Abstract
Marine fisheries provide an essential source of protein for many people around the world. Unlike alternative terrestrial sources of protein, marine fish production requires little to no freshwater inputs. Consuming marine fish protein instead of terrestrial protein therefore represents freshwater savings (equivalent to an avoided water cost) and contributes to a low water footprint diet. These water savings are realized by the producers of alternative protein sources, rather than the consumers of marine protein. This study quantifies freshwater savings from marine fish consumption around the world by estimating the water footprint of replacing marine fish with terrestrial protein based on current consumption patterns. An estimated 7 600 km3 yr−1 of water is used for human food production. Replacing marine protein with terrestrial protein would require an additional 350 km3 yr−1 of water, meaning that marine protein provides current water savings of 4.6%. The importance of these freshwater savings is highly uneven around the globe, with savings ranging from as little as 0 to as much as 50%. The largest savings as a per cent of current water footprints occur in Asia, Oceania, and several coastal African nations. The greatest national water savings from marine fish protein occur in Southeast Asia and the United States. As the human population increases, future water savings from marine fish consumption will be increasingly important to food and water security and depend on sustainable harvest of capture fisheries and low water footprint growth of marine aquaculture.
Highlights
With a current human population greater than 7 billion and growing toward 9–10 billion by 2050, many resource analysts have become concerned about meeting basic human needs, including access to freshwater (UNEP 2012)
35% of the aquatic protein comes from freshwater sources (FAO 2012), which means there are many areas where freshwater protein is important and may provide water savings that cannot be included in this analysis, notably in the countries bordering the African Rift Valley Lakes and in China
Marine foods provide an essential low water footprint source of protein for much of the world, allowing for water savings of 300–390 km3 yr−1 (4–5%) globally. While these values are small compared to the current water footprint of human food production (7600 km3 yr−1), such water savings may become increasingly important globally to feed a growing population
Summary
With a current human population greater than 7 billion and growing toward 9–10 billion by 2050, many resource analysts have become concerned about meeting basic human needs, including access to freshwater (UNEP 2012). The amount of water required to produce a unit of a good is the water footprint (Hoekstra and Chapagain 2007). The calculation of water footprints includes surface and groundwater (blue water) use, soil water (green water) use, and water required to dilute freshwater pollution to meet water quality standards (grey water) (Hoekstra et al 2011). Water footprints are large for many terrestrial protein sources such as: chicken (4325 l kg−1), mutton/goat meat (8763 l kg−1), nuts (9063 l kg−1), and bovine meat (15 415 l kg−1) (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2010)
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