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A recent posting by Michelle on this website referred to a paper (sustainability-of-fishmeal-and-oil) that provided information on the sustainability of fish meal and fish oil in aquaculture diets.

A recent article in a recent reLAKSation newsletter contributes to this debate. Some of the relevant, interesting parts of the article are paraphrased below (the full article can be seen on the Callander McDowell website here and by following the prompts to reLAKSation No. 350).

Various environmental groups are targeting aquaculture for its use of fish meal and, in their view, the consequential depletion of wild fish stocks. Detractors of aquaculture persist with arguments many of which have no basis in either fact or logic; it’s frequently a case of “I’ve made up my mind so don’t confuse me with the facts”.

In fact, the use of fish meal in manufactured aquaculture diets simply represents a different and, importantly, a more efficient presentation of the natural food of fish. The logic behind the increasing pressure on feed manufacturers to substitute the fishmeal content of aquaculture feeds (or a large part of it) with vegetable proteins has some merit, but only within reasonable limits.

The use of fishmeal in fish feeds has dramatically increased in recent years; however, around one-third of world fishmeal production is used outside aquaculture in terrestrial animal feed destined for pigs and poultry.

So, to put this into context, environmental groups are urging the replacement of fishmeal with vegetable protein, while terrestrial animals that naturally eat vegetable protein, are fed with marine protein from fishmeal. Hmmm. Some dodgy logic there.

Surely, the first step to reduce the fishing pressure on fish destined for fishmeal production should be that fishmeal should be removed from land animal feeds and fed to farmed fish, which, by the way, utilise the protein far more efficiently. The issue of substituting some of the fishmeal in aquaculture diets can then be properly considered.

Perversely, rather than reducing the terrestrial demand for fishmeal, it seems that (in the EC) there is actually pressure to increase it. The reLAKSation newsletter reports that “a team of veterinary experts from the European Commission have approved a project reintroducing fishmeal in the feed of young ruminant animals such as calves and lambs”.

One reason for doing this is that meat, milk and eggs from farm animals fed fishmeal are beneficial for human health. The obvious question is why they wouldn’t promote the increased consumption of oil rich farmed fish instead? 

The global aquaculture industry currently accounts for over 45% of all seafood consumed.

That figure has been projected to increase to 75% over the next 20 years. While the industry is truly on a dynamic growth path, it is nonetheless dangerously dependent upon fishmeal as a key protein constituent in fish and shrimp diets.

The aquaculture industry is not alone however, as cattle, poultry, pig and other intensive forms of animal production use fishmeal as a primary protein source in their diets. Currently ten countries produce 80% of all world fishmeal supply, and three of those suppliers are net importers of product, thereby reducing supply, not increasing it. These include the U.S. and China.

Fishmeal production reached heights of 4.4 million tonnes in 2002 and was consistently above 3.3 million tonnes between 2001 and 2005. A report providing the details may be reviewed here.

Production of fishmeal also decreased 20% in 2006, and prices rose from USD $750/metric tonne to over USD $1400/metric tonne. In 2007 it failed to exceed 2000 tonnes. Is this just a blip or is the downturn in production aligned with other trends? U.S. growers experienced four feed price increases within a 16 month period.

A staggering 25% of all world fish production goes into the low value added pursuits of fishmeal and fish oil production!

Due to the fact that the regions responsible for the majority of world supply are isolated geographically from major markets, every tonne of fishmeal travels an average of 5000 km before it reaches the end user. Obviously, particularly in the face of the present oil crisis, this has enormous economic implications for global intensive animal protein production markets.

As far as aquaculture is concerned, clearly the future demand for fishmeal is on a rapidly increasing track. With world fish stocks, and baitfish stocks in particular, in decline, the stage is set for a bottleneck that could severely limit industry growth.

In order to head off such a bottleneck, the global aquaculture industry must eliminate its dependence upon fishmeal (and fish oil) and develop a portfolio of sustainable dietary protein sources.

The very industry that has been called upon to bridge the gap between demand and wild supply is now dependent upon wild stocks of fish for the vast majority of its protein source .

In order to expand and succeed in the future, the industry must develop its independence from fishmeal and wild sources of feed.

As a theme, the Finfish blog has carried an array of postings about using ‘lower forms’ of life as dietary inputs. Diet ingredients must be produced from sustainable sources to allow the unhindered expansion of global seafood production.

What are other ways in which this problem might be countered? Lets think outside the square on this one!

Key criteria to consider as innovation drivers are as follows:

• maximise capacity for local production
• maximise capacity to meet volume requirements
• minimise cost of production
• maximise ease of handling feed input
• minimise flavour impact

What are the other criteria we must include?

An economically competitive processes for preparing lupin protein isolates has been developed. This was undertaken while ensuring the optimal technological, sensory and nutritional characteristics of the lupin seeds.

Vegetable sources of protein are likely to be major players in overcoming the fish production gap. Using wild capture fish in fish meal as a major constituent in aquaculture feed cannot be sustainable in the face of the need to produce 40 million tonnes of aquaculture produce per annum

The project aimed to obtain food ingredients from lupin seeds. This included an innovative procedure for separating native protein products from sweet white lupin seeds.

The process involved the cleaning, de-hulling and flaking of the seeds, followed by de-oiling with hexane. The resulting white flakes are input material for protein extraction, which was carried out in a new pilot facility.

A second process used enzymes and the subsequent ultrafiltration of the protein extract. The result was a native protein concentrate with a fat content around 7.8% and a protein concentration of 80-90%.

Three varieties of lupins gave good results, Aster, a winter variety and Energy and Ares, which are springtime varieties. Selection criteria involved stability of the protein, fat and fibre content, and low levels of antinutritional compounds (particularly alkaloids).

More information about these processes is available here.

What are other sources of protein that can be used for fish feed? We know that Soy is already used extensively. What are other alternatives?