Wild fish and other aquatic organisms as feed in aquaculture in the Americas 177
country figure for reduction and
for other uses (Table 6). However,
in Mexico, it is estimated that
the Pacific bluefin tuna fattening
industry (estimated production at
5 000 tonnes in 2006) is a major
consumer of locally caught fresh/
frozen sardines (Dalton, 2004; M.T.
Viana, Instituto de Investigaciones
Oceanológicas, Universidad
Autónoma de Baja California,
personal communication, 2007).
Fish and shellfish species are
used directly as live/fresh bait for
commercial and/or recreational
fishing operations, including lobster
and crab fishing in the United
States of America and Canada
(anon., 2000; O’Malley, 2004;
Elliot, 2006), longlining for tuna,
swordfish, mahi-mahi and shark,
and in recreational sport fisheries
(ACIAR, 2001). According to
Elliot (2006), Atlantic herring are
the major source of lobster bait
in the United States of America,
whereas Atlantic mackerel are the
most common bait in Canada. The
same author estimates that 50 000
to 60 000 tonnes of fish bait are
used annually in the United States
of America’s lobster fishery to
yield approximately 35 000 tonnes
of adult lobster; the ratio of bait
inputs to lobster landings being
1.5:1 (Elliot, 2006). However,
NMFS (2007) estimates that the
total landings of fresh and frozen
fish for bait and animal feed were
203 000 tonnes in 2005, and 9 000
tonnes canned for bait or animal
(pet) feed.
Other baitfish species reportedly
used in the United States of America
are anchovies (99 percent of all
landings of 11 349 tonnes used as
fish bait; NMFS, 2007), menhaden
(small amounts used as bait for
the Gulf Coast blue crab fishery;
anon., 2000), mackerel (O’Malley,
2004) and sardines (Dalton, 2004).
From the data presented in Table 6, South America (particularly because of Peru and
Chile) stands out in that non-food uses of fishery products exceed that of food uses.
FIGURE 34
Mexico: fishmeal balance sheetSource: FAO (2006a), except 2005 data from Mittaine (2006)FIGURE 35
Mexico: fish oil balance sheetSource: FAO (2006a), except 2005 data from Mittaine (2006)FIGURE 36
Canada: fishmeal balance sheetSource: FAO (2006a), except 2005 data from Mittaine (2006)