Increasing seafood consumption and sustainability

Due to the difficult marine resource situation, an increasing proportion of human fish consumption need to be provided by aquaculture (Tidwell and Allan, 2002, Organisation, 2004a;b). Farmed Atlantic salmon have traditionally been fed diets based on fish meal and fish oil which closely resemble the nutritional composition of natural salmon diets. The fish meal and fish oil are produced essentially by removing water from fish such as blue whiting, capelin and sand eel (www.sildelaget.no), which is then used as ingredients for salmon feeds. In 2000 the global production of Atlantic salmon was about 885 000 metric tonnes, and the production is expected to exceed 1 million metric tonnes by 2005 (Tacon, 2003). The aquaculture of salmonids (Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)) currently accounts for 60 % of the total fish oil used in aquaculture feeds with 70 % of world supply being used for all aquafeeds (Tacon, 2003). By 2010, with continuing growth in aquaculture estimates suggest 97 % of the global fish oil supply will be used in aquafeeds (Tacon, 2003). The limited marine resources and an increase in aquaculture will make fish oil and fishmeal non-sustainable as feed ingredients in the very near future (Barlow, 2000, Hardy, 2001).