Wild fish and other aquatic organisms as feed in aquaculture in Europe 253
make reduction an economically preferable alternative or as trimmings from processing
waste.
Atlantic herring stocks are improving and support a number of economically
important fisheries. The majority of herring catches are landed as either fresh or frozen
whole fish. In the EU, controlled herring fisheries (west of the United Kingdom, the
North Sea, the Skagerrak and Kattegat Seas) food grade can only be sent for reduction
if there is no market for human consumption. All fish caught in the Baltic Sea can be
offered as feed grade.
As shown in Table 23, the proportion of herring processed for fishmeal by the
Atlanto-Scandinavian fisheries has decreased from 68 percent in 2001/2002 to
25 percent in 2004/2005 due to a combination of greater land and sea freezing capacity
as well as strengthening prices for the frozen whole product for human consumption.
Antarctic krill demand is likely to increase due to its excellent value as a nutrient
source for farmed fish and crustaceans (protein, energy, essential amino acids). Other
outstanding properties of krill are its natural pigment content (particularly appropriate
for salmon farming), its palatability, its low content of pollutants and its likely
improvement of larval fish survival. These attributes make krill a more attractive feed
than potential competitors such as squid meal, clam meal, artemia soluble and fish
soluble (Sclabos, 2004).
The western European catch of sprat has largely been used for fishmeal, but it is
a popular food fish in eastern European Baltic states. However, with the increased
awareness of dioxin contamination of oily fish in the Baltic Sea, it may be that the
demand for human consumption will decrease and a greater proportion will be used
for reduction (FAO, 2005b). There is, therefore, the possibility for increased human
utilization by the countries of Eastern Europe of the “low-value” feedfish from the
cleaner waters of the North Atlantic. However, this potential is likely to be constrained
by the continued low demand for low-value fish^10 from this region – in 1985, the
TABLE 23
Levels of herring processed for fishmeal and human consumption, 2001–2005
Icelandic herring2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 200 4/2005
Thousand
tonnes %Thousand
tonnes %Thousand
tonnes %Thousand
tonnes %
Processed on land for
human consumption^3535282933263329
Processed at sea for
human consumption^2121192027213732
Total processed for
human consumption^5656474960477061
Total Processed for
fishmeal*^4545495166524539
Total processed 101 100 96 100 126 100 115 100Atlanto-Scandinavian
herring2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/200 4 200 4/2005
Thousand
tonnes %Thousand
tonnes %Thousand
tonnes %Thousand
tonnes %
Processed on land for
human consumption^76220032
Processed at sea for
human consumption^33264839475310273
Total processed for
human consumption^40325041475310575
Total processed for
fishmeal*^8668735942473525
Total processed 126 100 123 100 89 100 140 100
* It has been assumed that 50 percent of the catch processed on land will be trimmings that are going to the fishmeal
industry.
Source: http://www.srmjol.is/displayer.asp?cat_id=47&module_id=220&element_id=207, accessed May 2007