Signi®cant efforts should be devoted to reducing waste outputs from aquaculture operations in order to lower the environmental impacts of aquaculture in many parts of the world. Since most aquaculture wastes are ultimately from dietary origin, reduction of waste outputs should ®rst be through improvements of diet formulation and feeding strategies. The ®rst step in the production of feeds producing less solid waste is to eliminate poorly digestible ingredients (such as whole grain or grain byproducts used as binders and ®llers in the feed formulae) and to use highly digestible ingredients with good binding properties. Further reduction of solid waste can then be achieved through careful selection of the ingredients to improve apparent digestibility and the nutrient balance of the feed. Nitrogen waste outputs can be reduced through the reduction of the digestible protein to digestible energy (DP/DE) ratio of the diet. Phosphorus waste outputs can be reduced through careful selection of the ingredients and optimization of the digestible phosphorus content of the diet to meet the requirement of the ®sh but avoid greatly exceeding this required level. Finally, feeding practices that minimize feed wastage should be adopted since feed wastage can have a very signi®cant impact on waste outputs from ®sh culture operations.
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