Fish oil is primarily extracted from small marine pelagic fishes, reducing their availability for marine wildlife forage and artisanal fishing catches that support food security in lower income coastal nations. A primary use of fish oil is in feeds for aquaculture, the world’s fastest growing food sector. Efforts to transition fed aquaculture to sustainability includes replacing fish oil in aquafeeds with more environmentally responsible alternative ingredients. The heterotrophic marine microalga Schizochytrium sp., one of the first commercialized alternatives, lacks an open-access, systematic analysis of environmental impacts of substituting fish oil with heterotrophic microalgae from biorefineries. This study compared the “cradle to factory-gate” life cycle impacts of fish oil to whole-cell or extracted oil of Schizochytrium combined with canola oil. We conducted an attributional life cycle assessment using inventory data collected from published literature and patents and received feedback on commercial relevance of model assumptions from industry advisors. We examined sugar from a Brazilian sugarcane biorefinery and sucrose from U.S. sugar beets as feedstocks for heterotrophic cultivation of Schizochytrium; and compared life cycle impacts of extracting Schizochytrium oil using solvent-free microwave extraction to conventional solvent extraction. Results were that: cultivation processes had the largest overall effect for both products in both regions; whole-cell Schizochytrium combined with canola oil had significantly lower environmental impacts, in all assessed categories, than Schizochytrium oil blended with canola oil; and conventional solvent extraction had significantly lower environmental impacts compared to solvent-free microwave extraction except global warming potential. Schizochytrium products, compared to fish oil, had substantially lower biotic resource depletion and, in the case of whole cells combined with canola oil, had significantly lower global warming potential but higher impacts for all other categories, primarily because commercial Schizochytrium production used sugar feedstocks as carbon and energy sources. The mix of lower and higher environmental impacts of Schizochytrium products illustrates the importance of openly identifying environmental trade-offs to inform evidence-based decisions for commercial practices. Environmental impacts should also be weighed against potential human health benefits of maintaining omega-3 fatty acids and avoiding contaminants in fish flesh when considering alternatives to fish oil.

The rapid increase in aquaculture over the last several decades has led to concerns about the environmental impact of fish feeds relying on marine resources for fishmeal (FM). We aim to assess Nannochloropsis sp. QH25 co-product as a viable and sustainable replacement for FM in juvenile rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, feeds. We formulated four experimental diets: a reference (FM based), 33N, 66N, and 100N diet (33%, 66%, and 100% co-product replacement). Rainbow trout were randomly assigned to one of 16 tanks and randomly assigned an experimental diet to consume throughout the experiment (64 days total), with four replicate tanks per diet. We compared the phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) digestibility, emissions, and growth between diets and, compared six environmental impacts (biotic resource use (BRU), global warming potential (GWP), water use, land use, marine eutrophication potential (MEP), and freshwater eutrophication potential (FEP)) of each diet. Our results indicate that replacing FM with co-product did not significantly alter growth. P digestibility of the experimental and reference diets was comparable. BRU conversion ratio was significantly lower in the experimental diets. However, there were significantly higher water and land use conversion ratios but insignificantly higher results in GWP, MEP, and FEP between the reference and 100N diet.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food sectors, producing almost 50% of fish for human consumption worldwide. However, relying on fish meal and oil for aquaculture diets is not sustainable economically or environmentally. Aquaculture feeds also contain terrestrial plant ingredients with indigestible forms of phosphorus (P), of which 70%–80% can be released into aquatic environments. This P influx contributes to eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems that can lead to anoxic conditions. This study explores a more sustainable diet for salmonids, an important and valuable seafood. Our aim was to test ingredients with highly digestible forms of P in nutritionally balanced portions to support fish growth and reduce P loading. We determined the digestibility of three feeds containing raw, extruded, and enzymatically processed microalgal co-product of Nannochloropsis oculata compared to a conventional diet. We also quantified how much P was retained and excreted. We detected highest growth in trout fed enzymatically processed co-product feed, though it was not statistically different (p = 0.846) from growth of fish fed the reference or other co-product diets. The enzyme-treated, microalgal co-product ingredient and diet had comparable values for P digestibility and solid P excretion to the reference diet, but the lowest average solid P excretion of all test diets. Trout fed the enzyme-treated diet had the highest P retention, while the reference diet had the lowest (p = 0.0429). Trout fed the enzyme-treated diet had the lowest (p = 0.0174) and negative dissolved P excretion, while those fed the reference diet had the highest. Results showed that enzyme-treated N. oculata co-product maintains digestibility, increases P retention, and reduces dissolved P excretion compared to the reference diet in rainbow trout. These findings encourage follow-up research to design and test growth performance of diets containing enzyme-treated microalgal co-product as sustainable trout aquafeed.