The startup NovoNutrients is working on making fish feed from carbon dioxide. The startup’s process uses carbon dioxide, along with other emissions, to feed microbes that can then become protein for companies that make pellets of food for fish. Those microbes are similar to ones that evolved to live near gas vents in the ocean; the startup arranges them with other species into “microbial factories” that work together to make the whole process more efficient. “We can take untreated flue gas from various industrial emissions . . . and just pipe it into our plant, rather than putting it in the atmosphere.”

During September, ENSO-neutral conditions were reflected in near-to-below average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across most of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Overall, the ocean and atmosphere system remains consistent with ENSO-neutral, although edging closer to La Niña conditions. La Niña conditions are favored (~55-65%) during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter 2017-18.

IFFO has calculated new Fish In: Fish Out ratios (FIFO) for 2015 and for the first time FIFO figures for salmonids are below 1. For every 1kg of wild fish consumed by the aquaculture industry as feed, a total of 4.55kg of farmed fish was produced in 2015. \"The fishmeal industry supports the production of a significantly greater volume of protein for humanity than would be supplied merely through the direct consumption of the fish used as raw material in the production process. This represents a significant contribution to global food security.\"

IFFO has announced the finalists for their 2017 Leadership and Innovation Awards, and they include Aller Aqua Group, High Fortune Group, and Sea Pride LLC, among others. “These finalists have demonstrated impressive examples of leadership and innovation, traits that will ensure that our industry continues to go from strength to strength.” The winners will be announced at the Gala Dinner of the 57th IFFO Annual Conference.

According to new results from the EU Arraina project, some of the recommendations on vitamin and mineral supplements in feeds for Atlantic salmon must be changed. This is due to a shift from mainly marine ingredients to feeds where more than 70% comes from plants. \"Even if the plants contain these nutrients, the fish are unable to absorb them to the same extent as they would from marine feeds. Plant ingredients also contain lower levels of some nutrients than fish meal and fish oil do. That is why we need to adjust the amount of micronutrients.\"

At this year\'s Our Oceans Conference in Malta, Skretting delivered a commitment to support Peruvian fishery stakeholders to manage their fishery to the highest environmental standards. \"The project commits to: improve the management system to facilitate catch control rules in the case of low biomass, by March 2020; to organize the data gathered by the industrial fishing vessels and encourage further technological development for better assessment and monitoring of the ecosystem by March 2020; to achieve a certifiable status by March 2020.”

WorldFish and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will join forces with Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation to improve the productivity, profitability and development outcomes of rice-fish systems in Myanmar. WorldFish has developed several approaches to increasing fish production and productivity in rice-fish systems. In northwest Bangladesh, culturing carp species and mola in homestead ponds connected to rice fields led to a 3.5-fold increase in total fish production compared to stand-alone ponds, as well as a higher nutritional quality of the production. “This joint research initiative will support the Ministry’s goals by providing an evidence-base for informed decision-making and policy development and building local farming and scientific capacity.”

A new project is focused on developing innovative approaches for the aquaculture sector, particularly on the use of organic waste for the production of invertebrates as alternative ingredients in fish feed. INvertebrateIT’s overarching objective is to bring influential actors together to define a Joint Roadmap and Investment Plan across the EU Atlantic Basin to promote and exploit the value chain around the production of invertebrates, such as insects, as ingredients for sustainable fish feeds, resulting in competitive aquaculture and integrated waste management. \"Creating a circular economy for fish feed (and other aquaculture products) by feeding fish with something they would eat in their natural environment, is a win-win for all involved.\"

The Mumbai-based WestCoast Group, a fully integrated aquaculture company, has partnered with Norway’s AKVA Group for innovative and sustainable aquaculture solutions and technology. The objective is to mechanize and improve fish and shrimp farm facilities, as the company foresees a strong market for aquaculture products with more State governments leasing out their water bodies for aquaculture.

A collaborative project to improve understanding of the effects of salmon farming on the seabed in high-energy waters is underway in Orkney. Currently, the impacts of fish waste and uneaten feed on the seabed are monitored using the DEPOMOD model, which is based largely on data gathered from sheltered, in-shore sea lochs. However, at more exposed sites, the benthic impacts can differ significantly from those reflected in the current model. “With better data about the benthic footprint at these sites, salmon producers like Cooke can improve environmental monitoring and compliance, and potentially increase production – both in terms of farming existing sites and developing new sites.”

As reported in the most recent EUMOFA monthly highlights, fish protein consumption -- especially from aquaculture -- is growing globally, particularly in lesser-developed countries. From 1961 to 2013, global annual consumption of seafood increased 95%. Although capture fisheries depend on wild stocks, aquaculture production is done under controlled circumstances, allowing for the production volume to be increased at any time. Therefore, a shift in the production source is foreseen in the near future for seafood.

BioMar has announced they will soon put into service a new high-tech vessel for shipping fish feed. The ship was formally handed over earlier this week at the Tersan shipyard the site responsible for construction. The ship is owned and operated by NSK Shipping, and is a high-tech vessel fitted with leading-edge equipment throughout and offers a cargo capacity of 2700 tonnes of fish feed. “The MS Nyksund’s slightly smaller sister ship, the MS Høydal, which was delivered some years ago, equipped us with some entirely new solutions for delivering feed in bulk. In this new ship we have further enhanced the technology seen on the MS Høydal and it complements well with BioMar’s existing fleet of feed carriers.”

Alltech is aiming to eradicate sea lice with an emerging technology, the gene chip. The chip, heralded as a “nutrigenomics breakthrough,” allows for the measurement of “how genes are nutritionally effected.\"

Nutreco has appointed Therese Log Bergjord as the new Managing Director of Skretting Global Salmon and Fish Feed Southern Europe. She will take over this position from Steven Rafferty, who resigned from this role earlier this year. Log Bergjord is currently Managing Director Nordics of Compass Group and will take up her new position as of November 1 2017. \"Aquaculture is a dynamic and thriving industry and I look forward to make my contribution to the further growth of Skretting as the global leader in innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions.\"

IFFO has released a statement in response to the F3 Challenge. \"While we congratulate the finalists and winners of the HeroX F3 competition (some of whom are IFFO members), we are disappointed that the credibility of this initiative to encourage alternative sources of feed ingredients has been damaged by the organisers’ use of negative messaging, exaggeration and misinformation in relation to marine ingredients.\"

Omega Protein has requested that the London-based Marine Stewardship Council offer its well-known sustainability certification to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico fisheries for menhaden. However, conservation groups say they are concerned about whether menhaden fishing can be considered sustainable.

Pilmico International recently acquired 70% of the outstanding shares of Vietnam-based animal feeds company Europe Nutrition Joint Stock Company (Eurofeed). The transaction price amounts to US$3.2M, based on 70% of equity value. The move is part of the Aboitiz Group’s further push into the Vietnamese market and expansion of its feeds business.

IFFO, The Marine Ingredients Organization, and Peru’s National Fisheries Society (SNP) have developed a factsheet on the complex subject of the most appropriate use of Peruvian anchovy. The factsheet looks at Peru’s historic uses of fish, past initiatives and new projects to increase direct human consumption. It concludes by noting that after millions being spent by both the Government and the private sector, direct human consumption remains very low due to a lack of interest and uptake; but the use of anchovy in feed supports global protein production and is an extremely efficient way to contribute to global food security.    

The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) is the world’s first aquaculture certification program to be recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), GAA and GSSI announced jointly on Oct. 4. "The BAP program was first implemented in 2003 and this year will reach a milestone of 2,000 certified facilities around the world with anticipated farm-gate production exceeding 2 million metric tons. BAP, which currently provides the most comprehensive assurances to the marketplace and consumers, has benefited from the GSSI benchmarking process."

The Future of Fish Feed has announced that Guangdong Evergreen Feed Industry Co. is the winner of the F3 (Fish-Free Feed) Challenge, a contest to develop and sell the most fish-free feed for aquaculture during a sixteen-month sales challenge. The $200,100 grand prize was presented to Evergreen Feed Company during a special ceremony on Oct. 4 at the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s GOAL 2017 conference in Dublin, Ireland. “We are pleased to award Evergreen Feed Industry the F3 prize to acknowledge its hard work and dedication to the widespread adoption of fish-free feed. Thanks to the great effort and commitment made by all the contestants, I’ve seen more progress made over the past 18 months to advance fishmeal alternatives than over the last five years.”