Innovative feeds based on emerging ingredients and by products from GAIN innovative circular processes were designed and tested Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, seabream, seabass and turbot. Growth performances and feed conversions turned out to be very good for rainbow trout and good for salmon, seabream and turbot. GAIN results show that feed formulations including ingredients from aquaculture and fishery by-product as well as other emerging ingredients adhering to circular economy principles, will be fully viable options for eco-efficient European fish farming.
The GAIN Information Management System, a platform for the implementation of Precision Aquaculture was prototyped. The system includes: i) a centralized hub for data collection, standardization, quality control and short term predictions of environmental variables relevant for aquafarmers, ii) a set of distributed nodes , i.e AquaSense and AQUARADAR, delivering to fish and shellfish farmer forecast of fish growth, feed requirements, dissolved oxygen demand.
Innovative processes to recover nutrients from RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture Systems) wastewater and sludges and from fish mortalities were optimized, up to TRL 7-8.
Concerning the enhancement of circularity in aquaculture, the production of Fish Protein Hydrolysates (FPH) and the extraction of peptones, gelatine, collagen and bioapatite fom Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, seabass, seabream, turbot, were optimized, at TRL 5-6. The use of mussel shells as sustainable filler media for RAS/Aquaponics biofilters was successfully tested, at TRL 4. The possibility of establishing nutrient trading schemes for bivalve culture areas in Europe was investigated.
Regulatory and legislative issues for the circular economy in aquaculture were reviewed, showing that the lack of legislation is still one of the main barriers towards the implementation of integrated production processes targeting 0 waste, such as those being tested in GAIN.
Value Chain Analysis (VCA) wer performed: the results concerning salmon supply in Norway indicates major sustainability concerns around sea lice, sustainability of feed ingredients and, need for renewable energies. The VCA concerning the common carp sector in Poland show a high potential for increasing the output of the processing sector and reusing by-products .
The EISI - Eco-Intensification Sustainability Index, was developed and tested Atlantic salmon supply chain. The EISI was presented as a traffic light system that showed a range of performance within the four sustainability categories (environment, social responsibility, economic performance and animal welfare). The economic performance showed overall good performance with no poor performers at all, but the other three categories showed that while most of the industry performed very well there were some areas for improvement, including gender ratios, mortality, welfare checks and benthic impact in some farms.
