Aquaculture round-up
THE VERAMARIS SOLUTION:
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How sustainable aquaculture will spark further growth in a constrained industry
s the demand for salmon at the dinner table surges globally in line with population growth, so does the pressure on small forage fish used in feeding them. According to the FAO, overfishing and illegal poaching does contribute to the depletion of the finite quantity of small feeder fish in the world’s oceans. These include fish such as anchovy, sardines and sprat, which are commonly used in aquaculture. Moreover, farmed fish aren’t the only species that rely on those small fish for food: the entire global marine ecosystem and coastal communities rely upon these species as well.
The demand for salmon
And it’s big business. Industry research estimates the price/ earnings to growth ratio (PEG) of the global aquaculture industry at about a US $175 billion market, is expected to grow to $225 billion by 2022. Salmon aquaculture alone accounts for 70 percent of that total and is the fastest growing food production system in the world, according to a recent report by Rabobank, entitled “100 billion-dollar baby: How aquaculture keeps growing.” However, the problem is that two-thirds of the world’s fish stocks today are either fished at their limit or over-fished, according to an analysis by the Bren School of Environmental Science and Earth Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Environmental Defence Fund. Each year, 16 million metric tonnes of fish are caught solely to produce fishmeal and fish oil, with 80 percent of the fish oil going directly to aquaculture feeds. Demand is expected to continue to soar. Already today, half of the fish eaten by people comes from aquaculture; by 2030, it will top 62 percent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN. Fish production in 2016 reached a record high production level of 171 million metric tonnes for an also
record per capita global consumption of 20 kilograms. The UN reports that the “fisheries sector is crucial in meeting FAO’s goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition.”
Sustainable fish feed
Yet, experts agree that the importance of aquaculture to meet soaring human demand for healthy, balanced diets must not be at the expense of our oceans and marine ecosystems. That’s the challenge facing Veramaris, (a joint venture between DSM and Evonik) in creating a new technology to provide a highly sustainable source of EPA and DHA that doesn’t impact marine life and enables aquaculture to grow. What the joint venture between global multinationals DSM and Evonik has developed is a breakthrough innovation taking a natural marine algae that provides an alternative to the fish oil derived from wild caught fish and still gives farmed fish the essential omega-3 EPA and DHA fatty acids those fish need for health and growth. The use of Veramaris algal oil for farmed fish food not only helps to conserve marine life, but also offers a standardised way to regulate and determine the amount of omega-3 fatty acids that consumers get from farmed fish, especially salmon. Unfortunately, as salmon demand has grown, many fish farmers have had to lower the amount of fish oil fed to aquaculture salmon because of the finite quantity of this natural resource, resulting in an overall 50 percent decline in the omega-3 levels in the flesh of the salmon sold to consumers. Yet one of the reasons people are eating more and more salmon is for the health benefits of its high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Long-chain fatty acids such as EPA and DHA have been shown to be beneficial for brain health and development as well as reducing risks in serious health conditions such as heart disease, cancer, eye disease and arthritis, as stated by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership. The American Heart Association and the HHS and USDA’s jointly published Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating two 3.5 oz. servings of fish per week. Veramaris is close to opening a $200 million zero-waste
30 | July 2019 - International Aquafeed