The New England Aquarium's Michael Tlusty and two colleagues recently published a paper suggesting that achieving sustainable aquaculture production was a continuous process, not something that was done with a single standard.
He took three species of farmed fish: catfish, rainbow trout, and sablefish, and showed that for each of these species, raising smaller fish and harvesting them sooner had better feed conversion, better crop cycles, and more economic efficiency for the grower than raising large fish to create portion sizes currently demanded by chefs.
Tlustly said that North American dining customers like to have a singular large piece of protein in the center of the plate. When fish is the protein of choice, the portion size from many species is limited by the overall size of the fish.
Therefore, for these species, the means to achieve a singular larger portion of 'center of the plate' protein is to grow a larger animal.
However, fish become less efficient in converting feed to protein as they age.
A second option would be to provide two smaller fillets originating from younger, more efficient fish. In the paper (Tlusty, Michael F. ; Hardy, Ronald; Cross, Stephen F. 2011. "Limiting Size of Fish Fillets at the Center of the Plate Improves the Sustainability of Aquaculture Production." Sustainability 3, no. 7: 957-964), the sustainability ramifications of these two protein provisioning strategies (single large or two small fillets) are considered for three species of fish produced in aquaculture. Growth data for channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) produced in ponds, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in raceways, and sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) in marine net pens. They were modeled to assess the total biomass and overall food conversion ratio for the production of small, medium or large fish. The production of small fish added an additional 50% or more biomass per year for trout, catfish, and sablefish compared to the production of large fish. Feed conversion ratios were also improved by nearly 10% for the smaller compared to larger fish of each species.
Thus, even though all of these species tend to be considered aquaculture species of low environmental impact (and hence 'green' or sustainable options), the product form requested by retailers and served by chefs can further increase the sustainability of these species.
Within the restaurant and food service sectors, the preference in North America tends to be for large portion sizes. Increases in portion size within the 'center of the plate' are achieved differently for different proteins. Increases in portion sizes of beef or pork can be achieved by providing a thicker cut or a different larger cut. However, for fish, a different scenario is likely to occur. Many popular species of farmed fish such as tilapia (Oreochromis spp.), trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), or catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) are too small to merely provide a larger or thicker fillet as could occur with a larger bodied fish such as tuna, Thunnus spp.. Thus, increases in fillet size for small bodied fish necessitate the fish to be grown to a larger size. Since larger and older animals tend to convert feed to protein less efficiently than smaller individuals of the same species, there may be sustainability consequences of growing fish to a larger body size.
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