Rebuttal to Han et al.

Summary

As authors of " China's aquaculture and the world's fisheries " (Cao et al., Science, 2015), we would like to dispute several claims presented in " A revisit to fishmeal usage and associated consequences in Chinese aquaculture " (Han et al., Reviews in Aquaculture, 2016), as the latter seriously misrepresents the intent and substance of our Science paper. In their review, Han and colleagues argue that although China's aquaculture volume continues to grow, its fishmeal usage remains stable, and the sector will therefore indirectly reduce pressure on wild fish stocks worldwide. In the process, they claim that we do not acknowledge the important contribution of the Chinese aquaculture sector to global food supply. They also claim that we criticize the sector's excessive use of fishmeal and that we trot out the " Chinese aquaculture threat " theory. We are aware of Han and colleagues' comprehensive work on substitution and sustainable sourcing of fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture, which is clearly aligned with our perspective. However, we believe that the underlying intention of our Science paper has been seriously misinterpreted, and there are several inaccuracies in their review that are important to clarify and correct. Here, we emphasize and reiterate the key points in our paper.

Information

Link to centre authors: Henriksson, Patrik, Troell, Max
Publication info: Cao, L., R. Naylor, P. Henriksson, D. Leadbitter, M. Troell, W. Zhang. 2017. Rebuttal to Han et al., Reviews in Aquaculture, 2016 doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27925.93928.

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