186 Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications
trade and to protect the interests of its members and has been the driving force since
1971, when it was established as a result of a merger between the London Corn Trade
Association and Cattle Food Trade Association.
FIN is funded by the Sea Fish Industry Authority, a statutory body funded by
levies from the fishing industry. FIN’s activities are guided by a steering committee
on which suppliers, GAFTA’s executive and Seafish are represented; and coordinated
and managed by a team of three people from the agrifood strategic communications
consultancy, The Chamberlain Partnership.
According to the official website (www.gafta.com/fin/), FIN is a resource for factual
information about fishmeal and fishmeal issues in the United Kingdom. FIN was
established at the height of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis in 1997.
The widely held view that meat and bone meal was implicated in BSE led to scrutiny
of fishmeal, which revealed no evidence of health risk to animals or human beings.
Throughout the debate on this and subsequent feed-related issues, FIN’s strategic
objective has been to defend and enhance the role of fishmeal as a safe and valuable feed
ingredient for all types of farm livestock in the United Kingdom.
FIN’s key activities are:- to provide a source of information and a point of contact for the industry as a
whole; - to supply comprehensive factual information relating to fishmeal, addressing
concerns and highlighting the positive benefits of its use as a feed ingredient; - to monitor and effectively communicate industry attitudes to fishmeal and the
effect specification changes could have on its use; - to safeguard the livestock producers' option to use fishmeal under the relevant
safety and quality assurance schemes or within the production criteria specified
by individual purchasers; - to ensure regulatory decisions on feed taken at the United Kingdom and the EU
level do not discriminate unfairly or without justification against fishmeal; and - to provide practical advice to livestock producers about fishmeal and its use as a
feed ingredient.
FIN compiles various in-depth reports and dossiers, including an annual review
of the feed-grade fish stocks used to produce fishmeal and fish oil for the United
Kingdom market. The review focuses on recent independent assessments of these
stocks published by independent bodies such as the United Nation’s Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Council for the Exploration of
the Sea (ICES).
Although FIN produces an extremely useful web site and sustainability dossier
dataset on the reported status and sustainability of marine capture fisheries directly
or indirectly linked to the United Kingdom/EU fishing industry and seafood market
(www.gafta.com/fin/index.php?pge_id=2 ), it is essentially a compilation of existing
published peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed reports, reviews and commentaries
produced for the benefit of the United Kingdom’s commercial fishmeal and seafood
fishing industry.
4.2.3 Overview of fisheries resources
The 2004 FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report (FAO, 2005) looks
at the Southeast Pacific and shows that three species account for around 80 percent of
total catches: the Peruvian anchoveta (two stocks), the Chilean jack mackerel and the
South American pilchard (sardine). The whole of the Southeast Pacific is under the
influence of two phases of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (El Niño and La Niña).
These are the main sources of inter-annual variability, having noticeable regional and
extra-regional impacts on climate and on the state of fishery resources and related