Exploring Seaweed as Sustainable Green Aquafeed: Opportunities and Challenges

Discovering a way to substitute conventional aquaculture feed with sustainable alternatives that lack fish-based products to replace traditional aquaculture feed with more sustainable products that don’t include fish-based ingredients has become an urgent need in order to accommodate the aquaculture industry’s expansion and support this essential source of protein. Seaweeds are a source of protein, omega-3, minerals, and many bioactive compounds which make them a effective replacement for fishmeal and fish oil in aquafeed industry. The performance and health of animals have been enhanced by the use of seaweeds in their diet due to its immune-stimulatory properties. Furthermore, they can improve disease resistance by guaranteeing a balanced consumption of micronutrients. Seaweeds have the potential to absorb between 61 and 268 mega tons of carbon annually, on average, thus making environmentally sustainable. This chapter reviewed potential of the seaweed as aquafeed ingredient, biochemical composition of seaweeds, bioactive compounds, environmental perspective, opportunities, and challenges focusing on the applicability of seaweed as feed ingredient for aquaculture species. The active role of seaweed secondary metabolites and bioactive compounds as feed additive has been determined for several aquatic species. By lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and sequestering carbon, seaweed assists in reducing the effects of global warming. Furthermore, the inclusion of seaweeds in aquafeeds aligns with the growing demand for sustainable and environment-friendly practices in aquaculture. Considering the limitations of seaweed use as feed ingredient, dependence on wild resources of seaweeds however is challenging the sustainability. Therefore, strategies to minimize antinutritional factors increase the palatability and mass scale cultivation of seaweeds needed to be developed for better utilization of seaweeds as aquafeed ingredient.