F3, others say skip farmed salmon and just eat sardines, while marketing jokes roast “fish-free fed fish.” This matters for ocean health.
The internet went full soap opera over one uncomfortable truth: we grind up tiny fish to feed farmed salmon and shrimp. The article lays it bare—anchoveta collapses in 2016 and 2023, seabirds starving, seal pups dying, and prices spiking—while scientists push the F3 Challenge, a prize to create fish-free feed. Commenters didn’t hold back, turning the thread into a salty showdown.
One camp brought receipts and drama. datadrivenangel warned of actual “krill piracy” and dropped an AP link, painting the feed supply chain like Ocean’s Eleven with penguins. CGMthrowaway joked we’ve fed every farm animal soy except fish, roasting the marketing problem: “fish-free fed fish” isn’t exactly “grass-fed beef”. Then antisthenes went full pantry-pilled: just eat sardines, sprats, and anchovies—lower on the food chain, fewer toxins, less guilt.
On Team Tech Fix, forgotoldacc hyped algae oil from Veramaris—same omega-3s as fish, potentially replacing “billions of forage fish,” with the bonus of pulling carbon. Meanwhile, piltdownman threw shade at the industry: the concept of farming isn’t the villain, best-practice is—think sea lice and polluting pens. The mood? Half meme, half moral crisis. The ending? Still murky, with bold ideas (algae, insect meal, F3 prizes) facing real-world taste buds and price tags. The community is split between “change the feed” and “change our dinner plates,” but everyone agrees: the current loop is eating the ocean alive.
Key Points
- •About 90% of forage fish caught by humans are processed into fishmeal and fish oil for aquaculture feed.
- •Anchoveta shortages led to canceled fishing seasons in Peru in 2016 and again in 2023, with the latter coinciding with elevated ocean temperatures.
- •These shortfalls caused ecological harm (seabird starvation, seal pup deaths) and economic impacts (rising feed prices, farm strain).
- •Aquaculture supplies over half of global seafood but faces a “forage fish bottleneck” due to reliance on wild-caught feed ingredients.
- •The F3 Challenge, launched in 2015 and chaired by Kevin Fitzsimmons, seeks to develop marine-animal-free feeds to reduce pressure on wild stocks and improve resilience.