Beyond the Fillet: Why Total Resource Utilisation is the Future of Seafood
Australia generates a staggering 76 million tonnes of waste each year—roughly 2.9 tonnes for every person. A recent feature on ABC’s Landline spotlighted innovators transforming agricultural "waste" into prebiotic powders, precision-fermented building materials, and biochar soil enhancers.
Notably, this innovation journey began in aquatic foods: researcher and Upwaste founder Linh Lu launched her career over a decade ago by mapping byproducts in Australia’s abalone industry.
Her core message carries profound implications for the seafood sector: it costs the exact same to harvest or farm an aquatic resource whether you use 40% of it or 100% of it.
The Seafood Industry's Sunk Cost Dilemma
In modern retail and foodservice, the market focuses almost exclusively on center-cut fillets.
- The Waste Multiplier: Conventional fish processing discards up to 50–60% of the animal (heads, frames, skin, viscera, and shells).
- The Cost-of-Living Link: When commercial fishers and aquaculture farmers are forced to treat half their harvest as a disposal liability, the full sunk cost of harvesting, fuel, labour, and compliance must be loaded onto the price of the fillet.
- The Solution: Adopting Total Resource Utilisation turns disposal costs into valuable co-products, relieving financial pressure across the supply chain.
Premium Products Hiding in Plain Sight
Just as fruit byproducts are being converted into high-value nutraceutical ingredients, seafood processing side-streams represent a goldmine of aquatic nutrition and bio-materials:
- Marine Collagen & Peptides: Fish skins and scales produce some of the highest-grade cosmetic and joint-health collagen globally.
- Calcium & Soil Conditioners: Crushed crustacean and mollusc shells (such as abalone and oyster) provide rich organic calcium for soil remineralisation, bio-fertilisers, and animal nutrition.
- Oils & Functional Proteins: Enzymatic hydrolysis converts fish frames into premium omega-3 oils, savoury culinary stocks, and bio-active protein hydrolysates.
The Freshwater Opportunity: Ditch the Carp Virus for FAFCoE
Nowhere is the principle of Total Resource Utilisation more urgent than in Australia's freshwater river basins.
For years, tens of millions of public dollars have been poured into exploring the release of a biological virus (cyprinid herpesvirus-3) under the National Carp Control Plan. Yet, releasing a biocontrol virus presents major environmental risks to regional water quality, provides only temporary population knockdowns, and inevitably fosters virus-resistant survivors.
Instead of spending millions treating European carp solely as a waste problem to poison, Australia should treat this massive biomass as an unharnessed food and bioresource.
The SCA advocates establishing a Freshwater Aquatic Food Centre of Excellence (FAFCoE):
- Targeting 100% Utilisation: Developing advanced commercial harvesting and processing infrastructure to turn invasive carp into high-grade human protein, functional pet nutrition, and organic bio-fertilisers.
- Expanding Freshwater Systems: Using FAFCoE as an innovation hub to pioneer commercial cultivation and processing of freshwater aquatic plants, native finfish, and circular bioproducts.
- Integrating Circular Food Waste: Connecting regional agricultural food-waste streams with freshwater aquaculture feeds and nutrient recycling.
Regional Jobs & Domestic Food Security
As highlighted on Landline, establishing manufacturing and value-adding hubs directly in regional communities creates vital local jobs and retains economic value onshore.
For Australia’s 26 million seafood consumers, embracing circular aquatic food systems—from coastal fisheries and circular aquaculture to freshwater carp harvesting—is essential. By moving beyond the fillet and utilising 100% of our aquatic resources, Australia can lower food waste, strengthen regional economies, and deliver affordable, nutrient-dense aquatic foods for the nation.
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