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Forage fishery dependency is a challenge for a growing fish farming industry. In recent years, EWOS has lowered the marine content in its feed and our research into ‘marine independence’ provides the knowledge for further significant reduction in future if necessary. However, it is the efficiency in the use of marine ingredients that is really of greater relevance than dependency and farmed salmon are well known to be very efficient in their conversion of forage fish and seafood by-products into healthy and nutritious farmed salmon.

EWOS Innovation has developed a new method for measuring the dependency of fish farming on marine nutrients like protein and oil.  The method was described in the latest edition of EWOS SpotLight and Fish Farming International picked up the story with an article in their January edition.

The article raised interest amongst the Aquaculture Common Issues Group of Seafish, the UK’s cross-industry seafood body, who asked EWOS to make a presentation at their March meeting. So, Ian Carr (Business Development Manager, EWOS Group) travelled to London on March, 16 to make the presentation before an audience of representatives from all parts of the UK seafood value chain.  Take a look at the presentation by clicking here.

Feedback from the group was positive, especially when it was understood that EWOS Innovation has succeeded in getting a scientific paper on this subject accepted by the Journal of Aquaculture Nutrition.  However, the legacy of Fish in:Fish out ratios will be difficult to overcome, and we have a challenge before us to convince people that this ratio is actually meaningless.  

Over time, we hope to convince our fellows in the seafood value chain that nutrient ratios are a much more rational way of measuring the efficiency of salmon farming. For example, we can estimate that in 2009 EWOS used only 1.56 times more marine protein and 1.63 times more marine oil than fish farmers produced through using EWOS feed. These figures are derived using the nutrient ratios and based upon our knowledge of factors such as the average feed conversion ratio, the amount of marine protein and oil consumed and the amount of protein available in fishmeal.
 
It is a magnificent fact that, with our latest knowledge, salmon farming can now be a net producer of seafood. And when we can also confirm that the marine ingredients used in our feed are derived from sustainable sources, we really do have a strong story to tell!