1. Sustainable Marine Fish Production for the Future
Juan Pablo Lazo

2. Talk layout State of the world fisheries Sustainability in aquaculture
Efficiency of producing fish as food
Fish-in : fish-out concept
Sustainable marine fish culture

3. Status of the World Fisheries
What is our current fisheries production?
How are our current fish stocks?
How much is aquaculture producing?

4. World Capture Fisheries & Aquaculture
Source: Sofia FAO, 2012

5. Status of the World Fisheries
About 75 percent of the world's most valuable marine fish stocks are either fished to the limits or over-fished.
Capture has not increased in the last 20 years
At the same time world fish consumption has increased from 45 million MT in 1973 to more than 140 million in 2010
FAO estimates an additional 40 million MT of seafood will be required by 2030

6. Role of aquaculture
In order to serve this increasing demand in the long run, sustainable alternatives have to be strengthened.
The most promising of these is the aquaculture industry.
With a growth rate of 8% per year since the 1980’s, aquaculture is the fastest growing food-production industry
Today aquaculture accounts for almost 50% of the fish consumed globally, up from 9% in 1980.

7. World Capture Fisheries & Aquaculture
Source: Sofia FAO, 2012

8. Fuente: FAO,2012

9. Sustainable aquaculture
The sustainability of aquaculture is crucial if the industry is not to go the way of the fisheries sector
It is a concept to guarantee a liveable environment for all people in the long term, encompassing at least three fundamental components of sustainable development:
Preservation of a functional environment
Economic welfare and
Social equity
SustainAqua, 2009

10. Conceptual sustainability
SustainAqua, 2009

11. Producing food protein
The efficiency with which various animals convert fed into weight gain varies widely
Food conversion ratio (FCR = fed/weight gain)
Who is more effective?
Cattle
Pigs
Chicken
Fish

12. Efficiency of fish growth
Cattle in feedlots, require 7 kilograms of grain to produce a 1-kilogram gain in live weight
For pork, the figure is close to 4 kilograms of grain per kilogram of weight gain
For poultry it is just over 2,
For farmed fish (such as salmonids, carps, tilapia, and catfish), it is less than 2

13. Energy efficiency Lovell, 2002 Kg diet/ Kg weight gain FCR Protein (g)
Energy (Kcal)
Kcal/ g protein
Species
Per Kg diet
Per Kg gain
Trout
1.5
350
525
3000
4500
8.57
Catfish
1.8
300
480
3420
5472
11.40
Poultry
2.5
200
500
2950
7400
14.75
Pork
4.0
160
640
3300
13200
20.62
Cattle
8.0
100
800
2500
20000
25.00
Lovell, 2002

14. Why are fish so efficient?

15. Why are fish so efficient?
Fish spend very little energy on basal metabolism because they are
Poikilotherm
Floating in water
Ammonotelic
This saves up to 50-60% of the energy in the feed for growth

16. Poikilotherm: do not spend energy to control internal body temperature
Free
Expensive

17. Fish float: do not need to fight gravity

18. Ammonotelic: low energy
The urea cycle a costly process!

19. Trend in the use of feeds in aquaculture
While feed is generally perceived to be a major constraint to aquaculture development, 35% of all farmed food fish production (20x106 t) is currently achieved without artificial feeding (i.e., oysters, clams, herbivorous fish)
However, in 2008, about 31.7x106 t (46.1% of total global aquaculture) were feed-dependent
So about 30 million t of feed were used

20. Fed vs non-fed species
Fuente:FAO, 2012

21. Use of fish meal and fish oil
Within the animal productions systems, aquaculture is the largest user of fishmeal and fish oil.
Carnivorous organisms (higher-trophic-level) require more:
fishmeal inclusion levels of 17–65%
fish oil of 3–25%
However, low-trophic-level finfish species (carps, tilapias, catfishes, milkfish, etc.) need much less
between 2 and 10%

22. Why we use fish meal and fish oil
Fish meal has a high protein content (65% P), excellent amino acid profile and a high digestibility (90% digestibility)
Fish oil contains the best oils (long chain highly unsaturated fatty acids (n-3 HUFAs or omega-3) that are essential nutrients for fish (and humans)

23. Why we use fish meal and fish oil
Fish meal a.a. profile and fish a.a. requirements
Fatty acid synthesis
Monroig et al., 2011

24. The solution: alternative proteins and oils
Many fish species can be grow with 0% fish meal in their diets (i.e., tilapias, carps, some salmonids) without affecting growth
Key alternative proteins include grains (soya bean) and animal by products (poultry by-product meal)
Fish oil is a little more difficult to replace
Key alternative lipids include vegetable oils rich in omega-3 (e.g. linseed, soybean and canola) and some yeast and marine microalgae
Although a reduction in lipid levels in diets would not have any deleterious effect on the health of the fish, there may be reduced health benefits to humans because of lower HUFAs

25. Reduction in the use of FM and FO
In the last 15 years fishmeal inclusion in major fish diets has declined considerably.
The FAO projects that, in the next 10 years, fishmeal inclusion in the diets of carnivorous fish and crustacean species will be further reduced by 10–22%, and by 2–5% for omnivorous fishes.

26. Trends in the use of fishmeal
SOFIA, 2012

27. Fish-in Fish-out balance
To fairly compare the use of fish meal and fish oil in aquafeeds we need to transform FM and FO to live weight
The global average wet fish to fish meal processing yield is 22.5% and wet fish to fish oil processing yield is 5% (Anon, 2006)
With this we can calculate the pelagic live weight equivalent (Tacon, 2008)

28. Pelagic forage equivalent
Tacon, 2008

29. Calculated pelagic forage fish equivalent per unit of production for major cultivated species
Tacon, 2008

30. The Future of Marine Fish Culture
Exposure to global markets has made farmers adopt specialized systems targeting only one economically attractive species (i.e., carnivorous fish)
In terms of sustainability, and environmental impacts, coastal aquaculture systems should, among many things, use approaches that minimize dependence upon non-renewable energy, reduce wastes and increase efficiency of resource usage
Reducing environmental impacts from aquaculture, and various resource limitations (water, feed, energy, etc.) may be achieved with integrated cultivation techniques.
(Troel, 2009)

31. Integrated Marine fish culture
Polyculture: (i.e. multiple species co-cultured in a pond/tank/cage
Sequential integration: (PAS, Partitioned aquaculture systems) on land and in open waters (direct a flow of wastes sequentially between culture units with different species)
Temporal integration: replacement of species within the same holding site, benefiting from wastes generated by preceding cultured species
(Troel, 2009)

32. Integrated Marine Fish Culture
Scientific American, 2011

33. Food for thought….
Should we continue harvesting our oceans? or Should we increase aquaculture production?