Wild fish and other aquatic organisms as feed in aquaculture in Europe 255
ICES examined the premise that if industrial fisheries are reduced, then gains
reflecting 10 percent of the reduction will be made in human consumption landings.
Runs of a Multi-Species Virtual Population Analysis (MSVPA) model were used
to examine this assumption, as were data on the consequences of a four-year
closure of the East of Scotland sand-eel fishery on local gadoid (cod, haddock and
whiting) populations. The results provided no evidence to support the contention
that ceasing industrial fisheries will stimulate catches in the fisheries for human
consumption at the current time and under the prevailing circumstances. ICES
goes on to state that so long as the food conversion efficiencies are regularly
reviewed, then a closely regulated combination of industrial fisheries and fisheries
for human consumption may provide the only solution to the long-term demand
for fish protein.6.3 Risks of utilizing feedfish in the food chain
With European aquafeeds so reliant upon fishmeal from wild sources, the aquafeed
industry is potentially vulnerable to economic factors that might change the price of
fishmeal, with significant consequences for what is now a low-margin farming process.
The industry is also vulnerable to health issues arising from contamination of fishmeal
and fish oil raw materials, either through concentration of pollutants through the food
chain or via the production and distribution process, that affect consumer confidence
in the farmed product.
Two potential problems have become particularly important recently (New and
Wijkström, 2002). The first problem is the presence of dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyl
(PCB) and other persistent organic pollutant (POP) residues in human food products
of animal origin and the potential carryover of these substances from animal feeds. The
second problem is the relationship between meat and bone meal and the incidence of
bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in ruminants, coupled with the linkage with
Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD).
6.3.1 Persistent organic pollutant (POP) residues
Salmonids, which represent around 80 percent of European aquaculture production
by volume, are relatively oily fish that easily bioaccumulate lipophilic POPs such as
PCBs, dioxins and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), should they be present
in the diet. It is widely recognized that contamination levels of forage fish from the
industrialized waters of the Baltic Sea and coastal waters elsewhere in the northeastern
Atlantic are higher than those found in Pacific waters, and this may be mirrored in
feeds manufactured from fishmeal originating from these waters.
The levels of POPs (PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene and dieldrin) in farmed fish were
brought to wide public attention with a much quoted study reported in the journal
Science (Hites, et al., 2004) that investigated contaminants in a variety of fish feeds and
farmed salmon products. Hites et al. (2004) concluded that salmon produced in Europe
had significantly higher contaminant levels than those produced in both North and
South America, reflecting higher contaminant concentrations in forage fish from the
industrialized waters of Europe’s North Atlantic as compared with forage fish from the
waters off North and South America. Indeed, fishmeal and fish oils of European origin
have been reported by the Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition (SCAN) of the
European Commission to contain much higher levels of dioxin than those originating
from the cleaner waters off Peru and Chile (SCAN, 2000). Such differences in dioxin
content not only affect fishmeal and fish oils but also influence the residue levels in
wild fish caught for direct human consumption. In a study of European fish cited by
Klinkhard (2001), one of the highest dioxin contents found in samples taken between
1995 and 1999 was in wild salmon from the Baltic Sea (Sweden). Of the farmed salmon
and trout analysed during this period from Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and