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. 2020 Mar 16;9(3):344.
doi: 10.3390/foods9030344.

Mesopelagic Species and Their Potential Contribution to Food and Feed Security-A Case Study from Norway

Anita R Alvheim  1 , Marian Kjellevold  1 , Espen Strand  1 , Monica Sanden  1 , Martin Wiech  1
Affiliations

Mesopelagic Species and Their Potential Contribution to Food and Feed Security-A Case Study from Norway

Anita R Alvheim et al. Foods. .

Abstract

The projected increase in global population will demand a major increase in global food production. There is a need for more biomass from the ocean as future food and feed, preferentially from lower trophic levels. In this study, we estimated the mesopelagic biomass in three Norwegian fjords. We analyzed the nutrient composition in six of the most abundant mesopelagic species and evaluated their potential contribution to food and feed security. The six species make up a large part of the mesopelagic biomass in deep Norwegian fjords. Several of the analyzed mesopelagic species, especially the fish species Benthosema glaciale and Maurolicus muelleri, were nutrient dense, containing a high level of vitamin A1, calcium, selenium, iodine, eicopentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and cetoleic acid. We were able to show that mesopelagic species, whose genus or family are found to be widespread and numerous around the globe, are nutrient dense sources of micronutrients and marine-based ingredients and may contribute significantly to global food and feed security.

Keywords: Benthosema glaciale; Maurolicus muelleri; fatty acids; mesopelagic; minerals; nutrients; trace elements; vitamin A; vitamin D.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mesopelagic species in Norwegian fjords. The shrimps (a) Pasiphaea sp. and (b) Eusergestes arcticus, the krill (c) Meganyctyphanes norvegica, and the fish species (d) Benthosema glaciale and (e) Maurolicus muelleri caught at a cruise in Osterfjorden, Bjørnafjorden and Boknafjorden on the Norwegian west coast in December 2018.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biomass density of mesopelagic species in Norwegian fjords. Biomass density of mesopelagic species/groups in Osterfjorden and Bjørnafjorden in December 2018 from oblique trawls with macroplankton trawls with either 35 or 350 m2 opening area. The fjords contained most of the same species; however, their contribution to the total ecosystem varied greatly. (a) The jellyfish Periphylla periphylla in Osterfjorden and Bjørnafjorden and an average of the 2 fjords. (b) Mesopelagic species, without jellies, in Osterfjorden and Bjørnafjorden, and an average of the 5 other species mentioned in this paper.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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