Fish pills: the hidden catch

The market in this prized commodity is worth billions – but are the supposed health benefits worth the cost to global ecosystems?

- Richa Syal

Scanning the shelves and internet for fish oil is a dizzy-ing task. There are dozens of brands available and, although the typical consideration for the popular supplement is that quality matters most, it is not the only factor.

These prized products travel a long way before being labelled as “pure” and “fresh” – starting with the industrial-scale grinding down of a tiny fish that is crucial for healthy ocean and food systems.

While some fish oil is made from cod, mackerel or sardines, most comes from Peruvian anchovetas, a type of anchovy. These silvery fish are an important source of nutrition for the wildlife in the Humboldt Current, one of the most productive marine ecosystems on Earth.

“ People should know where the fish in their fish oil is coming from. It’s always good to have a face to the product they’re consuming,” said Katrina Nakamura , founder of the Sustainability Incubator , which screens labour conditions inside food supply chains.

As the world’s largest fishery, the anchoveta catch in Peru is enormous – exceeding 4m tonnes a year. Some is frozen and canned for human consumption, but the haul is mainly used to feed pigs, poultry and farmed fish.

Aquaculture is an expanding global industry, valued at more than $200bn in 2020, with China topping the list as the largest fish-producing country, at 58.8m tonnes a year. Aquaculture now provides half of all the seafood that humans eat – a figure expected to grow to 62% by 2030.

Now, large industry players in Peru want to scale up fish oil operations for dietary supplements, too.