372 Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications
SUMMARY
This report concerns the effects that the use of wild fish as feed for fish and crustaceans
have on the poor and the undernourished worldwide. However, little information is
available about the social and economic impacts of the use of fish as feed. Therefore,
the analysis focuses on the direct effects on employment/income for the poor and the
supply of fish as food for the food insecure. No attempt has been made to assess the
long-term effects of changes in income or consumption of fish.
Most of today’s shrimp culture and much of finfish culture make use of wild fish as
feed in one form or another. Wild fish is obtained from feed fisheries, from bycatch and
from artisanal feed fisheries. Most of it is supplied by feed fisheries in South America
and northwestern Europe. While bycatch is a worldwide phenomenon, it is only in East
Asia that bycatch provides significant quantities of fish for aquaculture. Artisanal feed
fisheries (supplying fish to fishers’s fish farms) occur in Asia and the Pacific region.
The poor in Europe, North America and sub-Saharan Africa do not obtain more
or less cheap fish or more or less work because wild fish is used as aquaculture feed.
In Africa, the reason is that feed fisheries are an exception and aquaculture is nascent
and not much dependent on fish as feed. In Europe and North America, the practice
has no direct consequences because of the low number of poor and undernourished in
these two regions.
In Asia, the situation is different; the use of fish as feed benefits some of the poor
and undernourished while the practice harms others. On the one hand, Asian shrimp
and fish farmers, whose farms provide employment and income to large numbers of
poor inhabitants, need more fishmeal (and fish oil) than local producers can supply.
The difference is imported from producers mainly in South America and northwestern
Europe. On the other hand, the practice of using Asian bycatch as raw material for
fishmeal reduces local employment in fish processing and the amount of cheap fish
available, particularly in China, Indonesia and Viet Nam.Feed Fisheries
Wild fish, processed into fishmeal and fish oil and then incorporated into shrimp and
fish feed, contributes substantially to employment. The high-quality fishmeal produced
in South America and Europe is frequently used in Asian and South American shrimp
culture. Employment in marine shrimp culture worldwide is probably equal to
between 2.5 and 3 million man-years, and most of this employment is within reach of
the poor, and not only for those from coastal areas. Fishmeal is an essential ingredient
in shrimp feeds, and in the absence of high-quality fishmeal, the industry would be
much reduced, with negative consequences also for the poor and undernourished.
Wild fish, in the form of fishmeal and fish oil, is present – albeit sometimes in very
small amounts – in most manufactured fish feeds. For some species, like salmon and
trout, fish protein is a prerequisite, while for others, such as carps and tilapias, it is
a positive factor but not irreplaceable. Employment is substantial in the farming of
finfish, worldwide probably of the order of 4 to 5 million man-years equivalent. Most
of these workers earn an income on farms where fish as feed is not absolutely essential.
However, on some farms – e.g. those raising salmonids or Pangasius – fish protein is
essential, and employment for the poor and undernourished is provided on such farms
in Chile (salmon) and Viet Nam (Pangasius) and on various marine finfish farms in
China and other parts of Asia and the world.
By definition, feed fisheries do not contribute cheap fish used directly as human
food. However, this does not imply that feed fisheries pre-empt the access of the poor
to cheap fish. This does not occur, as feed fisheries obtain a price for their products
that even the poor can afford. It is technically and economically feasible to treat species
constituting feedfish as foodfish and market them to the poor, but this is seldom done
at a significant scale. The obstacles that confront whoever attempts to do this on a large