Sustainability = Aquaculture

Sustainability (sa-stā-na-'bi-la-tā), noun: (1) Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment; (2) a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

The world's population increases by 100,000,000 people every year. According to a recent FDA report, it will require an additional 40 million tons of seafood to meet these demands within 20 years - and our oceans cannot support this. We have either fully exploited or overexploited 76% of our fish stocks already. The more seafood we take to feed our growing number of people, the more we harm our planet in the process. Unsustainable fishing methods, like shrimp trawling, require enormous vessels to scrape close to 6,000,000 square miles of ocean floor annually, senselessly killing up to 150,000 marine turtles per year, destroying delicate seafloor habitats and threatening the extinction of hundreds of other species of aquatic life. Our ocean's resources are finite, and there is a limit to how much we can take before they permanently disappear.

Wouldn't it be miraculous to find a way to: (1) supply the world with an almost limitless amount of nutritious seafood; (2) lower prices for customers; (3) have year-round availability of all fish; (4) protect the environment, clean up the oceans and preserve coastal ecosystems; (5) prevent the senseless killing of hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, dolphins and other bycatch; (6) and reverse the effects of our overexploited fish stocks by allowing them to naturally repopulate before they forever disappear?

There is a solution, and it's been around for 4,000 years: Aquaculture.

Aquaculture is the practice of raising aquatic animals in an enclosed pond or bordered portion of the ocean, and it's been in practice in China since 2,500 BC. This sustainable method helps prevent and reverse the effects of near-extinct fish populations, polluted waters and habitat destruction caused by dangerous non-sustainable fishing practices. As a matter of fact, 90% of the shrimp Americans currently consume is naturally raised through aquaculture, as is half of the world's entire seafood consumption.

 

Sustainable aquaculture not only safeguards our natural environments, it also provides thousands of stable jobs in developing countries, which helps to reduce poverty, hunger and create educational opportunities for local residents. And sustainable aquaculture also provides accurate inspection and traceability, which ensures the safety and quality of your seafood through every step of its journey to your dinner table.

To put it simply, there just isn't enough wild seafood in our oceans to meet the growing consumer demand, and with agricultural land and ocean resources diminishing every year, responsible aquaculture is our planet's only chance at sustaining itself into the future - and with little or no impact on our environment.

Rubicon Resources is one of the founding members of the Aquaculture Certification Council and a proud sponsor and contributor of the ocean conservation foundations Ocean Trust and Sea Web. Click on the links for more information on sustainable fishing practices or to find out how you can help save our oceans.

Just the Facts: Aquaculture

• Nearly 80% of the seafood Americans currently consume is produced through aquaculture.
• Approximately 1.5 million tons of shrimp are produced through aquaculture each year, supplying nearly half the world demand and 85% of American demand.
• During the past three decades, the number of aquaculture farms has grown faster than the world's population, and employment in the fisheries sector has grown faster than employment in traditional agriculture.
• World aquaculture has grown significantly during the past half-century. From a production of below one million tons in the early 1950s, production in 2004 was reported to have risen to 59.4 million tons with a value of $70.3 billion.
• Aquaculture continues to grow more rapidly than all other animal food - producing sectors. Worldwide, the sector has grown at an average rate of almost 9% per year since 1970.
• Aquaculture has been in practice in some parts of the world for 4,000 years.
• The worldwide total yearly aquaculture production of finfish, shellfish and plants recently surpassed 70.4 billion pounds.
• The offshore trawling of wild-caught shrimp can harm the fragile ecosystem of our ocean's floor and pull up large amounts of bycatch - for every pound of wild-caught shrimp harvested, more than four pounds of other marine life are destroyed.
• By 2025, aquaculture will provide the entire world with more than 50% of its seafood.
• The per capita consumption of finfish and shellfish in the U.S. is about 16.6 pounds per year - a total of 4.85 billion pounds.
• Cattle require 8-10 pounds of feed per pound of live weight. Poultry require 3 pounds of feed per pound of live weight. Fish, because they are cold-blooded, only require 2 pounds or less of feed per pound of live weight.

Our Green Promise

At Rubicon Resources, we promise a sustainable, traceable and 100% safe supply of premium seafood for our customers - with little or no impact to our environment. We embrace the tenets of responsible seafood harvesting and processing, and all of our facilities are Best Aquaculture Practices-certified. We constantly monitor every aspect of our global operations - from production to transportation to distribution - in an effort to conserve energy, reduce pollution and protect the integrity of the entire ecosystem we live in. And our naturally raised shrimp always meet or exceed the highest possible aquaculture standards.

We are deeply concerned about the oceans of the world and their ability to sustain the supply of fish and seafood to an ever-increasing global population. The growing demand for our oceans' resources has placed them near the brink of exhaustion, and over-fishing has brought almost all critical species to the point of collapse. With nearly 60,000 shrimp trawlers worldwide destroying 6,000,000 square miles of ocean floor annually (twice the size of the United States), senselessly killing up to 30 million tons of sea turtles, seahorses and other endangered animals which get caught in their nets, and ravaging the entire ecosystem we all call home - it's time for a change. As stated in Greenpeace's January 2008 report, Challenging the Aquaculture Industry on Sustainability, responsible aquaculture truly is the only viable way to satisfy the global demand for seafood.

At Rubicon, we wholeheartedly agree. We are committed to protecting our oceans, wetlands and endangered species, and we take every precaution to safeguard our planet for future generations:

• All Rubicon Resources seafood comes from overseas suppliers which adamantly follow GAA's Best Aquaculture Practices for environmentally and socially responsible seafood production.
• We work with the Thai government and Ocean Trust in the protection of local mangroves and coastal wetlands.
• Our overseas facilities are compliant with all local labor laws, and we do not use child labor or employ undocumented workers.
• Our wild-caught seafood uses federally mandated netting methods which do not harm sea turtles or damage ecologically sensitive sea floors.
• The use of banned antibiotics, drugs, hormones, pesticides or other chemical compounds are never used in or around our seafood.

Global Safety & Standards

All Rubicon Resources shrimp facilities are certified by the Aquaculture Certification Council (ACC) and staunchly comply with their Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) standards. These certification standards, along with similar principles set forth by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), strictly enforce processing plants to comply with local and national labor laws to assure worker safety and adequate compensation.

In addition, all of our BAP-certified aquaculture facilities:

• Comply with all national child labor laws.
• Only employ legally documented workers.
• Provide safe and healthy working conditions for all employees.
• Provide medical care for employees.
• Provide training for worker safety.
• Provide and/or exceed legal employee wages and benefits.
• Adequately train employees on safety in all areas of plant operations.
• Provide safety equipment and first-aid training to all employees.
• Provide clean, safe drinking water to employees.
• Provide wholesome meals commensurate with local eating customs.
• Make available an adequate number of toilets and hand-washing facilities.
• When living quarters are provided for employees, they must be well ventilated and have a working shower and bathroom.
• Employee health screenings with documented results shall be conducted at least every six months.

We would like to assure our customers that Rubicon Resources as well as all of our vertically integrated food companies enforce the Employee Safety Standards and proper labor conditions of the Best Aquaculture Practices in the processing of wholesome and sustainable seafood in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.