What evidence from the passage supports the author's bias against opponents of aquaculture? Aquaculture: Hatching a Solution to World Hunger? by Anna Thomas 1 If you enjoy eating baked fish, shrimp gumbo, crab cakes, or boiled lobster, you're in luck. Nutritionists say that seafood is healthier to eat than other kinds of animal protein. It is low in fat and cholesterol, and high in the omega-3 oils that promote both heart health and brain development. Current United States Department of Agriculture guidelines suggest that Americans eat two to three seafood meals a week (Food and Nutrition Service). Unfortunately, most Americans do not consume that amount of fish. 2 However, even if Americans were willing to eat more fish, would the world's seas be able to provide it? Many places in the world are already fished to their limits, and many native fish populations are dwindling to record lows. In order to meet even current global consumption rates, experts at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimate that the world will need another forty million tons of seafood per year by 2030 (NOAA Fisheries, ques. 4). Where will all this fish come from? Many people think that the answer is aquaculture. On this fish farm, fish are raised in a tightly controlled environment. What Is Aquaculture? 3 Aquaculture is the science and practice of growing fish for food; in other words, aquaculture is fish farming. Like plant farmers, fish farmers oversee the natural life cycle of what they farm. Fish farmers “plant” (or hatch) their “crops” (fish) in “fields” (places called hatcheries). Farmers feed the tiny fish and protect them from predators. In aquaculture, as in agriculture, food is produced in a controlled environment rather than gathered from the wild. 4 Aquaculture is not experimental, and it is not new (Rabanal). As early as 2000 B.C.E. the Chinese raised a species of fish called carp. Around the same time, Egyptians cultured tilapia, a species still grown in many countries. Both the Mayans and the Roman