Not All Salmon Are Created Equal: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Global Salmon Farming Systems

Pelletier, Nathan; Tyedmers, Peter; Sonesson, Ulf; Scholz, Astrid; Ziegler, Friederike; Flysjö, Anna; Kruse, Sarah A.; Cancino, Beatriz; Silverman, Howard

doi:10.1021/es9010114

Cited by 248 publications

(236 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In some cases, extant systems may be preferable. Well-managed fisheries and aquaculture might similarly stand to displace a share of terrestrial animal protein production, also with careful attention to tradeoffs (37). Across the board reductions in per capita consumption of livestock products should similarly be a policy priority.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000–2050

Pelletier

Tyedmers

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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306

189

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Food systems—in particular, livestock production—are key drivers of environmental change. Here, we compare the contributions of the global livestock sector in 2000 with estimated contributions of this sector in 2050 to three important environmental concerns: climate change, reactive nitrogen mobilization, and appropriation of plant biomass at planetary scales. Because environmental sustainability ultimately requires that human activities as a whole respect critical thresholds in each of these domains, we quantify the extent to which current and future livestock production contributes to published estimates of sustainability thresholds at projected production levels and under several alternative endpoint scenarios intended to illustrate the potential range of impacts associated with dietary choice. We suggest that, by 2050, the livestock sector alone may either occupy the majority of, or significantly overshoot, recently published estimates of humanity’s “safe operating space” in each of these domains. In light of the magnitude of estimated impacts relative to these proposed (albeit uncertain) sustainability boundary conditions, we suggest that reining in growth of this sector should be prioritized in environmental governance.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000–2050

Pelletier

Tyedmers

2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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306

189

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“…Such temporal data are lacking for Scotland, but similar reduc tions are likely to have occurred. However, the seawater FCR in Scotland (1.3) has been suggested to be higher than in Norway (Pelletier et al, 2009). …”

Section: Reducing Wastementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Recent (snapshot) Life Cycle Assess ments indicate that the global environmental pressures of farmed salmon products -via resource use (energy) and emissions (green house gases, nitrogen phosphorous) -are similar to those from fishery production, and lower than terrestrial meat farming (Ellingsen and Aanondsen, 2006;Pelletier and Tyedmers, 2007;Hall et al, 2011;Ytrestøyl et al, 2011). Nevertheless, salmon pro duction in Scotland is judged to have higher impacts than in other countries due to differences in feed ingredients (Pelletier et al, 2009). …”

Section: Reducing Resource Inputs and Environmental Pressuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends during development of Scottish salmon farming: An example of sustainable intensification?

et al. 2016

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Commercial farming of Atlantic salmon in Scotland started in 1969 and has since expanded to produce N 179,000 t year −1 . A government department has published annual statistics and information on the seawater and freshwater sub-sectors of the Scottish salmon farming industry since 1979, and this review collates and dis cusses metrics covering aspects of production, farm sites and systems, fish performance, socio-economics and en vironmental pressures. Trends illustrated in this case study of aquaculture development include: initial increases in numbers of farms and companies, followed by decreases due to industry consolidation; increases in average farm size, and productivity of systems and employees; increases in survival, size at age and productivity of fish (yield per smolt, ova per broodstock); reduced dependence on wild stocks for ova. This case study also illustrates the importance of disease management, control of biological processes to overcome natural seasonality (i.e. pro duction of out-of-season smolt), and the international nature of aquaculture. Improvements in fish survival, growth and productivity are attributed to progress in vaccination and health management (including fallowing), husbandry, system design, feed formulation and provision, and introduction of technology and mechanisation. Salmon farming is discussed in relation to the challenging strategy of "sustainable intensification". Improved growth and survival over a period of increasing rearing unit size, farm size and output and decreasing relative staff input counters the common assumption that intensification compromises animal welfare. The value of cap turing time series data on industry wide metrics is illustrated as it enables identification of trends, underperformance and bench-marking, as well as assessment of resource use efficiency, environmental pres sures, and ultimately sustainability. Statement of relevance: This review is an original collation of a comprehensive set of time series of official statistics on an entire, discrete and regionally important sector of commercial aquaculture.Crown

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“…Much of the contribution comes from the use of vegetable based ingredients within the diet, especially proteins, despite there being around 48% fish ingredients. This is because some of the plant proteins, such as types of gluten, are extremely energy intensive in their processing (Pelletier et al 2009). The individual ingredients cannot be discussed because of confidentiality.…”

Section: Lcia Of Scottish Salmon Grow-out Feedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pelletier et al (2009) also showed that some vegetable ingredients were energy intensive and Papatryphon et al (2004) showed that salmonid feeds containing large quantities of vegetable ingredients had higher impacts than those with high levels of fish ingredients. However, it should be noted that these studies used different methodology in some cases and would have had different inputs to the data presented here.…”

Section: Lcia Of Scottish Salmon Grow-out Feedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives on the Utilization of Aquaculture Coproduct in Europe and Asia: Prospects for Value Addition and Improved Resource Efficiency

Newton

Telfer

Little

2013

Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

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Faculty of Natural SciencesInstitute of Aquaculture Doctor of PhilosophyBy-products and mortalities from aquaculture have often posed significant challenges to the industry because of their low value resulting in high costs and environmental impact from their disposal. However increasing interest is being expressed in their utilisation to add value to the aquaculture industry and provide synergies with industries which had previously been in competition with aquaculture.Current and prospective processing by-product and farm mortality utilisation strategies were reviewed along with regulations and standards which aim to control their use and protect against human and animal health hazards.The role of aquaculture and fishery by-products in the supply of fishmeal was investigated and it was found that both sectors had the potential to contribute to increasing global supply. There were significant quantities of processing by-products identified which could be directed to fishmeal manufacture but there were also significant amounts of fish production which were not being processed in some regions and could also add to supplies. Processing by-products from aquaculture species often exceed 50% of the production by mass and therefore their efficient utilisation is of significant importance to the overall performance of the value chain. Their utilisation ii strategies are diverse and in some circumstances offer the possibility to add significant value.Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly being used to inform decision makers and consumers about the environmental performance of goods and services to make choices on best practices and informative decisions on purchasing choices. Current methodology in LCA was critiqued and developed to be used for identifying disproportionate impacts from by-product industries and comparative assessment of the eco-efficiency of value chains from Thai shrimp, Vietnamese Pangasius catfish and Scottish salmon aquaculture.New LCA methodology was developed assessing the eco-efficiency of co-products as a whole and in relation to a tonne of edible yield. Measuring the impact of the by-product industry in relation to their edible yield gave different results to measuring their ecoefficiency between the three study species. It was found that the Thai shrimp value chain was the most eco-efficient when by-products were directed to chitosan and hydrolysate manufacture, but production of the salmon was the least impacting between the species in terms of edible yield. Pangasius was the most environmentally impacting of the three species value chains using both methods. It was also found that the upstream impacts of fish and shrimp production, especially feed manufacture, contributed most to the environmental impact in most circumstances, using both economic and mass allocation.Although the methodology produced interesting results, there were some drawbacks and the data sets also had several gaps which led to some assumptions, which could have skewed the results and interpretation.The cau...

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Not All Salmon Are Created Equal: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Global Salmon Farming Systems

Cited by 248 publications

References 26 publications

Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000–2050

Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000–2050

Trends during development of Scottish salmon farming: An example of sustainable intensification?

Perspectives on the Utilization of Aquaculture Coproduct in Europe and Asia: Prospects for Value Addition and Improved Resource Efficiency

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