Notwithstanding the above, what is evident is that there is a need for a more holistic approach to ensure the long-term sustainable development which should be environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable. Notably, increasing knowledge and solutions are needed for sustainable resources to achieve a sustainable, inclusive and efficient aquaculture sector able to meet expectations towards Blue Transformation.
The United Nations organized an UN Ocean Conference, 27 June-1 July 2022, in Lisbon, Portugal. The key issues for this conference include: climate mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity protection frameworks, through technological tools for monitoring and surveillance and ending harmful subsidies, and innovative financing opportunities. Within the conference, FAO released 2022 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA)¹ with motto “Towards Blue Transformation”. Blue Transformation is a targeted effort by which agencies, countries and dependent communities use existing and emerging knowledge, tools and practices to secure and sustainably maximize the contribution of aquatic food systems to food security, nutrition and affordable healthy diets for all. We need it for overcoming sustainability challenges including high and growing prevalence of hunger and malnutrition in all its forms all around the world².
In fact, “Blue” term has been around not only for Ocean protection but also for the future protein sources by using marine biotechnology as stated in the Blue Growth Strategy of the European Union (EU). Considering the SOFIA 2022, Blue transformation will provide sustainable fisheries, sustainable trade and value chain as well as sustainable aquaculture which will then create better production, nutrition, environment and better life. It basically focuses on the elements that would increase the contribution of aquatic food system to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As seen in SOFIA 2022, fisheries and aquaculture production reached an all-time record of 214 million tonnes. The total aquaculture production comprised 87.5 million tonnes of aquatic animals (fed-aquaculture species) and 35.1 million tonnes of algae (non-fed species), reaching a total of 122.6 million tonnes in live weight in 2020. As part of Blue Transformation, further aquaculture growth is expected to reach 140 million tonnes under Business-as-usual scenarios (low- and high-road scenarios are 120.8 and 160.3 million tonnes, respectively) by 2050. To achieve this growth, the large volume of aquafeed will be needed in terms of affordable macro- and micro-nutrients and energy sources. Tacon et al. (2022)³ estimated that compound aquafeed production, which is now 51.4 million tonnes, will roughly be 69.6 million tonnes. Thus, to sustain such production levels, we should take into account priority areas for sustainable and functional aquafeed along with feed raw feedstuff.
However, that growth is dependent on sustainable supplies of protein feedstuff to feed aquaculture animals. Traditionally, aquafeeds (Aquafeed v1.0) have relied on fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) extracted from wild pelagic fish resources. However, recognition of the constraints to the supply of those resources led to significant progress in the development of alternative feed resources for aquaculture mainly deriving from terrestrial-animal or plant-based sources (v2.0) in recent decades. More recently, the efforts is focused on developing of circular and regenerative ingredient resources (v3.0)⁴ that valorize by-products or even remediate nutrient discharges, e.g., and macroalgal microbial protein sources. Aquaculture heavily relies on marine-derived resources such as FM and FO. These are strategic ingredients in aquafeed as their supply is cannot match the demand. Although considerable progress has been made in replacing them, many high-value fed-aquaculture species (e.g. salmon, sea bass, sea bream and shrimp) that require high-protein diets have identified various challenges. Numerous feedstuffs have been intensively tested and adopted to remove or substantially reduce FM and FO inclusion in aquafeed without affecting the growth and health of the cultured fish. Furthermore, towards Blue Transformation, progress has been made in the usage of fish and lan animal by-products to produce FM and FO. Beside these resources currently being used, insect meals offer good potential as a protein feed input to aquafeeds. However, it contains some challenges in terms of decreasing costs and up scaling production, particularly in aquafeed markets which is potentially the largest addressable market for insect protein.⁵
Notwithstanding the above, what is evident is that there is a need for a more holistic approach to ensure the long-term sustainable development which should be environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable. Notably, increasing knowledge and solutions are needed for sustainable resources to achieve a sustainable, inclusive and efficient aquaculture sector able to meet expectations towards Blue Transformation.
¹https://www.fao.org/publications/card/en/c/CC0461EN
²https://www.fao.org/3/cc0459en/cc0459en.pdf
³https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23308249.2021.1898539
⁴https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/raq.12567
