全球海鲜需求激增促使水产养殖业迅速扩张，然而这项原旨在缓解过度捕捞的产业背后隐藏著严重的代价。养殖鱼类极度依赖由野生小鱼制成的鱼粉与鱼油作为饲料，这使得全球约五分之一的捕获鱼类被转化为饲料。这种运作模式不但未能减轻海洋资源负担，反而加速了野生鱼种的枯竭，并在西非等沿海地区剥夺了当地居民的主要食物来源与生计，甚至引发严重的失业与危险的跨国移民潮。
非营利组织「法外海洋计划」的跨国调查揭露了鱼粉供应链中充斥的非法活动与人权侵害。从西非、秘鲁到公海，大量捕捞船只关闭定位装置、在保护区内非法作业，并以底拖网破坏海底生态。船上与陆地鱼粉加工厂的工作环境极其危险，涉及严重的强迫劳动、欠薪扣留证件，并多次造成工人因有毒气体窒息、意外或爆炸而伤亡。此外，工厂排放的致癌气体与污水对全球超过千万名邻近居民的健康带来威胁，并在印度等地引发群众抗议。
尽管养殖海鲜在行销上被包装为环保与永续，其终端产品却广泛进入国际主流市场，包括美国的沃尔玛连锁超市与国会餐厅。在中国新疆等地，养殖业过量使用抗生素与麻醉剂，更涉及强迫劳动等争议，但进口监管与抽检比例极低，使消费者难以察觉其隐含风险。专家呼吁，水产养殖业若要实现永续承诺，必须转向养殖无需动物饲料的滤食性双壳纲贝类，并加速研发藻类、昆虫蛋白质等替代性饲料成分。
The surge in global seafood demand has driven the rapid expansion of aquaculture, yet this industry, originally meant to relieve pressure from overfishing, carries hidden and severe costs. Farmed fish rely heavily on fishmeal and fish oil made from small wild fish, consuming roughly a fifth of all fish pulled from the world's oceans. Rather than easing marine pressure, this practice accelerates the depletion of wild stocks, decimates food security and local livelihoods in coastal regions like West Africa, and fuels unemployment and hazardous waves of migration.
An international investigation by the Outlaw Ocean Project revealed widespread illegal practices and human rights abuses throughout the fishmeal supply chain. Operating from West Africa to Peru and beyond, fishing fleets frequently spoof locations, fish without permits in marine protected areas, and destroy ecosystems with bottom trawlers. Both at sea and in processing plants, workers face abysmal conditions—including forced labor, withheld passports, and fatal hazards from toxic gas asphyxiation and plant explosions—while carcinogenic emissions and toxic runoff severely threaten the health of millions of neighboring residents.
Despite being marketed as sustainable and ethical, farmed seafood entering major international retailers and government cafeterias remains linked to severe environmental and human rights abuses. Chinese desert aquaculture operations, for example, have raised safety and human rights concerns through the heavy use of antibiotics and ties to state-sponsored forced labor, all while evading sparse import inspections. To restore the broken promise of aquaculture, experts urge a shift toward farming non-fed filter feeders like bivalves and developing alternative feed ingredients such as algae and insect proteins.