Ragworms show promise as substitute for fishmeal

As the pressure on fish stocks continues, companies worldwide are looking for more alternative fish feed ingredients, and ragworms as one of them shows promise for substitution.

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food producing industry in the world, but fishmeal and fish oil supplies are growing tight as fish population in the ocean gets too pressurised. As a result, alternative feed is one of the top issues facing the aquaculture industry.

Initially used only for the angling industry, ragworms slowly find their way into the aqua feed industry. Wild worms from the US were already used as shrimp feed and resulted in good egg production of the shrimps, said Toon Bastiaanse, farm manager of Dutch firm Topsy Baits.

The company produces ragworms in a facility in Wales, and an increasing part of the worms are being processed to fish feed.

Bastiaanse said fishmeal can now be fully replaced by adding the ragworms, and the company is experimenting by mixing the ragworms with different ingredients to find a good alternative to fish oil.

Currently four trout farms in Wales and a salmon farm are using the fishmeal-free feed from Wales.