Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture: practices, sustainability and implications

Wild fish and other aquatic organisms as feed in aquaculture in Europe 235

TABLE 17
The economic significance of Europe’s fishmeal and oil sectors, 2003
Country Sector Numbers of
employees (FTE)*

Value-added

(million €)

Denmark

Fish catching 507 83.0

Fish processing 395 11.1

Sweden

Fish catching 93 14.0

Fish processing 35 4.3

United Kingdom

Fish catching 11 1.45

Fish processing 105 5.0

Ireland Fish catching^10 1.45

Fish processing 46 2.5

Spain

Fish catching 0 0

Fish processing 250 2.6

France

Fish catching 0 0

Fish processing 270 4.4

Germany

Fish catching 0 0

Fish processing 62 1.5

Poland

Fish catching 60 2.0

Fish processing 53 –

Finland Fish catching 305 3.6

Other Fish processing 20 –

Total Fishmeal 2 222 136.9

Total EU fishery sector 4 82 374 6 416.8

% Contribution of fishmeal to EU fishery sector 0.46% 2.13%

*Full time equivalent

Source: Frid et al. (2003)

TABLE 18

Employment dependency by producing/processing group, 2003

Sector

Total dependency

Number %

Fish catching 986 45.5

Fish feed processing 417 19.2

Fish trimming and processing 766 35.3

Total 2 169 100

Source: Frid et al. (2003)

Feed-fish stocks

Teleost feed-fish species caught for the production of fishmeal and fish oil are largely

small pelagic fish that forage low in the food chain and are preyed upon by fish, marine

mammals and seabirds at higher trophic levels. The population dynamics of many small

feed-fish species are characterized by their high fecundity and early maturity. The

recruitment patterns are highly variable and may rapidly influence stock size due to

the short life span of the species, coupled with extrinsic environmental drivers such as

sea temperature and associated climatic/hydrological patterns, e.g. the North Atlantic

Oscillation (NAO) and the El Niño in the southeast Pacific. This will inevitably lead

to uncertainty in the stock forecasts.

Most commercially exploited fish populations are capable of withstanding relatively

large reductions in the biomass of fish of reproductive capacity (Daan et al., 1990;

Jennings, Kaiser and Reynolds, 2001). However, the removal of extremely high levels

of spawning stock may impair recruitment due to inadequate egg production. This has

been termed “recruitment overfishing” (Jennings, Kaiser and Reynolds, 2001). Pelagic