Farmed Salmon Demand Impacts Coastal Communities

The increasing demand for farmed salmon is making it more difficult for coastal communities to get reasonably priced fish, according to a research published in Science Advances on October 16, 2024. Patricia Majluf of Cayetano Heredia University is leading the study, which focuses on the utilization of forage fish—small fish—to produce fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) for aquaculture, or fish farming.

Feeding Assist: Informative Reduction Fisheries Challenges

• Reduction fisheries, targeting small fish species destined for fishmeal and oil manufacture create very real problems for community scale opportunities.
• These fish provide food and income for coastal communities, yet are increasingly diverted to farmed fish – driving up the cost of accessible protein for poorer communities.
• Full Understanding of the Fish-in-Fish-out (FIFO) Ratio that quantifiés wild fish needed for a pound of farmed fish.
• Climate change and overfishing mean that fish stocks are being depleted, which means feed producers must look elsewhere to keep fish oil into the food supply.
• The research calls on the aquaculture sector to source fish meal and oil out of aquafeeds to create a sustainable way of farming social access to low-cost fish for people in need.