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Fish In : Fish Out Ratio – An assessment of environmental burdens
by Sadasivam Kaushik - INRA

Consequent to world fisheries stagnation and decline, there has been growing concern over the sustainability of wild fish to produce farmed piscivorous finfish species and shrimp. One of the most debated issues has been the use of FM and FO in the production of farmed salmon. Fish-In:Fish-Out ratios (FIFO) have been developed to calculate how much wild fish is needed to produce 1 kg of farmed fish.Based on yields and the proportions of FM and FO in the feeds for farming finfish and shrimp, a “Fish-in:Fish-out (FIFO”) ratio can be calculated as follows: (equation1) 

fifo.png







A major aim of AquaMax was to reduce the reliance of the fish farming sector on products of marine capture fisheries such as fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) in feeds for Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead sea bream and cyprinids. 

Table. Results from the “AquaMax” project showing a significant reduction in FM and FO usage, even in “FIFO” ratio calculated in the most stringent form (using equation1):

Pre - Aquamax

Feed composition g/kg        Wild fish required, kg
               
   FM FO FGR   FM FO  FIFO FM left, kg 
 Salmon  350 250  1,2   1750 7500  7,5  1450 
 Trout  300  200 1,2  1500  6000  6,0  1140
 Sea bream  400  150 1,2  2000 4500  4,5  680
 Carp  200  50 1,2  1000 1500  1,5  160

Aquamax targets

Feed composition g/kg        Wild fish required, kg
               
  FM  FO  FGR   FM  FO   FIFO  FM left, kg 
Salmon  160 120 1,2  800 3600   3,6  704
Trout 50 50 1,2  250 1500  1,5 310
Sea bream  150 100 1,2  750 3000  3,0 570
Carp 0 0 1,2  0 0  0,0 0

These data show that we can now include even more plant by products than marine fishery by products in the feeds of such species. From a sustainability perspective, this is intuitively positive, since it decreases the aquaculture sector’s demand for wild fish resources. However, there will still be a need for analysis that can capture both the environmental performance of such changes in feed composition and the efficiency of production. Using life cycle analysis of feeds and their use we are addressing environmental performance.So rather than relying on ratios such as FIFO, a more comprehensive approach is to use indicators revealing input:output ratios of nutrients /energy /proteins etc. This will guide the aquaculture industry towards a more efficient and ethical production. 
Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 August 2010 )
 
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