Increasing demand and environmental disasters are pushing the price of a key ingredient in aquaculture diets higher.

As demand for aquaculture products worldwide has increased and Asian - particularly Chinese - farmers have increased production to meet that growing demand, the demand for fishmeal has also increased. By January, prices had topped US$1,000 per tonne, up from US$800 and US$900 in June 2009.

After Chile experienced a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in late February, 20%-30% of the country's fishmeal production capability was destroyed. US fishmeal prices jumped to just under $1,200 to $1,500 a tonne by mid-March.

And then a deep water oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and crude oil began spewing into the one of the world's most productive Menhaden fisheries. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 10%-15% of the world's fishmeal production.

While the largest Menhaden processor in the Gulf of Mexico claims it is within its five-year averages for catch and the fishery remains open, buyers panicked and sent fishmeal prices soaring.

Ron Hardy, director of the University of Idaho Fish Culture Experiment Station at Hagerman, said fear that tight supply of fishmeal is pushing prices higher. He attributes half the price increase to the earthquake in Chile and the oil spill in the Gulf, and the rest to increased demand from China.

"All of these factors affecting feed prices are out of producers' control," said Rick Barrows, a nutritionist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. He has led efforts to find alternative protein sources for fish diets for many years.