Fish feed in aquaculture, understanding what goes into feeding farmed fish

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I've talked about aquaculture before
on this podcast, but I've never really

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talked about what farm fish actually eat.

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It turns out that the fish feed is far
more complicated than I ever imagined,

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and in this episode, I'm joined by a
friend of mine and marine biologist

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Marine Cusa, who's uncovering the hidden
ingredients inside fishmeal and fish oil.

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Today we explore the complexities
of how the food we give to farm fish

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connects to wild fisheries, local
communities in West Africa, and even

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the health of Penguins in Antarctica.

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We're gonna talk about all that
on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Let's start the show.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another exciting episode
of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and
this is the podcast where you find

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out what's happening with the ocean,
how you could speak up for the

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ocean, and what you can do to live
for a better ocean by taking action.

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On today's episode, we're gonna
be talking about something that I

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don't normally talk about and that's
aquaculture, but aquaculture where we're

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talking about the food that we feed.

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The fish that are being aquacultured.

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So it's the food that is
being given to eat by the fish

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that we farm in aquaculture.

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It's a subject matter that I don't get to
talk about often because I don't know a

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lot of people within this area, but Dr.
Marine Cusa, who's a good friend of mine

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and a marine biologist and a Pew Marine
fellow is actually here to talk about that

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because she heard the podcast, she's been
listening to the podcast for a long time

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last time we got together, she's like,
Andrew, we've got to talk about this.

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And that's what we're here to talk about.

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And a lot of things is to bring up topics
that you don't normally get to hear about.

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And I think that's really important.

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Speaking of which, as you know, I've
been crowdfunding for a podcast on

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seagrass, a little bit different from
aquaculture, but on sea grass so that

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we can talk about seagrass research,

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conservation and restoration all in one
podcast, and connect researchers together

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who are doing research, and might be a
little disconnected from each other just

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because of geography and just because
not everybody can talk to everybody.

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We're trying to bring
the community together.

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We're trying to bring out just the topics
that are very important to seagrass and

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a podcast called The Seagrass Effect is
gonna be started once this crowdfunding

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campaign reaches its goal of 15,000 euro.

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You can fund, help fund this podcast
because the one thing that I believe is

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that podcast is for the people and it's
for you, the audience member who wants

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to hear about seagrasses, who wants to
hear about conservation and research

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of topics that you never really hear
happen in the ocean on a regular basis.

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And that's what we're gonna
be doing with sea grass.

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So if you go to speak up for blue.com.

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Slash seagrass, that's speak up for
blue.com/seagrass and you can donate to

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my project through the Balean platform.

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It is hundred percent safe.

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It is great.

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It's a new organization that just
launched and we launched our program and

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I can't wait to get this podcast started.

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And if you do end up donating,
please reach out to me.

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I'd love to hear from you.

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And let me know why you donated
and what you're looking forward to.

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So thank you so much for that.

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Let's get into our show,
Dr. Marine Cusa is here.

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We've talked about doing
a podcast together.

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We actually have done a
podcast 'cause she's back.

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We did a podcast on Seaspiracy, and
talking about how bad that movie was

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for understanding fisheries and the true
things that are happening to fisheries

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that are causing overfishing, that are
causing fisheries, slaves, and so forth.

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And, not thinking or listening to
what was in that awful, awful movie,

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but she's here today to talk about
fish feed, fish meal, and fish oil.

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Those are very different things, which
she explains in this podcast, and it

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really helps take away the complexities
of what this actually is what this

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feeding fish for aquaculture actually is.

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And I know aquaculture is a controversial
topic, but this is something that we

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need to talk about because just like
in wild fisheries, there's a lack of

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transparency within the whole fish feed
business and we need to find out what

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actually make up this fish feed, this
fish meal, this fish oil, and also

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where they're coming from and how it's
affecting the local communities of where

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that fish population is being fished, how
that's affecting the local communities.

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And we're gonna find out all that
on today's episode with Marine.

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So here's the interview with Marine Cusa.

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Enjoy and I'll talk to you after.

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Thank you Marine for joining us
on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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This was a lot of fun.

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I really like when we can talk about
a topic where somebody knows so much

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about that topic as Marine does, and
be able to just break it down for

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me as well as for you and just to be
like, Hey, this is what's happening.

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It's a very interesting story where
there's a lot of like dips and curves

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of what's happening and how people
are getting around and how people just

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don't know what's in the fish feed
that actually feed the aquaculture fish

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that we eventually eat and how it's
affecting local populations where they

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get the fish that make up the fish feed.

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That's right.

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I will not say that again
because I have no idea if I'd

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be able to do that that quickly.

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But that's what's really happening and
I just love how there are people like

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Marine who are following this, who are
doing research on this, who are looking

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at genetic testing just to find out
what fish are in a lot of the fish feed.

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And we're gonna find out the results
because we're gonna be doing a series

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of this and following Marine's
research throughout her time doing it.

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Being able to understand the
industry of fish feed in the

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present and in the future.

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So this is gonna be really
great to really unravel.

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I'm looking forward to it.

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Did I ever think I was gonna do
an episode on this podcast when

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I started this 10 years ago about
fish meal or fish feed or fish oil?

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absolutely not.

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I did never thought of that.

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But now it's interesting.

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It's interesting because a storyteller
as great as Marine is here to tell

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this story, but she's also here to
research it, do genetic testing and

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find out the proportions as well as
what type of fish are in this fish food.

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So that's very, very exciting.

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If you have any questions or
comments on this, please let

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me know in the comments below.

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That's, if you're
watching this on YouTube.

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If you're listening to this through
your audio podcast, all you have to

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do is go to how to protect the Ocean

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on Instagram that's at
How to Protect the Ocean.

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DM me or you can email me by going
to Speak up for blue.com/contact.

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Fill out the form and it goes
right to my personal email.

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I'll answer you as soon as I can.

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I wanna thank Marine in for joining
us and giving us all that information.

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Thank you for joining us and listening
and for supporting the podcast.

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And don't forget if you go speak up for
blue.com/you can support the launching of

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a new podcast called The Seagrass Effect.

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All things Seagrass.

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Conservation research and restoration.

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I can't wait to bring that to you.

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Until next time, I wanna thank you
for joining me on this episode of

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the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the True North Strong and Free.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.