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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.

Shrimp are a globally traded aquaculture commodity that accounts for a large proportion of the monetary value of aquaculture. There are concerns among consumers about seafood labeling fraud and environmental sustainability. Therefore, the geographic origin of shrimp from retail stores was investigated with trace element profiling. 94 shrimp samples were collected from grocery stores across the USA, UK, and EU in 70 different grocery stores. The results of 24 elements are reported. Shrimp samples were from Thailand, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Ecuador were shown to have 15 elements that were statistically different across labeled country of origin, with Ecuador having unique post hoc group membership in 5 of the elements. Based on a classification procedure, shrimp were classified to labeled country of origin with an overall accuracy of 71.2%. Overall, the results suggest that elemental profiling could be a traceability tool for classifying samples of shrimp from retail stores., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Frozen Shrimp samples were obtained from grocery stores in the EU and USA. • Samples were analyzed for element concentrations in 42 elements. • 24 elements were detectable and presented here. • Samples from Ecuador shown property of having a unique elemental profile. • Samples were classified to country of origin with reasonable accuracy (71%).

Whilst the aquaculture sector continues to grow and make an ever increasing contribution to world food supplies, there is a need to ensure that the sector continues to develop in a socially, econom...

Shrimp are one of the fastest growing commodities in aquaculture and have a considerable land footprint. Here, we explored the impact of utilizing different production methods (extensive vs intensive) for expanding shrimp production on the cumulative land footprint of shrimp aquaculture. A meta-analytic approach was utilized to simultaneously estimate model coefficients to explore three relationships: production intensity and total land burden, production intensity and the proportion of land at the farm, and production intensity and the farmland burden. A literature review was conducted and a total of 7 datasets, 22 subsets, and 973 individual farms were included in this study. The global models were as follows: model 1 → ln (total land burden) = 0.1165–0.3863 * ln (production intensity), model 2 → proportion of direct (farm) land use:total land use = 0.7592–0.1737 * ln (production intensity), model 3 → ln (direct land use) = 0.1991–0.9674 * ln (production intensity). Production expansion was modeled under different scenarios. The most land intensive projections involved using only extensive systems to increase production when compared to a business-as-usual scenario. The least land intensive scenario involved utilizing intensive systems. A scenario where farmland was not expanded used 17% less land and 28% less land to produce 7.5 and 10 million tons of shrimp, respectively, when compared to business-as-usual scenarios. These estimates are limited by uncertainty in shrimp feed composition but demonstrate the effect of production intensity on the overall land footprint of shrimp production.

Important operational changes that have gradually been assimilated and new approaches that are developing as part of the movement toward sustainable intensive aquaculture production systems are presented via historical, current, and future perspectives. Improved environmental and economic sustainability based on increased efficiency of production continues to be realized. As a result, aquaculture continues to reduce its carbon footprint through reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Reduced use of freshwater and land resources per unit of production, improved feed management practices as well as increased knowledge of nutrient requirements, effective feed ingredients and additives, domestication of species, and new farming practices are now being applied or evaluated. Successful expansion into culture of marine species, both off and on shore, offers the potential of substantial increases in sustainable intensive aquaculture production combined with integrative efforts to increase efficiency will principally contribute to satisfying the increasing global demand for protein and food security needs.

Provenance of seafood items is a concern for consumers and importers alike. Elemental profiling has been put forth as a potential tool to improve seafood traceability. Whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei collected from farms in Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand were classified to country of origin based on element concentrations in muscle tissue. Shrimp were dried, digested, and analyzed via ICP-MS. Out of the 41 elements investigated, 33 are reported as being above detection limits. Twenty-eight elements were statistically different across countries, and of these 28, Ecuador had unique group membership in 7. A random forest classification model utilizing 16 elements had an overall accuracy of 91% of correctly classified samples to country of origin. A canonical discriminant analysis was conducted to understand the variation in the data and identify elements that were important to differentiation in multi-dimension space. Elements identified as important contributors were Al, As, B, Ca, Co, Cs, Sr, and V. This study shows that shrimp from Ecuador tend to be more mineralized than shrimp from Asia, and classification models can discern samples from these countries successfully. This demonstrates the potential of a traceability database for cultured shrimp products from predominant production countries.

Shrimp farms in India had average yields (pond surface basis) of 7.86 ± 1.04 (SE) m.t./ha/yr for Litopenaeus vannamei (n = 89) and 3.88 m.t./ha/yr for Penaeus monodon (n = 11). Average feed conversion ratio was 1.48 ± 0.04 for L. vannamei and 1.24 ± 0.12 for P. monodon. Land use for production ponds, supporting area, and feed ingredients averaged 0.634 ± 0.053 ha/m.t. for L. vannamei and 0.716 ± 0.087 ha/m.t. for P. monodon. Saline water volume used at farms without water exchange was 18,522 ± 4065 m³/m.t. for L. vannamei and 9528 m³/m.t. for P. monodon. Farms exchanging water used 149,188 m³/m.t. for L. vannamei and 191,500 m³/m.t. for P. monodon. Freshwater embodied in feed was 1678 ± 508 m³/m.t. for L. vannamei and 1401 ± 137 m³/m.t. for P. monodon. Average energy use for farm construction and repair, farm operations, and embodied in feed and liming materials was 82.14 ± 9.08 GJ/m.t. for L. vannamei and 59.03 ± 24.92 GJ/m.t. for P. monodon. Wildfish used to make fishmeal included in feed was 1209 kg/m.t. for L. vannamei and 1611 kg/m.t. for P. monodon. Farm infrastructure, pond management methods, yields, and resource use in India were similar to those previously reported for shrimp farms in Thailand and Vietnam.

Shrimp from three major exporting countries – India, Vietnam, and Thailand – were identified to country of origin by elemental profiling. Concentrations of 23 elements, including essential macro- and micro-nutrients and non-essential trace elements, in headless shell on shrimp (HLSO) samples were analyzed by ICP-AES. Elemental concentrations in shrimp showed high variation. Multivariate statistics including principal component analysis, stepwise discriminant analysis, Kernel method, and canonical discriminant analysis demonstrated the validity of elemental profiling in distinguishing aquacultured shrimp from different countries. However, it was not possible to reach definitive conclusions about which elements are the best descriptors for each region. The method was also tested as a means of differentiating shrimp produced to area of origin for two areas in Thailand, three provinces in Vietnam and India. All the multivariate statistical analysis demonstrated that the separation on a smaller scale was not as reliable as on the country scale.

The oxygen demand, acidification potential, and waste loads of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorus from feed were determined for production of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, tilapia Oreochromis spp., Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, and whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Loads of these variables in culture systems (system loads) at typical FCRs ranged from 1090 to 1500 kg t− 1 for feed oxygen demand, 270–440 kg t− 1 for acidification potential, 1186–1885 kg t− 1 for carbon dioxide, 35.9–63.5 kg t− 1 for nitrogen, and 6.1–15.9 kg t− 1 for phosphorus. Using these estimates as representative of feed-based aquaculture and literature data on the proportions of system waste loads typically discharged to the environment (environmental loads), the approximate amounts of waste generated globally by feed-based aquaculture were estimated to be small in comparison to estimates of global anthropogenic waste. Nevertheless, aquaculture should lessen its environmental waste load, and the benefit of improving FCR in reducing waste load was illustrated. Statement of relevance This research will be important in efforts to assess the pollution potential of aquaculture facilities. This will be especially important for aquaculture certification efforts.

There is growing interest in sustainable intensification of aquaculture production. Yet little economic analysis has been done on farm-level effects of the economic sustainability of production intensification. Data from 83 shrimp farms (43 in Vietnam and 40 in Thailand) were used to identify (through principal component and cluster analyses) 13 clusters of management practices that reflected various scales of production intensity that ranged from 0–1999 kg/ha/crop to 10,000 kg/ha/crop and above, for both Penaeus monodon and Litopenaeus vannamei in Vietnam and Thailand. The clusters identified reflected sets of management practices that resulted in differing yields despite similarities in stocking densities among some clusters. The enterprise budget analysis developed showed that the more intensively managed clusters outperformed the less intensively managed clusters in economic terms. More intensively managed farm clusters had lower costs per metric ton of shrimp produced and were more profitable. The greater yields of shrimp produced per hectare of land and water resources in more intensively managed shrimp farms spread annual fixed costs across a greater volume of shrimp produced and reduced the cost per metric ton of shrimp. Costs per metric ton of shrimp produced decreased from the lowest to the highest intensity level (from US$10,245 at lowest intensity to US$3484 at highest for P. monodon and from US$24,301 to US$5387 for L. vannamei in Vietnam and from US$8184 at the lowest intensity level to US$3817 at the highest intensity level per metric ton for L. vannamei in Thailand). Costs of pond amendments used in shrimp production were particularly high in Vietnam and largely unwarranted, whereas fixed costs associated with the value of land, production facilities, equipment, and labor were sufficiently high in Thailand so that net returns were negative in the long run. Nevertheless, economic losses in Thailand were less at greater levels of intensification. The study demonstrated a clear value proposition for shrimp farmers to use natural resources (such as land) and other inputs in an efficient manner and supports findings from corresponding research on farm-level natural resource use efficiency. Additional research that incorporates economic analysis into on-farm studies of sustainable intensification of aquaculture is needed to provide ongoing guidance related to sustainable management practices for aquaculture.

Resource use was investigated at 34 Litopenaeus vannamei and five Penaeus monodon farms in Thailand and 30 L. vannamei and 24 P. monodon farms in Vietnam. Farms varied in water surface areas for production, reservoirs, canals, and settling basins; in pond size and depth; and in water management, stocking density, feeding rate, amendment input, aeration rate, crop duration, and crops per year. Production of L. vannamei averaged 17.3 and 10.9 m.t./ha/yr, and feed conversion ratio averaged 1.49 and 1.33 in Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. On average, production of 1 m.t. of L. vannamei required 0.58 ha land, 5,400 m3 water, 60 GJ energy, and 1218 kg wildfish in Thailand and 1.76 ha land, 15,100 m3 water, 33.7 GJ energy, and 1264 kg wildfish in Vietnam. Resource use per metric ton of shrimp declined with greater production intensity. In Thailand, P. monodon was produced at 0.2–0.4 m.t./ha/yr, with no inputs but water and postlarvae. In Vietnam, P. monodon production averaged 3.60 m.t./ha/yr. Production of 1 m.t. of P. monodon required 0.80 ha land, 36,000 m3 water, 47.8 GJ energy, and 1180 kg wildfish, and resource use per ton production declined with increasing production intensity.

Global averages were obtained for amounts of energy, land, water, wildfish, nitrogen, and phosphorus embodied in aquaculture feed ingredients. These data allowed amounts of these embodied resources to be calculated for typical feed formulations for channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus; hybrid catfish, I. punctatus♀ × I. furcatus♂; Vietnamese catfish, Pangasius spp.; Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar; rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss; tilapia, Oreochromis spp.; whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei; and black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon. Embodied resource use per m.t. of feed varied among species: energy, 4.90–12.48 GJ/m.t.; land, 0.082–0.312 ha/m.t.; water, 502–1227 m3/m.t.; wildfish, 0–2880 kg/m.t.; nitrogen, 3.08–8.63 kg/m.t.; phosphorus, 1.16–5.62 kg/m.t. These calculations did not account for variations in site-specific factors related to embodied resources and feed composition and use. But they suggest that reducing feed conversion ratio (FCR) by 0.1 unit for the seven species (species groups) could potentially reduce feed use by around 1.1 million tonne (Mt) while conserving 9.8 million GJ of energy, 270,000 ha of agricultural land, 1.4 billion m3 of freshwater, and 1.24 Mt of wildfish. Reduction of the FCR is a powerful means of lessening farm-level production costs and negative impacts of feed production and use.

The aquaculture industry is under increasing pressure to make production more resource efficient and environmentally responsible. Application of better management practices is the main approach for improving the environmental performance of aquaculture. There are, however, few numerical indicators for comparing resource use and waste generation for culture of common species and by different grow-out techniques. Indicators are proposed for evaluating the efficiency with which feed, protein, fish meal, nutrients, liming materials, water, land, and energy are used in aquaculture. In addition, methods for evaluating amounts of nutrients and other possible pollutants generated by production facilities are suggested. The indicators are designed to reveal the quantities of resources used, or of waste discharged, per tonne of production. This will simplify comparisons among species and production systems and facilitate comparisons with other kinds of animal agriculture.

The total salt input in saline well water, mineral amendments, feed, and rainfall and runoff to ponds of an inland shrimp farm in Alabama was 1980.8 tonnes over a 5-yr period. A residual of 270.4 tonnes of salt remained in pond water and 38.3 tonnes in bottom soil. Only 8.0 tonnes of salt were removed in harvested shrimp. A total of 1588.0 tonnes of salt or 80.2% of the input was lost to the environment with about equal amounts exiting the ponds in seepage and in overflow and harvest effluent. About 4.2% of the salt input (84.1 tonnes) could not be accounted for because of errors in assumptions and measurements. Salt concentration was elevated in a small stream passing through the farm and in the shallow aquifer beneath it. Needham Creek, the receiving water body for runoff and base flow from the farm watershed, had elevated salt concentrations when ponds were partially drained for harvest in the fall. At this time, chloride concentration exceeded 230 mg/L, the maximum concentration allowed by Alabama Department of Environmental Management regulations. Greater water reuse or more gradual release of pond effluent during harvest would reduce the peak in-stream chloride concentration and avoid noncompliance with the in-stream chloride criterion.

There is interest in certification of aquaculture production facilities in response to concerns about negative environmental and social impacts and food safety. This study identifies issues to be considered by stakeholders in developing certification standards for channel catfish, tilapias, rainbow trout, oysters, mussels, clams, scallops, abalone, and seaweed. Common issues include land and water use, water pollution, benthic effects, effects on biodiversity, use of antibiotics and other chemicals, and relationships with workers and local communities. Specific, contentious issues apply to individual species or species groups. Fish meal use in feeds will be a major concern in finfish certification. Use of groundwater, removal of daily mortalities, and medicated feed in channel catfish culture should be given particular attention. Tilapia culture can introduce these species into watersheds where they have not previously occurred, resulting in serious competition with native species. Some environmentalists ...

Saline well water used to fill ponds for inland culture of marine shrimp in Alabama often have low concentrations of potassium and magnesium. In 2002, pond waters on a shrimp farm were treated with enough muriate of potash and potassium-magnesium sulfate (K-Mag) to increase potassium concentration from 6.2 mg/L to about 40 mg/L and magnesium concentrations from 4.6 mg/L to about 20 mg/L. Salinity in ponds averaged 2.6 ppt at the time of mineral salt additions. The concentrations of potassium and magnesium remained fairly constant throughout the growing season without further applications of salts, and salinity increased to about 4 ppt mainly as a result of concentration through evaporation. Survival and production on the farm averaged 19% and 595 kg/ha, respectively, in 2001. In 2002, average survival improved to 67% and average production was 4,068 kg/ha. Ponds were stocked at similar rates and managed by similar procedures both years. Magnesium concentration was very low related to the concentration expected in normal seawater diluted to the same salinity as the pond water, while potassium was near the expected concentration. Thus, increased potassium concentration is thought to have influenced production much more than did the increase in magnesium concentration. K-Mag does not dissolve as readily as muriate of potash. Thus, K-Mag should not be dumped in shallow water areas of ponds to dissolve as can be done with muriate of potash. It should be broadcast over the pond surface, predissolved and splashed over the pond surface, or placed in porous bags suspended in front of aerators. Although a single application of mineral salts was effective, 2002 was a dry year. On a wet year, ions may be diluted or flushed out in overflow and more than one treatment with mineral salts might be necessary during the growing season.

Copper sulfate (CuSO45H2O) is used to reduce the abundance of blue-green algae and combat off-flavor in channel catfish culture. Copper sulfate usually is applied at a concentration of one-one hundredth of the total alkalinity. A study was performed at the Auburn University Fisheries Research Unit to determine the duration of elevated copper (Cu) concentration following copper sulfate applications. Two alkalinity treatments, 20-40 mg/L and 110-130 mg/L (as CaCO3), were examined. Copper sulfate was applied biweekly for 14 wk at 03 mg/L for the low alkalinity treatment and 1.2 mg/L for the high alkalinity treatment. Total copper concentrations in pond waters declined to the background level by 48-h post treatment. In addition, total copper concentrations were determined in waters of 38 catfish production ponds located in west central Alabama. The mean and standard deviation were 0.0092 ± 0.0087 mg Cu/L. Copper quickly precipitates from the water or is absorbed by sediments following copper sulfate treatment. Although concentrations of copper in pond waters increase immediately following copper sulfate treatment, they rapidly decrease and seldom exceed the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Recommended Water Quality Criteria for Priority Toxic Pollutants of 0.013-mg Cu/L. Findings of this study suggest that copper sulfate treatment will not contaminate effluent from catfish ponds because of the short time that applied copper remains in the water column. Furthermore, the most frequent applications of copper sulfate occur in late summer months when rainfall is minimal and pond overflow is rare.

Although seafood is the most highly traded food internationally, it is an often overlooked component of global food security. It provides essential local food, livelihoods, and export earnings. Although global capture fisheries production is unlikely to increase, aquaculture is growing considerably. Sustaining seafood's contributions to food security hinges on the ability of institutions, particularly in developing countries, to protect and improve ecosystem health in the face of increasing pressures from international trade.