Aquaculture provides more than half of all fish consumed by humans, but most of the reared fish are destined for non-food applications as fishmeal and fish oil production. Fish meal is the crude flour obtained after milling and drying fish or fish parts, while fish oil is a brown-yellow liquid obtained by pressing the cooked fatty fish. To date, fishmeal is largely used as feed for a wide range of animal species because it is rich in highly digestible proteins and a lipid profile rich in omega-3 fatty acids. It is also a good source of vitamins and minerals. However, the high demand and price of these products make the aquaculture sector not suitable at economic and environmental levels.
The purpose of this project is to test several novel biomass for sea bream (Sparus aurata) and salmon (Salmo salar) rearing, and find the best mix able to guarantee suitable growth performance and final nutritional quality for these fish species.