Global overview on the use of fish meal and fish oil in industrially compounded aquafeeds: Trends and future prospects
Section snippets
Dependency of aquaculture on external feed inputs, including fishery resources
Aquaculture, the farming of aquatic plants and animals, is no different from any other terrestrial farming activity in that production is totally dependent upon the provision and supply of nutrient inputs. In the case of farmed aquatic plants and bivalve mollusks (29.2 million tonnes or 43.7% of total global aquaculture production in 2006: FAO, 2008a), these nutrient inputs are usually supplied in the form of dissolved mineral salts or wild planktonic food organisms, respectively. However, in
Compound aquafeed production and major fed species
The result of the survey concerning estimated compound aquafeed production and fish meal and fish use, including reported feed conversion ratio of the major cultivated species groups within the major aquaculture producing countries is shown in Table 2, Table 3, respectively. When information was lacking, relevant published information was used whenever possible. The data requested and collected were for 2006, unless otherwise stated, and represented observed ranges and means (in parenthesis;
Fish meal and fish oil use in compound aquafeeds
The results of the global survey concerning the current estimated use of fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) within compound aquafeeds for the major cultivated species groups, including reported feed conversion ratio (FCR), are shown in Table 3. Of particular note was the wide variation observed concerning dietary fish meal and fish oil use within and between countries for the same species, including: shrimp (FM use range 5 to 40%, FO use range 0.5 to 10%), salmon (FM 20 to 50%, FO 9 to 35%),
Fish-in fish-out balance sheet
In the case of the long term sustainability of fishery resource use within the aquaculture sector, it is perhaps useful here to transform fish meal and fish oil use levels back to live fish weight equivalents and by so doing have a more accurate assessment of the quantity of live fish from capture fisheries required for each unit of farmed fish or shrimp produced. Thus, using a global average wet fish to fish meal processing yield of 22.5% (from industry sources: Shepherd, 2005, Anon., 2006)
Future prospects
In conclusion, the reason for the belief that the use of fish meal and fish oil (derived from wild capture fisheries) by the aquaculture sector in compound aquafeeds will decrease in the long term is due to a variety of factors, including:
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static and/or diminishing global supplies of wild forage fish destined for reduction into fish meal and fish oil (averaging 23.28 ± 3.76 million tonnes between 1970 and 2005: FAO, 2008a, PRODUCE, 2007);
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increasing market price of small pelagic forage fish in the
Acknowledgments
The first author would like to thank the Lenfest Ocean Program of the Pew Charitable Trust for funding, and the second author was supported by a Hoover Foundation Brussels Fellowship (Belgian American Educational Foundation). The support of the aquaculture feed manufacturing sector in the 37 countries who responded to the request for information concerning fish meal and fish oil use in compound aquafeeds is greatly appreciated.
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