The Energetic Implications of Fisheries Processing Waste and Potential Fishmeal/Fishoil By-Products

• Main Author: Ichien, Stephanie
• Other Authors: Harte, Michael, Egna, Hillary, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: Oregon State University
• Subjects: alaska pollock; Alaska
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/td96k687f

The seafood industry in Alaska produces about 4.4 billion pounds of fish every year and approximately 2.2 billion pounds of fish waste. Product recovery rates in the seafood industry have increased in the last decade, but still a large portion of all harvested fish is unused and often discharged into coastal and oceanic waters. With a move toward ecosystem-based fisheries management and the minimization of environmental impacts, several agencies and organizations are working to better utilize by-product development to enhance efficiency in the industry. However, research suggests that the discharge of fish waste may have some beneficial ecological impacts by providing a readily available source of protein to scavenging predators, such as seabirds. This project investigates the production of fishmeal/fishoil by-product from fish waste and the energetic implications involved with the allocation of energy between marine ecosystem and the economic system. We apply a series of analysis tools to assess these tradeoffs using energy as a means to frame the positive and negative impacts of seafood waste in a case study of the Alaska Pollock Fishery.