Common additives in salmon feed include **fishmeal and fish oil**, which are derived from wild-caught fish and provide essential proteins and omega-3 fatty acids necessary for salmon growth and health .

To address sustainability concerns and reduce reliance on wild fish stocks, **plant-based proteins** such as soy proteins, wheat gluten, and corn gluten meal are increasingly incorporated into feed formulations .

**Vegetable oils** are also used as substitutes or supplements for fish oil, though they lack the key omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, potentially reducing the nutritional value of farmed salmon compared to wild salmon .

**Vitamins** are routinely added to ensure nutritional adequacy .

**Antibiotics** are sometimes included to prevent disease outbreaks in high-density farming environments .

Uncommon or emerging additives include **insect-based proteins**, which are being explored as sustainable alternatives to fishmeal and have shown promise in supporting healthy fish growth while reducing environmental impact .

The use of **feed-grade fish**, often juveniles of commercially important species, is less common in some regions but still practiced, raising ecological concerns .

The **purposes** of these additives are to provide a balanced diet, promote healthy growth, and improve feed sustainability by reducing dependence on wild fish resources .

Plant-based and alternative proteins are specifically used to address environmental and economic pressures, while antibiotics and vitamins are intended to maintain fish health and prevent disease .

**Health concerns** associated with these additives include the risk of **antibiotic resistance** due to overuse, which may impact human health through consumption of treated fish .

There is also potential for **contaminant accumulation** in farmed salmon, such as formaldehyde and antibiotic residues, which can pose risks to consumers .

Common additives in salmon feed include **fishmeal and fish oil**, which are derived from wild-caught fish and provide essential proteins and omega-3 fatty acids necessary for salmon growth and health .

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The EU must not support intensive fish farming — it's not sustainable

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The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, which will run between 1 July and 31 December 2024, has announced in its programme that it will pay particular attention to the development of “sustainable and competitive aquaculture”, arguing that “it is the animal protein production sector with the smallest environmental footprint.”

Beyond a supposedly low carbon footprint, aquaculture is also presented as an alternative to mitigate declining wild fish catches. However, under the term “aquaculture” we find various production models – some of which are more environmentally benign when conducted at appropriate scale, such as the cultivation of mussels, clams, and oysters, and some of which come with significant damaging impacts.

Many European consumers who want to eat fish from sustainable sources believe farmed salmon, trout and seabass are sustainable choices. But the intensive farming of carnivorous fin fish is neither socially nor environmentally sustainable.

The environmental impacts of this industrial production model include an increase in harmful algal blooms, a negative impact on sea grass meadows due to the accumulation of organic matter around farms, mass fish die-offs, the use of the harmful substances such as carcinogenic formaldehyde or antibiotics, and water pollution, creating dead zones on the sea bed underneath the farms. Adding to this, carnivorous farmed fish such as salmon and seabass require high volumes of fishmeal and fish oil from wild-caught fish in their feed.

In Europe, industrial aquaculture of carnivorous fish at sea is damaging the environment and displacing traditional activities such as coastal small-scale fisheries.

On the island of Poros, Greece, for example, the plan is to increase the area dedicated to open net pen carnivorous fish farms by 28 times. Yet, underwater video depicts that marine ecosystem near the current small-scale pens is completely dead from the waste and pollution of the farms, and local professional fishermen attest to a loss of wild fish since the influx of fish farms.

Beyond Europe, the production of fishmeal and fish oil necessary to feed carnivorous farmed fish is depleting wild fish stocks. This is the case in West Africa where the overfishing of small pelagics such as sardines and mackerel for industrial fish farms in Europe is undermining food security and the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and women fish-processors. Fish is taken away from people in low-income countries to feed the farmed fish which will be consumed in wealthy nations.

The UN special rapporteur on the right to food acknowledged this in his report to the Human Rights Council in early 2024: “Many farmed fish are carnivorous species that require feed products harvested from wild fish stock, thereby creating another source of pressure on wild fish stocks and disrupting ecosystems.

Moreover, global feed companies are exacerbating food insecurity in some communities. For example, over half a million tons of pelagic fish that could feed over 33 million people in the region are instead extracted from the ocean along the coast of West Africa and converted to fishmeal and fish oil, primarily in order to feed farmed fish and livestock, mostly in Asia and Europe.”

The current EU strategy for aquaculture does not respond to the social and environmental challenges posed by this sector and fails to clearly define what “sustainable” aquaculture is. In fact, in a special report on aquaculture, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that the European Union has been pouring funds into the development of aquaculture with little proof that this has contributed to the sector’s “environmental and social sustainability or its competitiveness.” The ECA report further highlights that “there are currently no indicators available to monitor the environmental sustainability of EU aquaculture.”

Under the agriculture and fisheries agenda, Hungary has reaffirmed its wish to support farmers, and fish farmers, through a “farmer-friendly European food system.” Rather they should support low impact small-scale fishers as primary food producers.

Under the Hungarian presidency, the EU should discontinue support for industrial aquaculture of carnivorous species and instead promote more sustainable small-scale aquaculture options that can co-exist instead of negatively affecting small-scale fisheries in Europe and beyond. If Europe wants to be a model in sustainable ocean governance, it must place small-scale, low-impact fisheries and aquaculture at the heart of its food policy.

This is an open letter signed by the following organisations from Africa and Europe: African Confederation of Artisanal Fisheries Organisations (CAOPA), Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), Feedback Europe, Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), Compassion in World Farming and the Rauch Foundation.

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This article is sponsored by a third party. All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author and not of EUobserver.

Author Bio

The Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements is a platform of European and African organisations that raises awareness about the impacts of the EU-Africa fisheries agreements on artisanal fishing communities.

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The Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements is a platform of European and African organisations that raises awareness about the impacts of the EU-Africa fisheries agreements on artisanal fishing communities.

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Fish residues can compensate for raw materials shortages and improve our health in the bargain

More than a million tons of fish residues can rescue the food and cosmetic industries from raw materials shortages—and create new jobs. The key factors here are oils rich in omega-3, collagen and gelatin.

Researchers are currently working to develop technologies that can boost our utilization of fish residues, and thus optimize our exploitation of biomarine resources. One aspect under study is whether fish skin can be used to manufacture collagen and , because we know that fish skin and bones both contain a lot of collagen.

Collagen is currently extracted from the skin and bones of pigs or cattle, but gelatin derived from fish skin offers many benefits.

This work is being carried out as part of a project called SUPREME, which is being headed by the Norwegian science institute SINTEF Ocean in collaboration with several research partners, including the Norwegian university NTNU and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

"In the first place, fish-derived collagen is often of higher quality, and enables people who don't eat meat to enjoy products containing gelatin," says Rasa Slizyte, who is a Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Ocean.

"If we optimize our exploitation of whitefish residues, we can produce more than 6,500 tons of gelatin from fish skin every year.

Collagen and gelatin are both sought-after ingredients used in the pharmaceutical, dietary, nutrition and cosmetic industries, where they are used in the manufacture of creams, capsules, powders and jellies. It is not uncommon for these industries to experience shortages in marine raw materials.

A major market

These industries constitute a major market for collagen. However, even if the whitefish sector is able to supply large volumes of fish skins, it is no easy task to exploit their potential. Many have limited space on board and not all are equipped to supply fresh, high-quality raw materials, or to freeze them, which is essential to avoid quality deterioration.

The SUPREME project has involved the testing of a number of preservation technologies such as freezing, salting and low pH techniques. All of these methods produced satisfactory results, with high gelatin yields and good compositions of amino acids.

"This means that if we optimize our exploitation of whitefish residues, we can produce more than 6,500 tons of gelatin from fish skin every year," says Slizyte.

Good oils from salmon

It isn't only whitefish that offer excellent skins. The skin and the backbones of salmon are rich in collagen, and both could be exploited much better than they are today. When a salmon is fileted and deboned, some residual muscle tissue remains attached to the bone.

This mixture is especially well-suited for gelatin extraction and the production of oils and protein hydrolysates. The hydrolysis process, using tempered water, breaks the collagen protein molecules into smaller, taste-neutral peptides. The word hydrolysis is derived from combining "hydro," which means water, with "lysis" which means to break apart.

Salmon skin and bones contain much more oil than those of whitefish. As part of an EU-funded project called DAFIA, SINTEF researchers have been working to develop, among other things, a multi-stage processing technology that incorporates gentle heat treatment to break down the skin or backbones and remove the muscle fraction. This makes it possible to extract as much as 90% of the oil.

Extraction of the oil at an early stage preserves its high quality. The process also requires less water and enzymes to enable the hydrolysis process to break up the protein molecules.

These results demonstrate that if the source raw materials are of high quality, it is possible to produce high-quality gelatin, oil and taste-neutral proteins. Moreover, extracting most of the oil early in the process also reduces energy consumption.

A new industry?

This new technology is promising with a view to both economics and quality, not least because several high-quality products can be manufactured from the same raw materials. Marine oils are easily oxidized, which reduces their quality. However, if we add antioxidants and enclose them in capsules, the oils can be protected. Proteins such as gelatin are used to encapsulate fish oils, while also serving to mask unwanted odors, taste and rancidity.

Today, large volumes of fish are sent out of Norway for processing. We are sending valuable raw materials overseas that simply go to waste.

"If we were to process more of the fish here in Norway, we would not only be better able to exploit the potential of the fish skins, but would also create more jobs," says Slizyte.

In order to safeguard the quality of the marine oils and gelatin, it is important to stabilize these as rapidly as possible. As part of a project called OMEGA, researchers from SINTEF, together with NTNU, DTU and Indian scientists, have demonstrated that gelatin and oils derived from salmon can be used to make the stable microcapsules needed to protect these two raw materials

"These projects demonstrate that it's entirely possible to make use of all fish raw materials," says Slizyte. "We've completed our investigations of whitefish and salmon, so now it's herring's turn," she says.

Provided by SINTEF

Citation: Fish residues can compensate for raw materials shortages and improve our health in the bargain (2024, May 6) retrieved 6 May 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-05-fish-residues-compensate-raw-materials.html
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Fish waste as a raw input for industrial goods

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To address sustainability concerns and reduce reliance on wild fish stocks, **plant-based proteins** such as soy proteins, wheat gluten, and corn gluten meal are increasingly incorporated into feed formulations .

**Vegetable oils** are also used as substitutes or supplements for fish oil, though they lack the key omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, potentially reducing the nutritional value of farmed salmon compared to wild salmon .

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Content: Cheaper salmon is 'as good as premium farmed products when it comes to Omega 3', study shows

  • Fish-eaters benefit from two Omega 3 fatty acids – EPA and DHA – which can boost heart health and thinking skills
  • Researchers analysed packs of farmed Scottish and Norwegian salmon from 10 UK supermarkets
  • The best provided 67% of the recommended weekly Omega 3 but the worst only offered 26%
  • Fillets from two stores did not contain significantly more Omega 3 than non-premium products

Premium farmed salmon may be no healthier than value brands when it comes to Omega 3, a study has shown.

Fish-eaters benefit from two Omega 3 fatty acids – EPA and DHA – which can boost heart health and thinking skills.

Researchers analysed packs of farmed Scottish and Norwegian salmon from 10 UK supermarkets.

The best provided 67 per cent of the recommended weekly Omega 3 but the worst only offered 26 per cent.

Fillets from two stores did not contain significantly more Omega 3 than non-premium products.

Premium farmed salmon may be no healthier than value brands when it comes to Omega 3, a study has shown. Fish-eaters benefit from two Omega 3 fatty acids – EPA and DHA – which can boost heart health and thinking skills. (File image)

Farmed salmon tend to be fed a mixture of fish and vegetable oils but the latter lack the fatty acids found in seafood.

Study leader Dr Matthew Sprague, from Stirling University, said: 'The amount of EPA and DHA can vary based on the cut of salmon, as well as what it was fed, but farmed salmon is still high in nutrients.'

Salmon not only contains Omega 3 but selenium and phosphorus, which are also important for health.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: 'Consumers take various factors into consideration when buying salmon, including its health benefits and the way it is produced, and they will weigh these up when choosing what to purchase in a supermarket.'

Salmon not only contains Omega 3 but selenium and phosphorus, which are also important for health

Phil Brooke, from Compassion in World Farming, said: 'Intensive fish farming is bad for fish welfare and the product only contains Omega 3 due to the wasteful consumption of feed containing fish oil.'

Wild salmon consume only fish oil, which they get from algae and smaller fish, but lose fatty acids from that fish oil, as they become leaner during the migration back from the sea to the river to spawn.

This means farmed fish, which are kept confined in cages within the sea, can contain more Omega 3 than the wild variety.

But vegetable oil is more accessible, sustainable, and also cheaper than fish oil for the expanding fish farming industry.

So more of this can be used, which substantially reduces the amount of Omega 3 in farmed salmon.

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Cheaper salmon is 'as good as premium farmed products when it comes to Omega 3', study shows

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**Vitamins** are routinely added to ensure nutritional adequacy .

**Antibiotics** are sometimes included to prevent disease outbreaks in high-density farming environments .

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Anticipating obsolescence: The next step to enhancing the sustainability of aquaculture

With growing concerns about the environmental toll of single species fish farms, a research project has been looking at the feasibility of introducing a more sustainable and potentially more profitable method of fish farming, using three complementary species.

Much as native American people planted squash, maize and climbing beans together to benefit each other, (often called the "three sisters"), farming finned-fish, shellfish and seaweeds together could benefit each other and reduce any environmental effects of fish farming. Small scale integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), as the system is called, has traditionally been used at a small domestic scale in Asia, providing the farmer with more than one product to sell or use.

The feasibility study conducted by Bangor University and published in Ecological Modelling has identified the locations around the Atlantic coast which would be most suitable for IMTA, based on farming salmon, and Oarweed, a type of kelp seaweed commonly found in temperate Atlantic coasts. The research considered the natural distribution of the three species, whether suitable locations clashed with busy shipping lanes or marine protected areas and whether there was close access to sizeable ports in order to reach markets.

The western coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland; Lough Swilly in County Donegal, Ireland, and the western coast of Brittany, northwest France were found to be the best locations to further develop IMTA based aquaculture.

As Conchúr Hughes of Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences explained, "One of the problems with the type of single species aquaculture practiced in Europe is that excess food and feces can lead to deterioration of local ecology, while density can mean that aquaculture companies need to use antibiotics and other additives to maintain a healthy fish-stock.

"Mussels are filter feeders, they can be responsible for removing up to 54% of salmon waste materials from the , using it as energy to grow, while the oarweed removes soluble nutrients from the water column. Oarweed can then be farmed to use in a variety of products, from food supplements for human consumption or for fish farms, as a fertilizer or as an ingredient in pharmaceuticals.

"Each of these species complements the other and mitigates against problems."

IMTA-based aquaculture

Both salmon and mussels are important food sources in Europe, and while oarweed is not as yet, this is a sector that is expected to experience a rapid increase in demand in the coming years- and can provide an alternative sustainable source of fertilizer and other products.

Seaweed cultivation can also provide environmental benefits. The seaweed in the water acts as a buffer against as it approaches the shore, reducing the energy as it passes through the seaweed, much as trees act as a buffer against strong winds, which can help reduce erosion. It also elevates the pH and oxygenates the water.

More information: Conchúr Hughes et al, Habitat suitability modelling for an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) system along Europe's Atlantic coast, Ecological Modelling (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110459

Provided by Bangor University

Citation: Anticipating obsolescence: The next step to enhancing the sustainability of aquaculture (2023, September 27) retrieved 27 September 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-09-obsolescence-sustainability-aquaculture.html
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How the humble sea cucumber could transform fish farming

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Uncommon or emerging additives include **insect-based proteins**, which are being explored as sustainable alternatives to fishmeal and have shown promise in supporting healthy fish growth while reducing environmental impact .

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China Works to Get Wild-Caught Fish Out of its Aquaculture Feed

[By Zhang Chun]

A 2021 Chinese government initiative to stop aquaculture feed being made from only young or low-value fish and to instead start producing “compound feed” – mixed with ingredients harvested from the land – is opening up a greener future for the sector.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in a series of trials last year, the sole use of low-value “feed-grade” fish as aquaculture feed was reduced by 77 percent, and by as much as 94 percent in farming of largemouth bass. Experts say the switch to compound feed could see overall use of feed-grade fish slashed by half for farming of certain species.

What is compound feed?

Compound feed normally contains a mixture of animal- and plant-based ingredients, and added nutrients such as vitamins. For aquaculture feeds containing fishmeal and fish oil, common additives include soy proteins, wheat gluten and corn gluten meal.

Feed-grade fish are those in a catch that are small, low in commercial value, or unsuitable for human consumption. They are sent to be processed into fishmeal and fish oil, or fed directly to farmed fish. But a significant proportion of feed-grade fish consists of juveniles of commercially important species. Once caught they can no longer grow into adult fish and breed, or be caught and sold on the market. Their removal damages ocean food chains and ecosystem stability.

The last decade and more has seen increased calls for China to tackle the use of feed-grade fish in aquaculture, but the current round of trials is the first organised by the Ministry of Agriculture. It focuses on species such as the yellow croaker, Japanese sea bass and largemouth bass, which tend to be fed more feed-grade fish. While those species don’t account for much of China’s fed aquaculture output, they do require much more protein than others to put on the same amount of weight. Compound feed cuts down on the use of fish by substituting vegetable alternatives, and is cheaper.

In the long term, sustained reductions in the use of fishmeal and fish oil in feed will be necessary to protect wild fisheries.

Aquaculture driving feed-grade fish catch

Fishers never used to set out to catch feed-grade fish; it was bycatch, with no economic value. Then in the 1980s, global aquaculture took off. “There was a lot of need for fishmeal and oil,” Rashid Sumalia, a fisheries researcher at the University of British Columbia, told China Dialogue. People started going out “purposely to catch them at distance, because there was a market”, he added.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) 2020 global fisheries and aquaculture report, the use of fish for reduction to fishmeal and fish oil peaked in 1994 at 30 million tonnes, and stood at 18 million tonnes by 2018. Another 4 million tonnes were used elsewhere, including directly in feed for aquaculture, livestock and fur animals.

It wasn’t until the mid and late 1990s that aquaculture took off in China. The FAO’s 1998 fisheries and aquaculture report describes how rare it was for fish catches in Asia to go unused or be used as aquaculture feed. But in Asia, particularly in China and Vietnam, aquaculture has expanded rapidly and the region now accounts for almost 90 percent of global output. In China, output tripled between 1998 and 2020, to represent 60 percent of the global total.

Although many of the species farmed in China need little or no feed, fed fish and crustacean aquaculture accounts for half of output and requires millions of tonnes of feed-grade fish from Chinese waters alone. China does not currently have statistics on its feed-grade fish catch or use in fed aquaculture. One study calculated that in 2016 4.6 million tonnes of feed-grade fish were caught, 35 percent of the total recorded catch in China’s waters, and most was used directly as feed.

“The state is certainly aware of the problem,” said Fang Qing, China general manager for the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, adding that the difficulty in banning some harmful types of fishing gear in China is due to the ongoing market for the feed-grade fish it brings in. Since 2018, China has put minimum size limits in place for 15 commercial fish species, and ruled that feed-grade fish catch would drop to below 20% by 2020. There is no data available indicating whether this target was met.

This it isn’t just a Chinese problem. According to a 2017 study by the University of British Columbia, many countries, including the US and Norway, use feed-grade fish directly as feed. But the practice increased significantly in Asia between the 1990s and 2010, with feed-grade fish coming to account for a high percentage of landed catches.

Replacing feed-grade fish

In early 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture announced it would work to make Chinese aquaculture more environmentally friendly, and proposed the use of compound feed instead of purely fish-based feed. In April 2021, several provinces started trials of compound feed as part of more concrete action plans.

Compound feed for aquaculture is usually a mix of fishmeal, fish oil, wheat flour, soybean meal, vegetable oil and other land-grown ingredients. The amount of fishmeal and fish oil needed depends on the type of fish to be fed, and its stage of growth. According to Fang Qing, carnivorous fish such as the yellow croaker need huge quantities of meat protein at certain stages in their growth, and the relationship between particular nutrients and the growth and physiology of the fish can be complex. Hence, producing appropriate compound feed involves a lot of research and development.

To quantify how efficiently a species is farmed, the aquaculture industry uses a ratio called Fish in:Fish out (FIFO). The closer the FIFO is to 1, the more fish meat is produced per unit of input; a score of 1 means an extra kilogram of fish used as feed results in an extra kilogram of fish to harvest.

A study published in 2020 shows a FIFO of almost 1 for salmon and trout, thanks to the use of compound feeds which require less fishmeal and fish oil. If only fish were used to feed those species, the FIFO figure would be similar to that of the yellow croaker – over 6, according to an upcoming paper co-authored by Zhang Wenbo, an assistant professor in the College of Fisheries and Life Science at Shanghai Ocean University. His research into conventional yellow croaker aquaculture in China found that the direct use of feed-grade fish is still the best option for the yellow croaker farmers. But Fang Qing told China Dialogue that a lot of feed-grade fish fed to yellow croaker goes uneaten, and ends up sinking to the seabed or rotting, causing pollution and increasing the risk of disease.

More compound feed use would help reduce FIFO numbers in two ways: by cutting use of feed-grade fish, and by increasing conversion ratios – that is, generating more fish growth per unit of feed.

Zhejiang is taking the lead in both those areas. Since 2016, the province has been shutting fishmeal factories during the closed season and restricting the percentage of feed-grade fish in the overall catch. This, combined with the use of compound feed, saw Zhejiang cut the use of feed-grade fish by 835,000 tonnes across 710,000 mu (474 square kilometres) of aquaculture farms during the 13th FYP period (2016-2020). “Previously, feed-grade fish were the primary feed for largemouth bass in Zhejiang. These last two years that’s almost all been replaced with compound feed.” The FIFO ratio for farmed largemouth bass in Zhejiang could come down to 1.5, half the national average for this species, according to 2016 calculations Zhang Wenbo contributed to.

But cutting back on feed-grade fish use in China won’t be easy. Fishers catch a wide range of fish with a wide range of gear. At the local level there is a lack of fisher associations that can impose rules on the sector, making management tricky. Zhejiang’s success can be ascribed to strong local regulations. “There are no successful [international] examples that China can apply,” said Fang Qing. Alongside legislation to bolster oversight of the feed-grade fish catch, he also suggests developing feeds which will be more palatable to fish, and labelling products according to their use of feed-grade fish or compound feed, so consumers can make an informed choice.

Increasing the efficiency of fish inputs

The use of compound feed isn’t the end of the story. At least for now, fishmeal and fish oil are essential ingredients in those feeds. And while the global supply of fishmeal and fish oil has fallen from its peak in 2000 to a fairly stable level, the demand for aquaculture feeds has been increasing. That requires the development of feeds containing less meal and oil.

Plans announced by Norway to boost salmon farming have led to concerns about the supply of fishmeal and fish oil as well as vegetable ingredients. The country has started researching the use of mesopelagic fish (which inhabit the middle depths of the ocean), algae and farmed insects to meet that need and make feed more efficient. A more complete solution would be to develop entirely vegetarian feeds, with no fishmeal at all. However, as things stand that would only be suitable for a few species.

“Fishmeal is the most expensive of the ingredients found in bulk feeds. Reducing the amount in those feeds is the best way to make them cheaper,” Zhang Wenbo points out. A tonne of fishmeal costs around 10,000 yuan (US$1,500), compared to 1,000–4,000 yuan for bran or soybean meal, he added. “Feed conversion ratios are also affected by the type of aquaculture, the make-up of the feed, and genetic selection – the breeding of strains more suited to compound feeds,” he said. This is more difficult in China, with its wide range of farmed species, than in Norway, where salmon dominates. But progress is still being made, and associated targets have been set in the 14th Five Year Plan (2021–25).

Increasing the efficiency of fishmeal and fish oil use in China will also ease global pressures on the supply and help protect juvenile fish. China is the world’s biggest consumer of fishmeal, with the largest part being used in aquaculture, and the second largest being fed to pigs. But the country only produces 400,000–700,000 tonnes of fishmeal a year – not even close to meeting domestic demand. Fishmeal imports have held steady since 2017, at about 1.4 million tonnes, but jumped to 1.82 million tonnes in 2021, with experts ascribing the change to the recovery in pig farming. The extra fishmeal came from the Americas and elsewhere in Asia.

Zhang Wenbo explains that China’s fishmeal and fish oil imports come from forage fish, caught specifically to be turned into fishmeal, and Peru is the main supplier. Relatively little of China’s fishmeal is made from feed-grade fish. “Imports of by-product processed fishmeal from Vietnam and Thailand have been increasing in recent years,” he said.

Minimizing the feed-grade fish catch

Cutting back on the use of feed-grade fish is good for the sustainable development of both wild fishing and aquaculture. It will also help protect already vulnerable ocean ecosystems. In 1959, fishing vessels in China’s Bohai Sea caught 420 kg of fish per net for every hour they worked. By 1993, that had fallen to 30 kg, and only 8 kg between 1998 and 2011. The above-mentioned research into China’s feed-grade fish catch found that a long-term stable total catch has masked trends including falling biomass and changes in end use.

The losses to biodiversity and ecological services cannot be measured in financial terms, and the fishing industry needs more than simply output. Wang Songlin, president and founder of the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, believes the industry needs to work towards a balance of ecological, economic and social benefits. He told China Dialogue that even if total catch may still be the same by volume, the underlying destruction to the integrity of ecosystems and the environment should not be ignored.

Management of the sector in China has acquired a new ecological focus. Alongside the use of compound feeds, some provinces are providing fishery stewardship subsidies for the protection of rare and endangered species and for keeping down feed-grade fish catch volumes.

Protecting juvenile fish isn’t just a matter for China – it’s crucial for ocean ecosystems around the world. Rashid Sumalia said: “If you look at the economies and the ecology at the higher level, you don’t want to [catch feed-grade fish] because the losses are too high” to be sustainable. Sumalia acknowledges that many people rely on that fishing for their livelihoods but says: “We need to take it down as far as we can.”

Zhang Chun is a senior researcher at China Dialogue. This article appears courtesy of China Dialogue Ocean and may be found in its original form here

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

The use of **feed-grade fish**, often juveniles of commercially important species, is less common in some regions but still practiced, raising ecological concerns .

The **purposes** of these additives are to provide a balanced diet, promote healthy growth, and improve feed sustainability by reducing dependence on wild fish resources .

Plant-based and alternative proteins are specifically used to address environmental and economic pressures, while antibiotics and vitamins are intended to maintain fish health and prevent disease .

**Health concerns** associated with these additives include the risk of **antibiotic resistance** due to overuse, which may impact human health through consumption of treated fish .

What has the release of Netflix's ecological crisis documentary "Seaspiracy"  exposed?

The pollution risks associated with antibiotics used in sea-farmed salmon.

What health concerns are there specifically related to additives in farmed salmon feed?

There is also potential for **contaminant accumulation** in farmed salmon, such as formaldehyde and antibiotic residues, which can pose risks to consumers .

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Content: World’s Largest Insect Farm to Open in France

Once fully operational, the massive vertical farm will produce 200,000 tonnes of insect-based ingredients a year.

Ÿnsect, one of the world’s largest insect rangers, is betting big on bugs to help push the world in a more sustainable direction.

Founded in 2011, the company is fast approaching its goal of opening the world’s largest insect farm and dramatically scaling up its operations. Located about an hour north of Paris, the state-of-the-art facility will leverage automated systems and vertical farming techniques to raise mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) and enable the production of over 200,000 tonnes of insect-based ingredients per year. The site, estimated to be completed by the end of 2022, will join two other Ÿnsect facilities already operational in France and the Netherlands.

"It’s an automated warehouse, very similar to an Amazon warehouse, where instead of storing stuff, we are storing live insects," Ÿnsect CEO and co-founder Antoine Hubert told Time last year. "There is a climate-control system which is highly complex to maintain temperature and moisture from zero to 30 meters high. All operations are automated. Anything that you do on [an insect] farm is done with robots."

Feed for Fish, Fertilizer for Plants, Burgers for Humans

For the past decade, mealworms cultivated at Ÿnsect’s farms have been turned into powders and oils that have become nutritional additives to pet and farm feeds. Thanks to a ruling last year by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) that deemed mealworms safe for human consumption, the company has also begun selling its powders for shakes, cereal bars, pasta, and even alt-meat burgers. In addition, the shed shells of the rapidly growing mealworms are collected and sold as beneficial organic fertilizers to farmers.

According to MealFlour, a project that promotes mealworm farming as a way to battle malnutrition in Guatemala, a serving of mealworm powder is 55% protein, contains all essential amino and fatty acids, and has more iron than sirloin beef. Compared to the production of milk, pork, chicken, and beef, mealworms are also more sustainable and require fewer resources and energy.

While its recent forays into human foodstuffs have garnered attention, Ÿnsect's focus presently remains on helping to feed sustainably the animals that feed the world. For instance, aquaculture, like salmon farming, is a resource-intensive operation that uses both land-based crops (soy) and massive amounts of wild-caught fish to create what's known as fishmeal. With food production projected to have to grow by more than 70% by 2050 to meet demand, the overfishing of oceans to feed aquaculture operations is not a feasible option. Studies, such as a recent trial by NOAA, have shown that supplementing or even replacing fishmeal with insect- and plant-based foods holds promise for eliminating the need for wild-caught sources. According to Hubert, there are other positives as well.

"They [salmon] were reaching the maturity stage faster and eating less so they were avoiding a large quantity of feed," he told Fast Company in 2020. "There was less mortality so the farmers get more fish eventually than before... This also explains why we have a carbon-negative balance, because we are avoiding so many quantities of inputs to feed fish to have the same quantities of fish."

Hubert added to Fast Company that Ÿnsect has contracts worth more than $100 million with fish feed producers. This past year, with the acquisition of U.S.-based mealworm producer Jord, it also began entering new markets, such as the rapidly growing U.S. backyard chicken feed market.

A Record-Breaking Vertical Farm

One look at the animated video of Ÿnsect’s new facility up above and you can see why it’s been touted as an automated marvel. Mealworms will be reared by robots in stacked tubs stretching several stories tall. Unlike other insect food alternatives such as flies or crickets, mealworms do not hop or fly, allowing the company to maximize the space available.

In an effort to make sure the creatures are ethically farmed, Hubert reached out to philosophers from the Sorbonne University to judge their welfare. As he told The Guardian, the students determined that the mealworms had "more in common with mushroom-growing and hothousing vegetables" than with livestock.

"They have no brain in the strict sense of the word," he said. "We know they have a reflex reaction and they communicate and build intelligent structures, but nobody has shown they feel anything. However, what is important is to respect them as living organisms, which we do."

In addition to the new farm in France, Ÿnsect plans to continue to scale its operations with additional facilities, including a major site in the U.S. The biggest hurdle ahead, however, says Hubert, is making insects a normal part of everyday diets.

"I believe that the big challenge is accepting insects as part of the human diet," he told Authority Magazine. "A large part of the world's population eats insects, but we must be able to prove its properties and its benefits for the environment in order to reach more and have more impact!"

View Article Sources
  1. "Ÿnsect Welcomes European Interministerial Delegation to Amiens." Ynsect.

  2. "Why Eat Mealworms?" MealFlour.

  3. "Edible Insects." Food and Agriculture Organization.

  4. van Dijk, Michiel, et al. "A Meta-Analysis of Projected Global Food Demand and Population At Risk of Hunger for the Period 2010–2050." Nature Food, vol. 2, no. 7, 2021, pp. 494-501., doi:10.1038/s43016-021-00322-9

  5. "The Future of Fish Feed May Lie in Insects, Mold, and Algae." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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