With the impending shortage of fish meal and fish oil used in aquaculture, the industry needs to look to alternatives.
Usually low value “trash fish” are the main source of these resources and not only used in aquaculture but in feeding other animals and occasioanally in human food.
Rather than acquiring new food sources such as algae, insects and plants, perhaps aquaculture should look towards producing these lower quality fish alongside their higher value stocks. By developing onsite processing methods, lower quality fish could be used as feed for higher value fish as well as for feeding non aquatic food animals. This presents an opportunity for aquaculture to target a wider range of markets from traditional agriculture through to human consumption, while simultaneously sustaining itself.