Life Cycle Assessment of Icelandic Arctic Char Fed Three Different Feed Types

• Published in: Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Main Authors: Smárason, Birgir Örn, Ögmundarson, Ólafur, Arnason, Jon, Bjornsdottir, Rannveig, Davidsdottir, Brynhildur
• Other Authors: Hagfræðideild (HÍ), Faculty of Economics (UI), Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild (HÍ), Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences (UI), Félagsvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Health Sciences (UI), Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Central Fisheries Research Institute, Trabzon, Turkey 2017
• Subjects: Aquaculture; Arctic charr; Life cycle assessment; Fishmeal replacement; Insect feed; Fiskeldi; Bleikja; Fiskafóður; Arctic; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/623; https://doi.org/10.4194/1303-2712-v17_1_10

This study utilized Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of 1 kg of live-weight Arctic char, cultivated in an Icelandic land-based aquaculture farm. The functional unit included assessments of three different feed types; standard feed with high inclusion levels of marine ingredients (Conv.), experimental feed with high inclusion levels of agricultural ingredients (ECO) and a hypothetical Black soldier fly larvae based feed (BSF). Results of the study indicated that the feed production causes the greatest environmental impacts from all feed types considered. The Black soldier fly based feed demonstrated the best environmental performance of the three feed types. Furthermore, it can be concluded that by increasing agriculture based ingredients at the cost of marine based ingredients, a better environmental performance can be reached. This study demonstrated the importance of feed production for aquaculture in terms of environmental impacts and showed that byoptimizing feed consumption, reducing the amount of fishmeal and fish oil and even creating new types of feed from novel ingredients, the overall impacts of aquaculture can be greatly reduced. The study was conducted as a part of MSc studies in Environmental and Natural Resources at the University of Iceland, in collaboration with Matis ltd., Icelandic food and biotech R&D, which also funded the project. The authors are grateful for the financial and expert support provided by both entities. The authors would also like to thank the owner of the aquaculture company involved in the study, for clear and concise data provision, and also other companies that provided data for this study. Peer Reviewed