02/09/2016: Sustainability in aquaculture: Evonik turns salmon, shrimp, and more into vegetarians

Evonik scientists’ long-term intention is to turn salmon, shrimp, and other marine animals into vegetarians. They are thus playing an important role in protecting marine resources.

To that end, they are looking to replace the fishmeal and fish oil produced from wild-caught fish that is used in feeds. Farmed fish play a key role in providing healthy nutrition for the world’s population.

“Thanks to modern fish farming concepts and our amino-acid products, it is already possible to achieve significant reductions in the proportion of fishmeal used in feeds. Now we’re working on sustainable alternatives to fish oil,” explains Christoph Kobler, who heads the Sustainable Healthy Nutrition Product Line at Evonik.
  

Evonik is one of the world’s leading providers of amino acids and amino-acid derivatives for modern animal nutrition. The company sees itself as a technological leader in this field, and is expanding its product portfolio accordingly to encompass healthy and sustainable animal nutrition.

According to estimates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), some 147 million metric tons of fish were consumed throughout the world in 2014—over half of which was the product of aquaculture.

And demand is rising: in order to be able to feed the growing global population, another 50 million metric tons will be needed by 2030. Because the oceans are already overfished and the fish catches are stagnating, the UN organisation believes that this additional demand can only be met through aquaculture.

Certain fish and crustaceans raised on aquafarms—such as salmon, trout, and black tiger shrimp—are actually carnivores or omnivores.

As such, feeds for these animals include fishmeal. Fishmeal contains important amino acids that the animals need to grow. Some three-quarters of the fishmeal and fish oil produced worldwide are channeled into aquaculture, representing a major strain on marine resources.

Read more HERE

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