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Marine ingredients are still regarded as a vital constituent of aquaculture and other livestock feeds. Despite numerous publications that have discussed the sustainability issues, there are few sources that provide detailed information that allow for quantification of marine ingredient environmental impact. A Life Cycle Inventory was compiled from many available literature sources that will allow for Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of marine ingredients using standard methodologies. While this inventory is the most complete to date, there are still important data gaps that the industry should endeavour to fill. Demonstration of the inventory using an economically allocated LCA showed that marine ingredients are very variable in their impact between and even within species, mostly depending on the fuel intensity of the fishery from which they are sourced. Marine ingredients were typically lower in environmental footprint compared to terrestrial ingredients, although LCAs do not take into account the stock status of fisheries, which must be considered separately. • We provide a comprehensive data set of marine ingredients LCIs to produce mass or economically allocated LCAs. • We include the broadest range of species and geographies to date for any marine ingredient LCI. • We include the first demonstration of eFIFO methodology linked to LCA. • Marine ingredients have variable impacts between different species and locations. • Marine ingredients typically have lower LCA impacts than terrestrial ingredients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency assessments of marine ingredient use in aquaculture are required to fully understand their contribution to global seafood supply and their impacts on all UN Sustainable Development Goals. Fish In: Fish Out (FIFO) ratios have become the principal metric used to ensure aquaculture does not negatively impact wild fish stocks. However, several approaches have been advocated to calculate the FIFO ratio and there have been criticisms that the different approaches employed lead to over- or under- estimates of the dependence of aquaculture on marine ingredients. Critically, FIFO does not align with Life Cycle Assessment as a measure of other environmental impacts. In this paper we present an alternative method to calculate the FIFO ratio based on the principle of economic allocation (economic Fish In: Fish Out – eFIFO) as commonly used in Life Cycle Assessments. Economic allocation acts as a proxy for the nutritional value of ingredients and places higher importance on the more limiting co-products generated and their relative demand. Substitution of marine ingredients by alternate feed ingredients has significantly reduced the amount of fishmeal and fish oil in aquafeed formulations for most farmed fish species, resulting in a continually decreasing FIFO ratio. Results show that most aquaculture species groups assessed in this study are net producers of fish, while salmon and trout aquaculture are net neutral, producing as much fish biomass as is consumed. Overall, global fed-aquaculture currently produces three to four times as much fish as it consumes. Tracking historical prices of fish oil against fishmeal, the relative higher price of fish oil leads to relatively higher allocation of fish to fish oil compared to fishmeal. This leads to relatively higher eFIFO for species with high fish oil requirements. • Economic allocation is applied to the co-production of fishmeal and fish oil to assess the fish in: fish out (FIFO) ratio. • Economic allocation avoids double counting of fish resources. • Economic allocation gives a higher impact to the limiting feed ingredient, reflecting socio-economic drivers of fisheries. • The economic FIFO (eFIFO) ratio is compared to previously published FIFO ratios for the main aquaculture species groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]