Leadbitter et al (2025) Biodiversity Consequences of Replacing Animal Protein From Capture Fisheries With Animal Protein From Agriculture Taylor & Francis
This study evaluates the biodiversity consequences of replacing animal protein from marine capture fisheries with terrestrial agricultural production. The authors show that replacing current fish consumption with livestock-based protein (keeping the current proportional composition of livestock) would require an additional 4.99 million km² of land and substituting fishmeal in aquaculture with soy would demand an additional 47,453 km² of agricultural land. Using IUCN Red List data, the study finds that extinction risk per million tonnes of animal protein produced is 2.6 times higher for agriculture than for marine capture fisheries. As a result, the paper concludes that relying more heavily on land-based animal protein to replace marine sources is likely to increase, not reduce, global biodiversity loss. While acknowledging regional variation, the authors also note that the proportion of continental shelf impacted by bottom trawling typically ranges from 10–30%.
