Soy feed solution for tuna

In the past decade, much progress was made in developing hatchery technology to produce tuna from eggs for closed-cycle cultivation. Despite these efforts, most ‘farmed’ tuna today are actually ranched – caught as juveniles in the wild, and fattened up in A NEW soy feed formulation has ocean pens to market size. been hailed as a breakthrough in A major impediment to sustainable tuna aquaculture after it was pretuna aquaculture is the large quantity sented at the Offshore Mariculture Conference in Mexico. feed tuna during the grow-out period. Funded by the Illinois Soybean The research tested various soy Association, the research by Ichthus Unlimited tested various soy based diets tuna farming and ranching. tuna in land based facilities in Panama. ‘The successful research results Building on these experiences, a diet should help provide permanence was successfully tested on ranched to tuna aquaculture, and can become the platform upon which off the north-west coast of Mexico. commercially manufactured tuna feeds can now be developed,’ said sardines, with a measured feed Dr Alejandro Buentello of Ichthus, conversion ratio (FCR) of 28:1.The new formulated diet reduces the FCR ‘Closed cycle cultivation of tuna to 4:1, and decreases the amount of aquaculture, from hatch to harvest, combined with sustainable formu lated grow out diets offer the best better for the environment, as the opportunity we have to prevent the depletion of wild tuna stocks and uneaten feed can be retrieved. while supplying the global market It is nutritionally dense, requiring less demand for these species,’ said volume, and is projected to be almost Buentello.