Aquaculture Fish Farms

Aquaculture

Background

With increased demand for food and over harvesting of fisheries around the world, the demand for safe fish products will continue to expand. Currently, the United States imports 84% of its seafood, and about half of those imports are from aquaculture (pond or farm raised). The U.S. trade deficit in fish products exceeds $9 billion per year. With a decreasing supply of fish available from the ocean’s fisheries, there is a growing demand for safe and naturally-grown, farm-produced fish in the U.S. There is a great opportunity for anyone who can produce a reliable supply of fish products in domestic fisheries.

According to the Turner Tilapia Engineering Study and other aquaculture studies, the single largest cost in producing fish in indoor aquaculture operations is the cost of the fish ration. This cost usually accounts for over 50% of the total cost to produce farm-raised fish. The largest cost in fish rations is the cost of quality protein. Today, hundreds of millions of pounds of trash fish meal is imported and dumped into the U.S. annually from China, Malaysia, and India. This fish meal usually consists of ground up offal (guts and left-over remains of fish after filleting).

Aquaculture studies sponsored Illinois State University/USDA tilapia feeding trials confirmed that the amino acid balance in feed rations has the greatest influence on feed to weight gain ratios. These ratios actually determine the amount of feed required to effectively grow fish. With this ratio, the cost per pound of fish grown can be determined.

Competitive Advantages

To maximize the use of our feedstocks in our CBRs, CBR Collaborators sponsored feeding trials using left-over proteins not recovered during our food protein processes. By blending these left-over proteins, the amino acid balance becomes very high and effective with an approximate 2.8 Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER).

According to the Illinois State feeding trials, ration demands on tilapia grown with the CBR left over proteins were reduced by almost half. Since these were waste proteins, the cost of producing fish rations using these proteins was estimated to be as low as $0.10 per pound or less. Typical feed ration usually cost 3-4 times as much so this will substantially lower our cost to produce high-quality, organic, safe aquaculture species such as tilapia, catfish, shrimp, bass, and salmon.