The world gets more seafood from aquaculture than wild catch. I believe this data insight from OWID may suggest increasing aquaculture is better than increasing wild catch, whereas I think the harm (per mass of fish consumed) is larger for aquaculture:
There are two ways to produce seafood: catch fish in the wild or farm your own. Seafood farming is often called “aquaculture”. Aquaculture is dominated by the farming of fish, but also includes other organisms, such as crustaceans and aquatic plants.
Aquaculture has grown rapidly over the last few decades. In fact, as the chart shows, it has overtaken wild catch since 2013.
This has relieved some pressure on wild fish stocks: if this increased demand for fish had been satisfied by wild catch, then many more would be severely overexploited [emphasis mine].
I sent a message to OWID expressing my concerns.
Great question, thank you! :)
Did you mean to ask it as part of the AMA?
If so, could you please repost it as a comment there? It’s easier for coordination.
Thanks, Ed! I had already drafted (not posted) the question before seeing the AMA, but made a comment there shortly after posting the question. I have now updated that comment with the content of this post (previously, I only had a question linking to this post).