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Efficiency assessments of marine ingredient use in aquaculture are required to fully understand their contribution to global seafood supply and their impacts on all UN Sustainable Development Goals. Fish In: Fish Out (FIFO) ratios have become the principal metric used to ensure aquaculture does not negatively impact wild fish stocks. However, several approaches have been advocated to calculate the FIFO ratio and there have been criticisms that the different approaches employed lead to over- or under- estimates of the dependence of aquaculture on marine ingredients. Critically, FIFO does not align with Life Cycle Assessment as a measure of other environmental impacts. In this paper we present an alternative method to calculate the FIFO ratio based on the principle of economic allocation (economic Fish In: Fish Out – eFIFO) as commonly used in Life Cycle Assessments. Economic allocation acts as a proxy for the nutritional value of ingredients and places higher importance on the more limiting co-products generated and their relative demand. Substitution of marine ingredients by alternate feed ingredients has significantly reduced the amount of fishmeal and fish oil in aquafeed formulations for most farmed fish species, resulting in a continually decreasing FIFO ratio. Results show that most aquaculture species groups assessed in this study are net producers of fish, while salmon and trout aquaculture are net neutral, producing as much fish biomass as is consumed. Overall, global fed-aquaculture currently produces three to four times as much fish as it consumes. Tracking historical prices of fish oil against fishmeal, the relative higher price of fish oil leads to relatively higher allocation of fish to fish oil compared to fishmeal. This leads to relatively higher eFIFO for species with high fish oil requirements.
Björn Kok; Wesley Malcorps; Michael F. Tlusty; Mahmoud Eltholth; Neil A. Auchterlonie; David C. Little; Robert Harmsen; Richard W. Newton; Simon J. Davies. Fish as feed: Using economic allocation to quantify the Fish In : Fish Out ratio of major fed aquaculture species. Aquaculture 2020, 528, 735474 .
AMA StyleBjörn Kok, Wesley Malcorps, Michael F. Tlusty, Mahmoud Eltholth, Neil A. Auchterlonie, David C. Little, Robert Harmsen, Richard W. Newton, Simon J. Davies. Fish as feed: Using economic allocation to quantify the Fish In : Fish Out ratio of major fed aquaculture species. Aquaculture. 2020; 528 ():735474.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBjörn Kok; Wesley Malcorps; Michael F. Tlusty; Mahmoud Eltholth; Neil A. Auchterlonie; David C. Little; Robert Harmsen; Richard W. Newton; Simon J. Davies. 2020. "Fish as feed: Using economic allocation to quantify the Fish In : Fish Out ratio of major fed aquaculture species." Aquaculture 528, no. : 735474.
Aquaculture is central in meeting expanding global demands for shrimp consumption. Consequently, increasing feed use is mainly responsible for the overall environmental impact of aquaculture production. Significant amounts of fishmeal are included in shrimp diets, causing dependency on finite marine resources. Driven by economic incentives, terrestrial plant ingredients are widely viewed as sustainable alternatives. Incremental fishmeal substitution by plant ingredients in shrimp feed was modeled and effects on marine and terrestrial resources such as fish, land, freshwater, nitrogen, and phosphorus were assessed. We find that complete substitution of 20–30% fishmeal totals could lead to increasing demand for freshwater (up to 63%), land (up to 81%), and phosphorus (up to 83%), while other substitution rates lead to proportionally lower impacts. These findings suggest additional pressures on essential agricultural resources with associated socio-economic and environmental effects as a trade-off to pressures on finite marine resources. Even though the production of shrimp feed (or aquafeed in general) utilizes only a small percentage of the global crop production, the findings indicate that the sustainability of substituting fishmeal by plant ingredients should not be taken for granted, especially since aquaculture has been one of the fastest growing food sectors. Therefore, the importance of utilizing by-products and novel ingredients such as microbial biomass, algae, and insect meals in mitigating the use of marine and terrestrial resources is discussed.
Wesley Malcorps; Björn Kok; Mike Van‘T Land; Maarten Fritz; Davy Van Doren; Kurt Servin; Paul Van Der Heijden; Roy Palmer; Neil Auchterlonie; Max Rietkerk; Maria Santos; Simon Davies. The Sustainability Conundrum of Fishmeal Substitution by Plant Ingredients in Shrimp Feeds. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1212 .
AMA StyleWesley Malcorps, Björn Kok, Mike Van‘T Land, Maarten Fritz, Davy Van Doren, Kurt Servin, Paul Van Der Heijden, Roy Palmer, Neil Auchterlonie, Max Rietkerk, Maria Santos, Simon Davies. The Sustainability Conundrum of Fishmeal Substitution by Plant Ingredients in Shrimp Feeds. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (4):1212.
Chicago/Turabian StyleWesley Malcorps; Björn Kok; Mike Van‘T Land; Maarten Fritz; Davy Van Doren; Kurt Servin; Paul Van Der Heijden; Roy Palmer; Neil Auchterlonie; Max Rietkerk; Maria Santos; Simon Davies. 2019. "The Sustainability Conundrum of Fishmeal Substitution by Plant Ingredients in Shrimp Feeds." Sustainability 11, no. 4: 1212.