Saving Seafood

Drop in fish oil production causing aquaculture bottleneck

April 10, 2023 — Despite inflation, raw material prices, logistics costs, and other inputs all increasing significantly in 2022, the aquaculture feed industry increased its production at between 2 and 3 percent in all key supply regions. This was also achieved despite a slight decrease in the year’s total animal feed supply at less than 1.27 billion metric tons (MT), according to Norwegian independent commodity broker Holtermann.

While these financial impacts have continued into 2023, there’s one challenge that stands to have a much greater impact than all the others: the production of EPA and DHA – or eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids, Holtermann CEO Christian Meinich said at the 2023 edition of the North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF).

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

IFFO, SFP convene roundtable to improve sustainability of global fishmeal, fish oil sector

June 29, 2022 — Amidst the backdrop of continuing growth in global demand for fishmeal and fish oil products, IFFO, the international trade body that represents the marine ingredients industry, and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership are advancing the sustainability of the sector through a pre-competitive platform that has engagement from across the sustainable seafood movement.

At the 2022 North Atlantic Seafood Forum in Bergen, Norway, on 22 June, stakeholders from the various groups involved with the Global Roundtable on Marine Ingredients – which include Olvea, BioMar, Cargill, Skretting, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Marin Trust, the Global Seafood Alliance, Nestlé, the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers, and the recently added Marine Stewardship Council – gave an update on the progress the roundtable has made since it was formed in October 2021.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

MarinTrust, GSA sign MoU to meet marine ingredient sustainability goals

November 5, 2021 — The Global Seafood Alliance, formerly Global Aquaculture Alliance; and MarinTrust, formerly IFFO RS; have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together and create an end-to-end assurance program for the global seafood value chain.

The MoU will see the two organizations cooperate on meeting a goal of having 75 percent of the world’s marine ingredients supplies – for products like fishmeal and fish oil – be either certified as sustainable, in an assessment, applying for certification, or a part of the MarinTrust Improver Program by 2025. The two organizations own collectively the MarinTrust Standard for Responsible Supply, MarinTrust Chain of Custody for Responsible Supply, MarinTrust Improver Program, Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification programs.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

A diet rich in omega-3 could reduce migraines

July 2, 2021 — A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids could reduce migraines, a small study suggests.

Researchers found that a diet high in omega-3 – which can be found in supplements and oily fish – could slash persistent headaches by two to four per month.

According to the NHS, a healthy, balanced diet should include at least two portions of fish a week, including one of oily fish. Oily fish – such as salmon and sardines – are particularly high in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 has been shown to have a beneficial effect on the heart.

The new research, published in the British Medical Journal, involved 182 people (88 per cent of whom were women, with a typical age of 38), who suffered migraines on 5 to 20 days a month.

The women were split into three groups, with the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid – EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid – DHA) varying according to the diet, while the omega-6 linoleic acid was also monitored.

One diet increased the amount of EPA and DHA to 1.5g per day and maintained linoleic acid at around 7 per cent of energy intake. A second diet increased EPA and DHA to 1.5g per day and decreased linoleic acid to less than 1.8 per cent of energy, while the other control diet maintained EPA and DHA at less than 150mg per day and linoleic acid at around 7 per cent of energy.

Read the full story at Science Focus

Latest F3 challenge offers USD 300,000 in prizes for aquaculture feed innovators

January 13, 2021 — The F3 Challenge – Carnivore Edition, designed to accelerate the development of fishmeal and fish oil substitutes in aquaculture feed, has officially started, with a USD 100,000 (EUR 82,193) prize available to the winner of each of three categories.

The F3 Challenge, which stands for “fish-free feed,”  launched in November 2015 to encourage the innovation of alternative protein sources for aquaculture fish-feeds. The latest challenge targets three categories – salmonids, shrimp, and other carnivorous species – with the prize awarded to the team that uses the greatest portion of F3 feed in the category at the conclusion of the challenge’s sales period.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fish food: Feed, fishmeal sectors saw innovation, volatility in 2019

January 6, 2020 — Aquafeed and its components may not always be the highest-profile segment of the seafood industry, but given that feed is typically farmers’ biggest expense, it’s usually a top concern.

Aquaculture’s growth is spurring concerns about the use of forage fish to produce fishmeal and fish oil and encouraging the development of alternative ingredients rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. This drove rapid innovation in the feed sector in 2019 as entrepreneurs and established players sought to cash in on the sector’s promise.

Undercurrent News was the first to report on many of these developments, which you can review in our recap below:

January

The fishmeal markets began 2019 on a bearish note as global supplies got a boost amid strong anchovy landings in Peru even though fishmeal stockpiles in China saw lower demand due to an outbreak of African swine fever. Sources told Undercurrent that Peruvian superprime fishmeal prices, ex-warehouse, Shanghai, China, averaged CNY 10,700 per metric ton ($1,566/t) in January, down CNY 1,200/t from mid-October 2018

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

For Your Heart, Eat Fish Or Take Pills? Now There’s A Drug Equal To 8 Salmon Servings

November 25, 2019 — It’s long been known that eating fish — especially cold-water fish such as salmon that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids — is good for heart health.

But, for the millions of Americans who are at high risk of heart disease, eating enough fish to make a difference isn’t likely to be realistic for most.

There’s growing evidence that taking a very high dose of purified fish oil, delivered in a prescription pill, can help prevent heart attacks and strokes among people who have elevated risks. The amount of fish oil in the daily recommended dose of the pill is the equivalent of eating about eight to 10 servings of salmon a day.

In early November, an advisory panel to the FDA voted unanimously to approve expanded use of the prescription drug, Vascepa, which is made from one type of omega-3 fatty acid, called eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA for short. The oil is extracted from sardines and anchovies, and then purified.

Currently, Vascepa is already approved for use in people with very high levels of triglycerides — which is a type of fat in the blood. (You can check your triglycerides as part of a cholesterol screening.)

Read the full story at NPR

Pregnant mothers and children should eat seafood

November 15, 2019 — Two recent studies, Hibbeln et al. 2019 & Spiller et al. 2019, published together in Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids (PLEFA), examined the health benefits of consuming seafood during pregnancy. Researchers found that seafood consumption during pregnancy was strongly linked to increased IQ in children.

Thirteen leading dietary scientists spent the last two decades conducting the most thorough review on the subject in history. The research evaluated studies on 102,944 mother-child pairs and 25,301 children.

The findings strongly supported what many consumers already know—seafood is good for you. But the specific measurements to this notion were striking, so much so that one of the authors warned SeafoodNews.com, “There is a lost opportunity for IQ when mothers are not eating enough seafood.”

The study found children gain an average of 7.7 IQ points when mothers ate seafood during pregnancy, compared to mothers that did not eat seafood. Another finding showed that children born from mothers who did not eat seafood during pregnancy were three times more likely to be hyperactive.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW

FDA panel endorses wider use of fish-oil drug to protect against heart problems

November 15, 2019 — A panel of experts unanimously recommended Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration allow wider use of a fish oil-based drug to treat people at high risk for heart attacks and strokes even when they are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The 16-0 endorsement of the FDA advisory committee puts Dublin-based Amarin Corp. one step closer to widespread distribution of Vascepa, a drug the company has said could be worth billions of dollars annually. The FDA, which usually follows such guidance, could make a long-awaited final decision next month.

“There’s a definite need for additional therapeutic approaches,” said Kenneth D. Burman, chief of the endocrine section at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, who chaired the panel. Despite some side effects, he said, “this seems a very useful new agent for addition to the armamentarium for the treatment of these patients.”

The drug, a purified version of the Omega-3 fatty acid found in fish, is aimed at some of the more than 40 million people in the U.S. who take statins to control their LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and have adopted lifestyle changes, yet remain at risk of cardiovascular problems because of elevated triglyceride levels.

Triglycerides are another type of fat in the blood. When their levels are too high, generally more than 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood, the result can be deaths, heart attacks, strokes, unstable angina or the need for cardiac surgery.

A landmark 2018 study, led by a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and sponsored by Amarin, showed that patients who took four grams of Vascepa daily fared 25 percent better in staving off those events than those given a placebo. The researchers spent more than six years following more than 8,000 middle-aged and older patients in 11 countries who had coronary artery disease or diabetes and at least one other risk factor, such as high blood pressure.

Read the full story at The Washington Post