Reading Comprehension

PT153 · S1 · P2 · Q13 Fish Farming

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A recent worldwide decline of ocean fishery stocks has stimulated rapid growth in cultivated production of fish and shellfish, usually known as fish farming.

Topic

The impact of fish farming on global ocean fishery stocks

Framework

Problem / Solution

Main Point

While fish farming has grown rapidly and seems like a solution to declining wild fish stocks, it is also part of the problem due to pollution, ecological disruption, and heavy reliance on wild fish as feed. So, fish farming is both potentially helpful and harmful for ocean fisheries. (The "Most Valuable Sentence" appears at the end of the first paragraph: )

P1: The Rise and Paradox of Fish Farming

Fish farming is booming as ocean fisheries decline and now supplies a large portion of seafood eaten by people. Some believe it could save wild fish stocks, but there’s not much proof—it might help, but could also make things worse.

P2: Environmental Impacts of Intensive Fish Farming

High-density fish farming can cause big problems: it pollutes waterways, spreads diseases, and lets non-native species escape, all of which can hurt wild fish populations and damage natural habitats.

P3: Reliance on Wild Fish as Feed

Many farmed fish, especially carnivores like salmon, need to eat a lot of wild fish to grow—often more than the resulting harvest. This means that farming some species puts even more pressure on wild fish stocks.

13.

The information in the passage most strongly supports which one of the following statements?

Wild fish require different nutrients
Opposite, if anything
The 3rd paragraph talks about what we feed to farmed fish. If anything, it seems to suggest that farmed fish need similar types of nutrients to what wild fish do. We're trying to give farmed fish a diet of vegetable matter, but we realize that it's not good enough. After all, (both wild and) farmed fish need fatty acids and need ample amounts of lysine and methionine.
7% picked this
It is more profitable to
Out of Scope: profit
We know that one category of expenses is lower for catfish, milkfish, and carp, compared to salmon. For the former trio, for every 1 kg of fish meat we get, we need to feed them less than 1 kg of fish meal. For salmon, for every 1 kg of fish meat we get out, we need to feed them around 5 kg of fish meal. So we spend more money feeding salmon than we do this other power trio of fish. But this answer is about profit, which is "Revenue - Expenses". So even if the expenses for catfish / milkfish / carp are lower than those for salmon, we won't know which is more profitable until we find out how much revenue salmon brings in compared to these other three. We probably know we've paid a pretty penny for a plate of salmon at a nice restaurant, whereas we're less likely to have paid the same for catfish / milkfish / carp.
26% picked this
The farming of tilapia and
Unknown Strong Comparison: as much
It's very extreme to say that the farming of tilapia and catfish produces equal damage to what the farming of cod and haddock produce. In the final paragraph, it's mentioned that farmed fish like tilapia and catfish can provide alternatives to ocean fish like cod and haddock. We don't have any information about farming cod and haddock. And there's no way from that one sentence that we could derive how the overall environmental damage of farming each pair of species compares.
2% picked this
Correct
A growing number of consumers
Why this is right
This is supported by the final sentence of the passage: Niche markets have started to develop (a growing number of consumers) for several species of wild-caught fish. The last sentence was essentially warning that as we make more and more of our fish come from fish farming, some people will be like, "I want ocean-caught fish, and I'll pay extra for it", which then creates an incentive for fishing fleets to get back out there.
Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
56% picked this
Noncarnivorous fish in the wild
Too Strong
Too Strong: typically Unknown Comparison: wild vs. farmed The 3rd paragraph only talks about carnivorous fish, by name. It's implied that catfish / milkfish / carp are noncarnivorous, though. Does the wild version of these fish consume more food than their farmed counterparts do? We have no idea. We never compare the dietary intake of wild catfish to farmed catfish, for example. And even if we did, it would be a stretch for us to generalize from any of these three species to a statement about what's typical for wild, noncarnivorous fish in general.
8% picked this

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