Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications: a global synthesis 11
that increased aquaculture production and availability of low-grade foodfish may
have potential roles in improving food security in the region (Tacon, 2009).- Africa: Food insecurity remains a serious problem in the developing world,
particularly in Africa (Hecht and Jones, 2009). There have been many attempts to
promote aquaculture as a means to address poverty and food security in Africa,
although with limited success. The potential of aquaculture in Africa was once
described as a sleeping giant (New, 1991b), and it has been predicted that the
developing world is where the bulk of aquaculture production will come from
in the future (New, 1991a; Hecht, 2000). The growth of the industry in Africa
and the Near East over the last ten years is testimony to this potential (see also
Aguilar-Manjarrez and Nath, 1998). On the basis of several assumptions, Hecht
(2006) made some projections for the growth of the sector in sub-Saharan Africa
and suggested that by 2013 total fish production would be somewhere between
200 000 and 380 000 tonnes per annum. The outlook in North Africa differs
from that of sub-Saharan Africa and the Near East largely due to the impact that
Egypt has in the region. Aquaculture in Egypt has already doubled approximately
seven times in the last decade, and Egypt is currently ranked the twelfth largest
aquaculture-producing country in the world (El-Sayed, 2007). Although there
are no projections for North Africa or the Near East, both El-Sayed (2007) in his
review of Egypt and Poynton (2006) in her regional review of North Africa and
the Near East predicted continued and sustained growth of aquaculture in those
regions.
- USE OF FISH AND OTHER AQUATIC SPECIES AS FEED FOR FISH AND
LIVESTOCK
A captured fish, either in its basic form or once it has been reduced to fishmeal,
provides an important protein and oil source for most fish and animal culture. Its
unique amino acid profile, high digestibility and oil content have led to its use in most
carnivorous fish diets, as well as in poultry, ruminant and pig farming. The following
section provides an overview of the main species utilized, the forms in which they are
used and the main end users.
There are three principle ways in which fish are utilized in feeds:
- As fishmeal and fish oil – mainly derived from the reduction of whole small
pelagic fish to a concentrated high protein form/oil that is used in formulating
compounded feeds. These are known as “directed feed fisheries”. - As processing or other waste – fishmeal can be produced from fish processing
waste (trimmings, offcuts and offal). In some countries, landed bycatch may be
channeled into fishmeal production. - As whole fish – usually in the form of trash fish^2 , either used directly or mixed as
a slurry or mash. Frozen whole pelagic fish are also used for fattening tuna and
other large fish in cages.
3.1 Landings of fish and other aquatic species destined for reduction
Although total global fish and shellfish landings from capture fisheries were 95 million
tonnes in 2004, over 34.8 million tonnes or 36.6 percent was destined for non-food uses
and reduction into fishmeal and fish oil and/or for direct animal feeding. The bulk of
these landings were in the form of lower-value (in marketing terms) small pelagic oily
fish species, including anchovies, herring, capelin, sardines, pilchards, mackerel, sand
eels, menhaden and under-sized commercial food-fish species (Figure 6).
(^2) Fish with little or no commercial value and not sorted by species before landing, often part of the trawlers’
bycatch.