Reduction fisheries (industries which catch small pelagics and convert them to fish meal + fish oil (FMFOs), which is primarily used to feed aquaculture stocks) comprise 12 of the top 20 global fisheries and, on average, annually catch 23.4 million tonnes of forage fish (which is ~26% of our global capture fisheries btw). A little over half of FMFOs used in aquaculture come from these reduction fisheries, and the other half comes from "biomass fisheries" by-catch caught with non-selective fishing gear (e.g. bottom trawls). As aquaculture has expanded and FMFO demand has increased, other feed options have been explored. The reduction industry (IFFO, in particular) has tried to justify the continued use of forage fish as feed, despite the lack of evidence supporting this.
As a marine biologist, this little game reminded me of some of the exploitations facing the fishing industry n i thought i'd share some stuff ab it (: feeding fish to fish really felt not far off yk haha
great job devs, luv ya!!