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Invisible Industry Episode 9 Aquaculture

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hi everyone and welcome to the invisible

industry as you know this is the podcast

where we discuss and educate on

everything you didn't know you didn't

know about agricultural rendering and

it's brought to you by the North

American renderers Association orara I'm

your moderator Anna Wilkinson I am the

vice president of communications for

Nara and joining me as always is our

host Mr Marcus Wier Marcus thank you as

always very exciting episode today we

are going to be talking all about

aquaculture aquaculture is something

that we discuss quite a bit here at Nara

um and in the rendering industry at

large you'll understand why soon but we

have yet to dedicate a full episode to

it on the podcast so I'm happy to say

that we are doing that today and joining

us to help us with that is Dr George

Chamberlain Dr Chamberlain thank you so

much for being here with us uh without

further Ado I'm going to go ahead and

turn it over to Marcus to introduce our

guest and to get us started thanks for

the introduction Anna and thank you for

joining us here today uh today's episode

is about aquaculture and our guest is Dr

George Chamberlain who is the president

of the center for responsible Seafood Dr

George Chamberlain started his

aquaculture career in 1975 as a

researcher instructor and extension

aquaculture specialist at Texas ANM

University for the next 10 years he

directed The aquaculture programs at

Ralston Purina International and Mons

Santo from 1999 to 2020 he founded and

managed several shrimp breeding

nutrition and farming companies

ultimately known as Kona Bay with

operations in Malaysia brunai and Hawaii

concurrent with his commercial

activities Chamberlain served as a board

member and president of the world

agriculture society and later helped

found both the global Seafood Alliance

GSA and the center for responsible

Seafood tcrs he served for 25 years as

president of GSA and now leads tcrs nice

to for you to be here today George oh

thank you Marcus and thank you Anna for

inviting me pleasure to be here I've

enjoyed working with the renderers for

quite a few years now great opportunity

first off uh could you Define

aquaculture for us well that's a that's

a really easy one Marcus it's the

farming of aquatic organisms but if you

if you think about it you know um it has

tremendous diversity that's the unique

thing about aquaculture as compared to

poultry or or swine or cattle um there

was a recent food and agriculture

organization report they do it every two

years called the uh state of world

fisheries and aquaculture it's

abbreviated Sophia and they say that

there are

730 species of farmed aquatic organisms

and some of them are animals and some of

them are plants like algae and

seaweed and the remarkable thing about

this year's Sophia report is the first

time ever that aquaculture production

globally has exceeded wild catch it's

kind of a milestone you know can you

imagine I remember as a young boy

walking along the beach and looking out

at the ocean and it looked infinite it

looked like you know the amount of

seafood that's there is um we could

never possibly reach a maximum

sustainable yield but we have long ago

and now that same amount of seafood and

more is being farmed there's such a

variety of um species and such a variety of

habitats and such a variety of culture

systems so that's the unique thing about

aquaculture is the the diversity

incredible diversity that's fascinating

I've never realized uh that aquaculture

extended Beyond Just Fish uh so with it

being so diverse how can something like

rendered products I know there is a

variety of rendered products but how do

those relate to the world of aquaculture

Marcus actually you know there are two

ways um one aquaculture is a user of

those rendered animal

byproducts um aquaculture has grown a

lot over the last 50 years and in the

early days it had a high

Reliance on fish meal and fish oil which

are actually you know rendered animal

byproducts taken from wild

fish but that Supply is finite there's

only four to five million metric tons of

fish meal available in the world and

that's the max it's never going to

increase but aquaculture continues to

increase at a fast rate it's the fastest

growing um animal protein sector in the

world in terms of percent increase and

and so it's

outstripping the availability of fish

meal and oil and so the aquaculture feed

industry is constantly looking for

Alternatives how can reduce that level

of fish meal and oil and rendered animal

byproducts are one of those

Solutions um blood meal feather meal and

I would say in particular poultry

byproduct meal is a very popular

substitute uh for fish meal in fact um

last year uh the center for responsible

Seafood conducted a survey on sh shrimp

feeds and we contacted eight of the

world's leading shrimp feed

manufacturers and they agreed to anonymously

anonymously

disclose their typical formula for

growout feed for shrimp which is um

difficult to do because those are prized

confidential bits of

information but we looked at that and we

were surprised to see that poultry

byproduct meal was in the majority of

shrimp feeds and it's at a significant

level so number one um aquaculture is a

user of rendered animal byproducts but

number two aquaculture is a

producer so when every um aquaculture

animal is harvested and processed it too

generates trimmings and it too has um

a need

to uh

recycle those products into New Uses so

really we have a lot to learn from our fellow

fellow

um uh members of this sector in in the

rendering area about how to be more

efficient in rendering and we hope that

some of the rendering companies will

enter into the aquaculture world to play

a role and

uh we hope also that the renderers will

continue to provide well really an

increasing quantity of products to this

sector and there are some you know

special needs of this

sector um aquaculture probably like all

foods is under pressure

from uh indirectly from consumers but

directly from uh retailers and seafood

buyers to continually improve the

sustainability of the product and part

of that

is the largest part of the carbon

footprint of uh aquaculture products is

the feed so is aquaculture itself pretty

sustainable environmentally economically

yes I think so I think um it's been

under the microscope maybe more than

others and um consequently I think it's

made great strides yes one of one of the

things that um maybe uh we should

emphasize is a concept called the

circular economy which was is so

important you know to to take the

byproducts or or trimmings of a given

sector and to reuse them and to put them

back into the into the cycle and that's

uh one of the connections we have with

the renderers where uh the the trimmings

are generated into a stable high value

useful product that goes back into feeds

is fed again and not wasted and

contributes to the sustainability of the

industry and you know I I would mention

that this is um a really the speed

sector is evolving fast and there are

many novel ingredients as well and there

are groups that are trying to find

substitutes for the highly unsaturated

oils in fish that are really valuable

for our health either by producing algal

oils or by genetically modifying row

crops like canola and chamina so that

instead of vegetable oil they produce

these longchain fatty acids so this this

whole idea of you know how to produce

sustainable ingredients the whole sector

is evolving

and the

rendered uh sector is a very important

component of it because it recycles

through the circular economy all these

nutrients back into the system so you

talk about nutrients and things that

kind of makes me think of uh

formulations for different types of

animals how how is the formula different

for uh something that's going to

aquaculture uh versus what would go to

something on land um like animal feed

and pet food actually you know in some

ways they're very similar the basic

nutrients the amino acids fatty acids vitamins

vitamins

minerals a lot of the uh nutrients of

course are the same but the the levels

of those nutrients are different so for

example protein in let's say chicken and

pig diets is maybe half of what's in

most shrimp and cryst ation diets uh

chickens and pigs might range from 15%

protein to

23% and most fish feeds are in the 30 to

40% range so much higher protein levels

in the aquatic

organisms but

um the feed

conversion uh tends to be tends to be

lower in the aquatic organisms

so in general um fish and crustations

range between um oh about as low as one

Fe conversion of one up to about a

little over two and of course um on the

terrestrial side cattle can be um 8 to

10 on the Fe conversion pigs can be

around three and poultry around two so

so in general aquaculture is a requires

a higher protein but it's a very good

converter of

nutrients and there are a couple of

reasons why um aquatic organisms are

efficient one

is they live in the water and they don't

attempt to maintain their own body

temperature not like us you know we a

lot of animals need to maintain a body

temp temperature whether it's hot or

cold and that's an energy

expenditure and the other thing is that

these aquatic organisms are either

buoyant in the water neutrally buoyant

or they're on the bottom they they don't

have to resist the effects of gravity

like uh like land animals don't have to

have heavy bones skeleton and that's

also s that also saves on energy cost I

would say the one disadvantage of

aquatic animals is breathing you know

land animals can take a breath and

there's plenty of oxygen right there all

the time in in an aquaculture world it's

dissolved in water it's a little more

difficult to get and there can be local

imbalances where there can be shortages

of oxygen in the water uh for a period

of time so anyway some advantages and

disadvantages but as a as a general rule

um higher protein requirements but

better feed conversion I want a pet food

nutritionalist look at the formulation

compared to someone in the aquaculture

would that be uh significantly different

as well since they have the same

advantages and disadvantages it's a it's

a very good question the interesting

thing about pets is no pet owner cares

about feed conversion or growth rate you

know what they really are most focused

on is whether their pet enjoys the food

and so palatability is um really the

overwhelming uh interest of a pet owner

and of course health health of the

animal and and so there's a tremendous

amount of effort spent on um making sure

that the food tastes good and it turns

out that one of the real flavor

enhancers is from uh

hydrolized poultry and you know poultry

um byproducts you know the hydrolized

means that these um

poultry proteins are enzymatically

digested and a protein's a long molecule

and this enzyme chops it up over time

into shorter and shorter and

shorter um uh chain length and

and what the nutritionists do is they

stop that reaction at different points

in time uh so they're different chain

lengths and they feed those to pets and

then they say ah the the um the the most

desirable um digest or hydrolysate

they're called is when the protein

reaction goes this long and and then

they control it and and develop that and

industrialize it and that is added as um

as a ingredient to the feed and given

the fact that pet foods are among the

most pricey of feeds you know much more

expensive than of terrestrial animal

food or uh or an aquaculture food

feed uh then pet food manufacturers can

afford to um spend more on their

ingredients and select the very the very

best uh quality for example when they

buy poultry byproduct meal they'll want

What's called the pet food grade which

has less Ash less bone um and they're

also very selective about ingredients

that they bring from the aquaculture

side and they often are very selective

from a sustainability and carbon

footprint point of view so um

and then taking that same argument back

one notch let me say that aquaculture

feeds are in turn much more expensive

than terrestrial feeds so let's take an

example so

a oh shrimp feed might be around a

dollar a kilo salmon feed might be

around a dollar 60 a

kilo and um and if we look at

um oh for example U Pig and Chicken

feeds they're probably around $700 a

kilo so you see there's quite a

difference and that's

important from a feed point of view

because it means that the the

aquaculture feed

manufacturer has a little more money to

work with it's not quite as tight a

budget as a poultry feed or pig feed has

to deal with and it means they too can

select the higher quality products so

they'll Al often go for that same pet

food grade a poultry byproduct meal

because it fits better into the formula

has less Ash has better digestibility

and and um and they have the flexibility

to do it because their price range is a

little higher for those feeds with

aquaculture continuing to grow do you

anticipate a growth for render products

uh as uh being used in aquaculture and

what do you think the reasoning would be

behind that if there if there is one oh

I absolutely I mean the aquaculture

continues to grow the same Sophia report

um indicated that uh it's

the the outset of this uh presentation I

mentioned that for the first time a

global aquaculture production exceeds

wild catch

Landings uh in 1922 that's the uh this

year's report refers to 19 or 2022

data uh but that same report from

2022 indicates that um aquaculture is

expected to continue to grow fast and um

it's becoming you know um greater and

greater proportion of the diet um it

said something to the effect that in

1961 the per capita Global consumption of

seafood um not just the us but around

the world I believe it was yeah

9.1 kilos but in 2022 it's 20.7 it's

more than doubled

and and and so this is um not accounting

for population increase this is what

each person is eating and and we're

we're all globally eating more and more

Seafood because it's healthy and so the

the demand is going up and the demand

for the um the feed ingredients is going

up in at the same rate and our rendered

animal byproducts will be a very

important part and the farther we go

down the road the the the less

percentage of fish meal and oil can be

used in the diet and the more

substitutes will be required so it's

very important that um aquaculture and

renderers work together and as I say

aquaculture maybe can outbid land

proteins on some of these ingredients

and um is willing to pay more for them

because they've got a little more space

in their in their formulas just in

general can people consuming more fish

and and using aquaculture more what's

something that the general public should

know about aquaculture first of all

Seafood is is really healthy and I think

I think the general population realizes

that first of all it's a very balanced

form of protein but the the interesting

unique part of

seafood is the fats unlike

terrestrial um

Foods um aquatic foods have longchain

fatty acids and two of them in

particular we hear a lot about they're

both very important one of them is

called uh

EPA iosa pentanoic acid this is a a

longchain fatty acid that's very good

for the heart it it greatly reduces

heart attacks and the more we eat the

less susceptible we are to heart failure

and the other one is DHA docosahexanoic

acid and it's one that's very good for

the brain and also for prenatal

development this

U uh expectant mothers are encouraged to

have more DHA in their diet because it

improves the IQ and the dexterity of

their future child and um so EPA and DHA

they ultimately come from the algae in

the oceans and then they're they're

accumulated through the food chain into

the seafood that we eat and so it's very

important that we get those nutrients to

improve our health and seafood's just a

great source for that

so um I I think um

healthy and then you know the

sustainability story that we've already

talked about you know that um that hey

Seafood has a very low feed conversion

ratio you know it takes uh very little

feed to convert into Seafood that

um it uses

um less and less resources to produce a

kilogram of product and it's becom more

sustainable over time as we said this is

an evolving sector and all of the feed

Industries are animal Food Industries are

are

improving um but I think the

um the health of the nutrients

particularly the the fats is the main

differentiating point for seafood so uh

every year in July I like to watch a

shark week and they talk about the

migratory patterns of great whites and

and other sharks um one of our members

has also noticed that they typically see

a domestic use of dried blood in

aquaculture that starts in April and

goes through June is there a seasonality

to aquaculture production on what's

necessary and or formulation changes for

diets During certain parts of the Year

yes there is you know that's true and

and the in temperate locations like the

the US and Canada and Scotland and

Norway where there are species that are

raised in summer months and then much

colder winter months there can be a

change in the diet

absolutely um but we we have to remember

that you know aquaculture is a global

business and it's happening in the

tropics as well all around the world and

and that's a a yearr round business with

um continuous production and um and even

if there's a seasonality

Factor where we're demanding something

in the northern hemisphere conversely

the southern hemisphere at the same time

you know they're in the opposite season

so things globally tend to really

balance out but absolutely um seasonally

there can be differences in the diet

they uh for example with um channel

catfish raised in the Mississippi Delta

they found that um controlling

certain winter onset

diseases um is better if they adjust the

diet in one way or another I frankly I

don't recall exactly what that

adjustment is but um uh yes uh um

experience has shown that there can be

adjustments in the diet that improve

resistance to low temperature and so

forth and also for also for salinity and

places where the salt content of the

water is um exceptionally high they

often increase the protein level just a

little bit to help compensate for the

organism having to maintain the O

osmotic strength of their body in

relation to the external environment

thank you very much uh definitely sounds

like a fascinating industry uh if

someone was interested in starting a

career in aquaculture where would they

how would they start where would they go

well there's so many uh possibilities

you know when when I began you know a

long time ago I began by uh reading some

things I picked up uh well some popular

magazine articles then I dove into some

um some more technical books and I found

that I was totally

fascinated and um and then I went back

to school I went to graduate school and

got a master's and got a PhD but they're

but it's not necessary to dive in all

the way you you know you can do many

things for

example um I think one of the best

things would be to go

to um your State Extension agent and

learn about

aquaculture um browse the internet you

don't have to buy books like I did

before and there are so many many

fascinating uh YouTube videos of um the

full range of aquaculture I mean I um it

it just uh excites me to think about

these totally open ocean farming systems

which is kind of the dream of the jacqu

custos of the 1960s you know that we'll

Farm the ocean we literally we farming the

the

ocean and um and indoor high-tech

uh fully uh controlled and automated

systems that maintain the optimum

environment so there is no seasonality

no downtime you know they're they're

kept in the perfect environment and fed

the proper diets and no disease and um

but but I would say if someone is

interested to explore the field and

ultimately you know you would have to

ask yourself what aspect am I interested in

is there a particular species is there a

particular environment you know ocean

freshwater esterine cold warm and is

there a particular discipline so for

example there's a whole discipline on

the health of the animal like veterinary science

science vaccines

vaccines

um um probiotics uh um then there's the

genetic selection in breeding which

is you know you might not think that

anybody's breeding fish or shrimp but my

goodness it's a it's the most uh

important way to improve the performance

of the animal because you can with

breeding you can get like 10%

Improvement every single generation so

it's like

compounding interest from putting money

in a bank and there's not much we can do

with feeds or with Disease Control that

can consistently give us a 10%

Improvement and it's not just

Improvement in growth rate it can be

Improvement in resilience of the animal

in tolerance of environments of um

resistance to

disease and then there's the nutrition

area this whole topic that we've been

focused on with rendering and nutrients and

and

seeds there's the the growout probably

the thing that most people would first

think of is I'd love to just grow this

this uh

crop and um and then well we shouldn't

forget about the processing and the

marketing you know there's um such an

opportunity to inform consumers about

where Seafood comes from uh tracing it

back to the family and the you know the

waters and the and the way it was

cultured all around the world it's um I

I really expected someday that when

we're sitting in a restaurant we could

scan a QR code to to see where that

particular species uh was farmed and who

did it and uh and where and maybe a

video or two so it's

um yeah there are lots of ways to

explore this and and maybe one last way

I would

say um if there's uh if a person does a

little reading watches a few videos they

have an interest then go to a conference

um in the almost every state has their

annual aquaculture conference and then

there's an aquaculture America event

that happens in the US every year and

then there are lots of um international

events like in our organization the

center for responsible Seafood hosts one

called the shrimp Summit and each year

and the next one will be in Bali

Indonesia and we always uh include tours

to commercial facilities and there's

nothing like going to a conference and

um meeting approaching the actual

practitioners and there will be people

there that are involved in the feed side

of it in the growout side in the uh

processing and there'll be major buyers

maybe someone from Walmart or someone

from uh uh Red Lobster might be at these

meetings and and that's where you find

out by exchanging ideas and talking to

them where your interest really lies and

uh yeah it can be a fascinating career I

think there's when I first joined I was worried

worried

that that maybe there wouldn't be

anything more any more new stuff to

learn maybe it was almost tapped out oh

my gosh it's gone the other way Marcus

you know instead of you know running out

of new things it just you know

exponentially increases the amount of

stuff we have to learn in all these

areas so

that's not a worry there's going to be

plenty that we still need to learn

that's great to hear well thank you so

much for being our guest today this has

been a fascinating discussion and I hope

it'll be a great episode um thanks

everyone for watching and thank you Anna

for moderating as usual my pleasure and

if if anyone uh would like to ask any

question I I hope you'll contact me at

george. Chamberlin responsible seafood.

org thank you so much Marcus and huge

thank you again to Dr Chamberlain for

joining us we can't tell you how much we

appreciate it and thank you everyone out

there for being here once again for this

episode of The Invisible industry we

hope you'll join us again if you'd like

to learn more in the meantime about Nara

or the rendering industry you can visit

us at

n.org stay curious everyone and to all

our rendering listeners out there stay

seen and stay great [Music]

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