Progress report for
F3 - Future of Fish Feed: A collaborative effort toward fish-free aquaculture feeds
Achievement at a glance
The F3 Team's first goal is to encourage replacement of fishmeal and fish oil in aquafeeds with more sustainable, substitute ingredients. The first contest facilitated saving 100 million fish. The second contest facilitated saving over 2 billion fish. See more details here:https://f3challenge.org/news/veramaris-dsm-evonik-joint-venture-wins-f3-fish-oil-challenge/
The F3 Team's prior commitments:
-Award the first F3 prize in 2017. COMPLETED.
-Launch another challenge in 2017 to further innovation. COMPLETED.
-Hold a second stakeholder meeting in 2019. COMPLETED. See f3meeting.com.
-Encourage an International Feed Innovation Network that accelerates innovations to take pressure off wild-caught fisheries so that forage fish, and the higher trophic levels which represent the ocean as we know it, will remain for future generations. COMPLETED, but always a work-in-progress. See f3fin.org.
Challenges faced in implementation
It was a lot of work, but the F3 Team completed the implementation of the goals we set in 2017.Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries include:
1. Aquaculture farms and feed companies that will be able to continue operations in aquaculturing a wide variety of species despite any fluctuations in supply of fishmeal and fish oil.
2. Commercial fisheries that rely on a wide variety of fish for their production will also benefit. A broad swath of commercial fisheries that are carnivorous (tuna, cod, salmon) will become scarce and nonviable if their primary food, forage fish, (e.g. anchovies, menhaden, sardines) disappear. Commercial fisheries benefit if the F3 innovation effort succeeds.
3. The environment will benefit, since a key part of the ecosystem, forage fish, will continue to exist and sustain the species that depend on it. Key parts of the environment that depend on forage fish removal of plankton and algae will also remain intact and balanced.
4. Seafood consumers, that enjoy having a wide variety of seafood, will continue to be able to access these varieties through aquacultured seafood.
5. Populations that rely on foods from coastal subsistence will also benefit since forage fish that produce fishmeal and fish oil are at the base of the food chain for many commercial fisheries. Subsistence populations will be able to glean their nutrition from the ocean if forage fisheries are saved.
Actions
- Aquaculture Industry: The F3 Challenges have showcased more sustainable ingredients, that will enable the aquaculture industry, feed and farms, to continue to grow a broader range of species, and provide food sustainably. The F3 meetings have assisted the entire supply chain: innovative sustainable ingredient companies that have benefited from accelerated investment and sales of sustainable ingredients; feed companies that are able to source ingredients that are more sustainable and reliably supplied; farms that have a more stable source of feed for a broader range of farming. Participants in F3 are better positioned for long-term growth in the aquaculture sector because they will be able to continue to supply and sell feed for a wide variety of aquacultured fish, even if wild-caught forage fish stocks diminish or become unavailable.- Global Food Security and Nutrition: By offering more sustainable alternative ingredients, industry can continue to provide a broader range of seafood, and continue to supply omega-3 fatty acids important for brain and nerve development more sustainably and for the long-term. Coastal populations that rely on foraging for subsistence, can continue to obtain a broader range of seafood from the ocean.
- Environment: Two F3 Challenges have now been completed, resulting in over 2.1 billion forage fish being saved from use in aquaculture feed, hopefully saving these fish for the species in the environment that rely on these fish for their sustenance, and retaining that layer of the ecosystem. The beneficiaries of the environment include seabirds, marine mammals, and other ocean life including commercial fisheries.