Good use of fish waste could earn the processors three to four times more money by selling them. Gurry Investments, a Boston-based investment firm established in 2000, is using its technology to produce organic fertilizer using waste from farmed fish. The company uses a hydrolysis process. The skin and bones are removed from filleted fish, leaving the protein. The offal is ground into a slurry form, processed and separated in a three-stage centuefuge. As a result high quality fish oil is produced.
According to Carl Reetz, president of Gurry Investments, using fish waste for organic fertilizer instead of fishmeal or fish oil can benefit both processors and the seafood industry as a whole.
Reetz also said that the profits of organic fertilizer are three to four times more than from fishmeal. Gurry Investments is currently using farmed catfish and salmon but is exploring the use of other species, including tilapia. Using fish waste to produce fertilizer opens new markets and it can be worth for fish harvesters.
