In collaboration with River Road Research, a black soldier fly producer in Buffalo, NY, and Hudson Valley Fisheries, NY’s largest fish farm, we are looking into ways to optimize larvae meal quality through modified harvesting and processing methods. human food waste, industrial side streams from food/beverage production) into neat packages of protein and lipids.

They can convert almost any perishable organic material (e.g. Insect meal – Insect larvae have high potential as a sustainable feed ingredient. Carp meal will also be incorporated into aquafeeds. Our industry and research team is looking into the feasibility of a commercial carp fishery to simultaneously curb the carp invasion while reducing pressure on wild baitfish for lobster traps. Meanwhile, invasive carp are wreaking havoc on interior watersheds. herring), such that local wild baitfish fisheries are overtaxed and bait is now being imported at great expense from overseas. Invasive carp (E&E Marketing and Management, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) – The lucrative NE lobster fishery has enormous demand for bait (e.g. We aim for fisheries byproducts from processing facilities (point A) to be directly converted into feed for use at farms (point B), reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing and transportation to mills, and potentially salvaging millions of tons of otherwise wasted fish protein for use in aquafeeds in place of fishmeal. This process does not require special equipment or refrigeration. Seafood processing carcasses and trimmings (Atkinson Center, USDA) – We have developed a novel chemical process for solidifying liquefied fish hydrolysate (aka silage, made from fish carcasses) into pellets. Some of the experimental feedstuffs under investigation include: Eng.) on research to use wastewater as plant fertilizer in aquaponics (Northern Regional Aquaculture Center). Neil Mattson (Plant Science) and Michael Timmons (Bio & Env. Post Labs) for assessing the feeds on fish growth and health. Morrison Hall) used for formulation and testing physical properties, and 2) a growth performance lab with two recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS, K. To tackle these objectives, I run 1) a feed development lab (the “kitchen,” F. Taken together, we hope to demonstrate the potential of efficient circular (or really networked) economies clean inputs, clean outputs. We also use our wastewater to fertilize plants, simultaneously growing vegetable cash crops while cleaning fish wastewater. In doing so, we can gain inexpensive, sustainable protein sources to support fish farming, reduce the environmental impact of using wild fish as feed, and add value to other industry outputs. With the philosophy that “there’s no such thing as waste if you use it it becomes a resource,” we look for protein-rich animal processing byproducts and industry side streams – which often are burdensome to dispose of – and repurpose them as fish feed. Our lab’s mission is therefore to identify and test sustainable protein sources as potential aquafeed ingredients. Sourcing dietary protein is arguably the biggest challenge to the industry, and protein commodities like fishmeal have grown prohibitively expensive and are highly controversial for their negative impact on the ocean – after all, we don’t want to destroy the marine ecosystem as we transition to farming in it. Even though fish are exceptionally efficient growers, this requires a lot of feed globally. Humans essentially maxed out marine wild fisheries three decades ago, and so aquaculture now produces over half of the world’s seafood, and will supply all future increases as our population grows. My research mainly focuses on developing sustainable aquaculture feeds.

Any lab test now eugene