Environmental Factors

Eat Your Veg (PDF - 506kb)
With fish farming on the rise, researchers are seeking ways to make aquaculture more sustainable. One solution may mean turning carnivorous fish into vegetarians. Kendall Powell gets a taste of the future.

State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (PDF - 4mb)
Capture fisheries and aquaculture supplied the world with about 106 million tonnes of food fish in 2004, providing an apparent per capita supply of 16.6 kg (live weight equivalent), which is the highest on record. Of this total, aquaculture accounted for 43 percent.

Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment (PDF - 95.1kb)
Many factors influence bone mass. Protein has been identified as being both detrimental and beneficial to bone health, depending on a variety of factors, including the level of protein in the diet, the protein source, calcium intake, weight loss, and the acid/base balance of the diet. This review aims to briefly describe these factors and their relation to bone health.

Diet, Energy and Global Warming (PDF - 568kb)
The energy consumption of animal- and plant-based diets and, more broadly, the range of energetic planetary footprints spanned by reasonable dietary choices are compared. It is demonstrated that the greenhouse gas emissions of various diets vary by as much as the difference between owning an average sedan versus a sport-utility vehicle under typical driving conditions. The authors conclude with a brief review of the safety of plant-based diets, and find no reasons for concern.

Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Energy Intensities in Agriculture (PDF - 243kb)
Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions are closely linked. This paper reviews agricultural options to reduce energy intensities and their impacts, discusses important accounting issues related to system boundaries, land scarcity, and measurement units, and compares agricultural energy intensities and improvement potentials on an international level. Agricultural development in the past decades, while increasing yields, led to lower average energy efficiencies between the sixties and mid eighties. In the last two decades, energy intensities in developed countries increased, however, with little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency differences across countries suggest a maximum improvement potential of 500 million tons of CO2 annually.

Fact Sheets

Fish Meal and Fish Oil in Aquaculture (PDF - 230kb)
Although aquaculture's contribution towards total world fisheries landings has increased 6-fold over the past three decades, increasing from 3.58 mmt (million metric tons) or 5.3% of total fisheries landings in 1970 to 51.39 mmt or 35.2% of total fisheries landings in 2002, the aquaculture sector is still highly dependent on marine capture fisheries for sourcing key dietary nutrient inputs, including fish meal, fish oil and "trash fish"™.

Utilization of Sustainable Plant Products (PDF - 376kb)
Continued growth and intensification of aquaculture production depends upon the development of sustainable protein sources to replace fish meal in aquafeeds. This document reviews various plant feedstuffs, which currently are or potentially may be incorporated into aquafeeds to support the sustainable production of various fish species in aquaculture.

Industry Research

Use of Fishery Resources (PDF - 55kb)
Although aquaculture's contribution to total world fisheries landings has increased ten-fold from 0.64 million tonnes in 1950 to 54.78 tonnes in 2003, the finfish and crustacean aquaculture sectors are still highly dependent upon marine capture fisheries for sourcing key dietary nutrient inputs, including fishmeal, fish oil and low value trash fish. This dependency is particularly strong within aquafeeds for farmed carnivorous finfish species and marine shrimp.

Soyabean Meal Evaluation (PDF - 125 kb)
The development of a model to bring together production and consumption decisions, not only for soybeans, but also for all other major sources of meals and oils, has helped to highlight the potential imbalance between demand for meal and oil and the supply of these products. This is because a high proportion of both meal and oil demand is not very sensitive to their prices.

Use of Rapeseed/Canola Protein Products in Finfish Diets (PDF -98k)
Nutrition and utilization technology in aquaculture. Higgs, D.A., B.S. Dosanjh, A.F. Prendergast, R.M. Beames, R.W. Hardy, W.Riley and G. Deacon. 1995. AOCS Press, Champaign, IL. p. 130-156.

Whitepapers

FII Report on Feed Quality Parameters and
Preliminary Market Feasibility of BioExx Meal (PDF - 98kb)
The Feeds Innovation Institute conducted a standard feed analysis, comparing Bio-Extraction Inc. canola meal to a typical commercial canola meal from the standard hexane extraction method.