Impact Factor: 1.5
5-Year Impact Factor: 1.4
CiteScore: 3.1
UN SDG
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Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 2015, Vol 15, Num, 3     (Pages: 569-574)
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Impact of Climate Change on Aquaculture: The Need for Alternative Feed Components

George M. Hall 1

1 Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Development, Kirkham Building, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v15_2_45 Viewed : 4140 - Downloaded : 5400 The impact of Climate Change on all fisheries activities, both capture and aquacultureis expected to be extreme, including: higher water temperatures, increased water acidity and migration of species from established to new waters. For aquaculture there is the added problem of providing feeds under these new conditions. The supply of fishmeal and fish oils is already considered a barrier to the growth of aquaculture at a time when an expanding world population needs feeding and capture fisheries are at their maximum and may decline in the future. The current use of plant-based aquaculture feeds (PBAF) to replace fishmeal relieson a few major crops such as soya, maize and wheat which could be used for direct human consumption and all will be affected adversely by Climate Change.

There is a need to investigate alternative crops to those used now and this will include those which are currently classed as, “underutilised”. Such crops already have beneficial characteristics such as drought and temperature resistance, the ability to grow and yield on poor soils and good nutritional properties. For aquaculture feeds they need investigation for processability, the presence of antinutritional components, storage stability and application to the correct fish species in aquaculture.

This paper will discuss these aspects with examples of possible underutilised crops for aquaculture feeds and the need for experimental work on the impact of Climate Change on aquaculture practices. Keywords : Climate Change, aquaculture, plant-based feeds, underutilised crops