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Fishery Wastes and By-products: A Resource to Be Valorised

Article  in  Journal of FisheriesSciences com · November 2015

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Journal of FisheriesSciences.com
E-ISSN 1307-234X

© 2015 www.fisheriessciences.com
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Editorial

Fishery Wastes and By-products: A Resource to Be Valorised

Received: 10.11.2015 / Accepted: 13.11.2015 / Published online: 20.11.2015

Abstract: Experts in the field of fisheries and aqua feeds have estimated that about a quarter of wastes coming from fishery are
discarded, so causing not only a significant environmental impact but also a loss of the potential value of such products. This
consideration stresses the importance of finding adequate modalities for fish wastes management, taking into account the
possibility to use them not only as fish feeds but also as a potential source of bioactive compounds.

Keywords: Fishery wastes, Fishery by-products, Aquaculture, Fish feeds, Bioactive compounds

Correspondence to:
*
Caruso G, CNR-IAMC Messina, Spianata S. Raineri 86- 98122 Messina, Italy
E-mail: [email protected]

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Journal abbreviation: J FisheriesSciences.com

Introduction products that are not used for human consumption [18]. In 2012,
15 million tons of fish caught were used for the production of fish
The problem of fishery wastes has increased in the last years, meal and oil [9]. The global production of fish oil ranges between
becoming a global concern which is affected by several biological, 5.5 and 7.5 million tons/year, but in future the availability fishmeal
technical and operational factors as well as socio-economic and fish oil will limit further growth of the intensive aquaculture
drivers [1,2]. The definition of "fish wastes" includes many fish productions [17,19-21].
species or by-catch products having no or low commercial value, The most important Countries for fish oil production are Peru
undersized or damaged commercial species as well as species of and Chile, which contribute to the 52% and 13% of the total
commercial value but not caught in sufficient amounts to warrant world production. Iceland and Norway, contributing to the 7%
sale. However, the use of fish as feed cannot be governed only of the world production of fish oil, are able to satisfy the whole
by fishery market forces and, on the other hand, the need for European request [14,16,22-23]. In this context, the use of fishery
responsible fisheries and aquaculture development has recently by-products as alternative sources for the supply of fish meal
been underlined in order to preserve aquatic biodiversity [3]. and oil could reduce the fishing pressure on the species targeted
It has been estimated that more than 50% of fish tissues for meal and oil production [24] and, at the same time, it could
including fins, heads, skin and viscera are discarded as they are contribute to sustainable aquaculture productions [25].
considered "wastes". Every year discards from the world's fisheries In spite of the low value traditionally assigned to fishery
exceed 20 million tons equivalent to 25% of the total production by-products, from this huge mass of unused/under-utilized
of marine fishery catch [2, 4] and include “non-target” species, resources a significant amount of bioactive compounds with
fish processing wastes and by-products. In the European Union wide pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications could
those discards represent a total of ca. 5.2 million tons per year [5]. be produced, such as proteins (enzymes, collagen), protein
The amount and the composition in species of fishery wastes hydrolysates, lipids, astaxanthin, chitin [26-27]. Among the
are different with fishing areas, therefore the overall amount of bioactive compounds extracted from fishery wastes and by-
discarding is highly variable [6-7]. In the Mediterranean Sea, products, proteins and oils rich in Polyunsaturated Fatty
Gonçalves et al. [8] reported considerable amounts of trammel net Acids (PUFAs), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and
discards, with a total of 137 species (79.7% of the total) discarded Docosaesaenoic Acid (DHA) are particularly interesting for their
and an overall discard rate ranging from 15 to 49% for Greece high commercial value, as well as for their possible use as fish
to Portugal, respectively. In addition, discards of fish processing feed components [28-35]. Since fishery wastes are rich in high
industry have been estimated to reach up to 75% of the total quality nutrients, there is a great potential in marine bioprocess
volume of products [9]. industry to convert and utilize a large fraction of these valuable
products.
An important feature is related to the environmental impact
that fish wastes could have on aquatic ecosystems, since the release On the other hand, fishery discards and by-products may lead
of organic wastes might change significantly the community to significant problems in terms of management and environmental
structure and biodiversity of the benthic assemblages [1,10-11]. impacts. In many Countries particular emphasis is given to explore
Consequently, the management of fish discards involves different the possibility of using of by-products of fishing, aquaculture and
aspects mostly related to the need to abate this pollution source traditional fishing rather than to face the problem of their disposal
and to search for the best ways to solve this problem. For example, [22]. The use for aquafeeds production of the wastes from fishing
in Europe, the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) aims to and fish processing industry could be an important tool for the
reduce the discard rate. valorization of fishery by-products and discards at a local or
regional level [18].
In addition, fish wastes result in a significant economic loss,
whereas they could be proposed as a potential source of feed Fishery discards from European fleets are not negligible,
for farmed fish. Several studies have documented the increasing and their reduction is an ecological, socio-economic and moral
trend shown by aquaculture productions in the last years [12], imperative. The Countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea
however the future aquaculture development is constrained by a are characterized by important fishing fleets; based on these
significant bottleneck. Aquaculture productions are dependent on considerations, this basin may play an important role as a source
the availability of fish meal and oil, which are an important protein of aquafeeds as well as of bioactive compounds. The European
and lipid source for fish feeds [13]. The production of aquafeeds Union (EU) [23] has recently launched a joint policy to reduce
affects significantly the total costs of production; on average, the unwanted by-catches and eliminate discards in European fisheries,
production of 1 kg of fish meal requires from 4 to 6 kg of fish, however an implementation of the EU Regulation for the reduction
while the production of 1 kg of fish oil requires 10-50 kg of fish of fish wastes is still required. The objective of reducing fishery
[14]. Each year, it has been estimated that about 60% of fish meal discards can be achieved by establishing technologies to enhance
and 80% of fish oil of the world total production are consumed by and transform fish wastes in an economic resource, for example
the aquaculture field and this percentage is expected to increase to by developing techniques of extraction and concentration of the
warrant the future aquaculture growth [15-17]. Fish meal and fish bioactive compounds they contain [20, 36] and defining strategies
oil represent the most valuable products obtained from marine by- for their use for fish meal and oil for animal feeding. Moreover, an

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