Tag fish oil

During an informative pre-GOAL special session, several marine ingredient and aquaculture experts discussed the challenges of responsible sourcing of fishmeal and fish oil supplies – essential ingredients in the aquaculture industry’s explosive growth over the past three decades and its future prospects. 

At the biannual International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding in Idaho, experts from around the world will discuss fish nutrition and health, feed research, cellular nutrition, nutritional modeling, nutrigenomics and effective feeds for quality consumer products. 

A government-funded $3 million (AUS) project by innovationXchange, WWF and others seeks transformative solutions from entrepreneurs for small-scale producers in the Indo-Pacific region. The competition’s three challenges include fresh thinking on feed, “new ocean products” and sustainable design. 

Gorjan Nikolik, senior industry analyst for Rabobank, presented on fishmeal’s transformation from commodity to a “high-priced strategic protein” at the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s annual GOAL conference in Vancouver. See the full video of his presentation. 

The increasingly fashionable Paleo Diet promotes eating like a caveman, with lots of protein, fruits and vegetables. However, it favors wild-caught seafood to farmed fish due to issues associated with feed sources and practices. 

Fish is the world’s most traded protein – and a healthy choice that will help feed the world’s growing population into the future. Aquaculture represents the most efficient method by which to convert feed to edible protein, and its use of marine ingredients is being addressed. 

In a study of juvenile cobia diets, results suggested that lipid sources with high levels of saturated fatty acids and low polyunsaturated fatty acids can replace a large percentage of fish oil in feeds if they are amended with DHA. 

A 56-day trial conducted in greenhouse-enclosed clearwater and greenwater systems compared tissue variations among shrimp fed varied dietary levels of fish oil and soy lecithin. 

Scientists have been working to understand cobia’s nutritional requirements and advance the economic and environmental sustainability of feeding carnivorous fish using fishmeal alternatives. 

Tons of aquaculture byproducts are available as sources for fishmeal and fish oil to supplement the supplies obtained from fisheries. Innovative technologies are supporting more efficient use of these by-products in aquafeed. 

Authors evaluated how limiting dietary essential amino acids and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids would affect the growth performance of white shrimp raised in a zero-water-exchange biofloc system. The shrimp were fed diets with varied levels of fishmeal and fish oil and supplemented with soy products. 

Low-input culture practices for freshwater prawns can manage their growth and biological characteristics so they can be fed no fishmeal or fish oil. 

Alternative lipids have achieved varied success in ensuring adequate growth and fatty acid composition in fillets. The authors evaluated rainbow trout raised on diets containing fish oil or a blend of fish and standard or modified lipids varying in fatty acid composition. 

The authors evaluated graded substitution of fish oil with soybean oil in feeds for juvenile cobia and found a substantial amount of dietary fish oil can be spared without sacrificing production performance. 

The aquaculture industry has significantly reduced fishmeal levels in feeds for major farmed species. To further reduce fishmeal use, new research approaches are essential.