The contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to the global protein supply

Abstract

The contribution of aquatic animal protein to the global, animal-source protein supply and the relative importance of aquaculture to capture fisheries in supplying this protein is relevant in assessments and decisions related to the future of aquatic food production and its security. Meat of terrestrial animals, milk, and eggs resulted in 76,966 Kt crude protein compared with 13,950 Kt or 15.3% from aquatic animals in 2018.While aquaculture produced a greater tonnage of aquatic animals, capture fisheries resulted in 7,135 Kt crude protein while aquaculture yielded 6,815 Kt. Capture fisheries production has not increased in the past two decades, and aquaculture production must increase to assure the growing demand for fisheries products by a larger and more affluent population. We estimated based on status quo consumption, that aquaculture production would need to increase from 82,087 Kt in 2018 to 129,000 Kt by 2050 to meet the demand of the greater population. About two-thirds of finfish and crustacean production by aquaculture is feed-based, and feeds for these species include fishmeal and fish oil as ingredients. Aquaculture feeds require a major portion of the global supply of fishmeal and fish oil. An estimated 71.0% of fishmeal and 73.9% of fish oil are made from the catch with the rest coming from aquatic animal processing waste. The catch of small, pelagic fish from the ocean is not predicted to increase in the future. Aquaculture should reduce its fishmeal and oil use to lessen its dependency on small wild fish important to the integrity of marine food webs and food security for the poor in many coastal areas. Fishmeal and fish oil shortages for use in aquaculture feed will result in a limit on production in the future if goals to lessen their use in feeds are not met.

Keywords: Animal feeds; Animal-source protein; Aquaculture production; Capture fisheries production; Global protein production; Resource use efficiency.

Fig. 1

World production of capture fisheries and of aquaculture from 1950 to 2018 (source: FAO, 2020a)

Fig. 2

A treemap diagram of the contributions of different sources of protein to the overall global protein supply. Legend —1-Rodents, 2-Birds-other, 3-Camel and camelids, 4-Rabbit, 5-Horse, mule, and ass, 6-Game, 7-Geese and guinea, 8-Buffalo, 9-Ducks, 10-Goats, 11-Turkey, 12-Sheep, 13-Cattle, 14-Pork, 15-Chicken, 16-Red swamp crayfish, 17-Black tiger shrimp, 18-Freshwater shrimp, 19-Whiteleg shrimp, 20-Mitten crab, 21-Aquaculture–other, 22-Milkfish, 23-Rainbow trout, 24-Atlantic salmon, 25-Tilapia, 26-Catfish, 27-Molluscs–aquaculture, 28-Finfish, 29-Carps, 30-Fisheries–other, 31-Crustaceans excluding shrimp, 32-Molluscs–fisheries, 33-Shrimp–fisheries, 34-Freshwater finfish, 35-Marine finfish, 36-Camel milk, 37-Sheep milk, 38-Goat milk, 39-Buffalo milk, 40-Cow milk, 41-Eggs–other, 42-Chicken eggs

Fig. 3

Global production of animal protein by the main sources

Fig. 4

Relationship between carcass weights of terrestrial animals, harvest weights of aquatic animals, and crude protein production

Fig. 5

Average essential amino acid concentrations as percentages of protein for major sources of terrestrial and aquatic meat protein (source: USDA, 2021). Legend: C = chicken; P = pig; B = beef cattle; S = sheep; G = goats; M = milk; E = eggs; WF = wild (captured fish); AF = aquacultured fish; WC = crustaceans from capture fisheries; AC = aquacultured crustaceans; MO = molluscs from capture fisheries and aquaculture

Fig. 6

Spider plot comparisons of essential amino acid patterns in selected animal-source proteins. All values were obtained from the USDA’s FoodData Central database (USDA, 2021b) with the exception of carp, which were calculated from values for bighead carp in Pyz-Lukasik and Paszkiewicz (2018). All values are presented in g/100 g of tissue

Fig. 7

Spider diagram of the daily essential amino acid requirements in human diets, in mg of amino acid/kg of body weight, from Lupton et al. (2002)

Fig. 8

Global fishmeal production from 1990–2018 by source (circle = rendered from fish processing waste, triangle = from reduction fisheries). Projection of future production until 2030 is indicated by dashing of lines (source: FAO, 2020c)