This project offers an example of utilizing fisheries by-products by supporting an aquaculture

company to produce its own fishmeal from local fish waste. The aquaculture company, Salinas del Astur, which breeds and commercializes sea bass and guilthead, saw a business opportunity in the discards and fish waste produced by the local fish auction. Until then, this fish waste produced no added value but was merely sent for incineration by the Town Hall. At the same time, the purchase of fishmeal implied an annual cost of €40 000 for the company. With support from Axis 4, the company was able to invest in machinery that would allow it to produce its own, high quality fishmeal from this local fish waste. With the new machinery and by combining fish waste with bread crumbs (also produced by the company from bread waste collected locally), the project has turned waste into a valuable resource while having positive side effects for the environment. Salinas del Astur now produces 50% of the fishmeal consumed by its aquaculture activities. Moreover, they are currently working to find new ways of improving the quality of the fishmeal by reducing its water content (currently at 80%). At a later stage, the company foresees scaling up the production of fishmeal by also collecting discards from a neighboring fish auction (Isla Cristina) as well as other types of fish and seafood waste from the local canning industry.