Our very own Dr. Pallab Sarker (Science Advisor, Verdant Seas) has received worldwide attention for his recent publication, “Microalgae-blend tilapia feed eliminates fishmeal and fish oil, improves growth, and is cost viable” in Scientific Reports. Various online news outlets picked up the news about our fish-free diet story including Anthropocene, a great online resource for science and sustainability-focused news.
In “Can industrial aquaculture grow vegetarian fish?” Dr. Sarker shares that “[t]he potential environmental impacts are enormous, as we fully eliminated wild-caught forage fish from aquaculture feed.” He goes on to explain that fish-free diets are an important milestone for the aquaculture industry, even for lower trophic species.
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Next up for the team are experiments to develop a fish-free feed for trout. Verdant Seas' Science Advisor, Dr. Anne Kapuscinski, and Technical Lead, Devin Fitzgerald, are co-authors on this publication.
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Sarker et. al. 2020. “Towards sustainable aquaculture: microalgae-blend tilapia feed eliminates fishmeal and fish oil, improves growth, and is cost viable.” Nature Scientific Reports, 10:19328.