SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — This month, two faculty members from UC Santa Cruz’s Environmental Studies Department won a $496,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support innovations in sustainable aquaculture. The funding will help principal investigator Pallab Sarker, an associate research professor and sustainable aquaculture and fish nutrition expert, and co-principal investigator professor Anne Kapuscinski, a sustainability science and policy expert, in their efforts to develop a more ocean-friendly feed formula for farm-raised rainbow trout.
They hope to use proteins and oils derived from a combination of marine microalgae to replace traditional fishmeal and fish oil ingredients sourced from wild-caught forage fish like anchovies, sardines, and herring. Currently, the aquaculture industry’s demand for forage fish, in the form of fishmeal and fish oil, diverts these fish away from providing natural food resources for wild animals within ocean food webs. That’s why the research team is looking for ways to “uncouple” aquaculture feeds from ocean food webs by developing new feed formulations that don’t rely on ingredients from wild fish…
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