Life Cycle Impact of Industrial Aquaculture Systems

This chapter deals with the life cycle impact of industrial aquaculture systems. The capture fishery production has overexploited the wild-fish stocks, and the global demand for aquatic products is still increasing. Industrial aquaculture systems, such as marine net-pen, have a life cycle impact, most of which is due to the energy needed to produce feed and to the marine biotic resource overexploitation. In this regard, it should be worth estimating the impacts using a life cycle assessment. This method, which is often referred to as “cradle to grave” analysis, was already used to evaluate many aquaculture systems. Several studies reported that improving feeding practices may mitigate the environmental footprint of animal production. In this context, improving the precision in nutrition and feeding is a highly promising avenue for increasing the resource-use efficiency (e.g., nutrients) compared to conventional feeding programs.