Aquaculture Feed Welfare: Fishmeal, Insects and Plant Proteins

The composition of aquaculture feed has significant welfare implications both for farmed fish and for the billions of wild fish and invertebrates caught or farmed to produce feed ingredients.

Key Facts

Salmon aquaculture traditionally relied heavily on fishmeal from wild-caught forage fish
Each tonne of salmon produced traditionally required 2-5 tonnes of wild fish for feed
Fishmeal proportion in salmon feed has fallen from 65% to under 15% in leading Norwegian operations
Plant protein replacements including soy raise concerns about nutritional adequacy and sustainability
Insect protein from black soldier fly provides an efficient, lower-welfare-cost fishmeal alternative
Novel protein sources including single-cell proteins and algae are increasingly commercially viable

Welfare Considerations

Aquaculture feed choices create a welfare dilemma: producing fish for human consumption requires feeding those fish, and conventional feed ingredients involve welfare costs for the organisms producing them. Wild-caught forage fish used for fishmeal face their own welfare considerations. The transition away from wild-caught fishmeal toward alternative protein sources — insects, plants, single-cell proteins — generally reduces total welfare costs in the feed supply chain, making feed composition a meaningful welfare lever beyond farm management alone.

What You Can Do

Choose aquaculture products from farms using low-fishmeal feeds with certified sustainable ingredients
Support innovation in alternative protein sources that reduce wild fish use in aquaculture feed
Advocate for feed composition transparency requirements in aquaculture labelling
Encourage aquaculture producers to publish their feed ingredient sourcing and composition data
Support research into nutritionally complete plant and insect-based feed formulations for farmed fish