New Strategy to Cope with Common Fishery Policy Landing Obligation: Collagen Extraction from Skins and Bones of Undersized Hake (Merluccius merluccius).

María Blanco,Ricardo I Pérez-Martín,Carmen G Sotelo

doi:10.3390/polym11091485

María Blanco, Ricardo I Pérez-Martín + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11091485

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Journal: Polymers	Publication Date: Sep 11, 2019
Citations: 11	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Instituto de Investigacións Mariñas

Abstract

In order to promote sustainable fishing practices within European fishing fleets and to avoid the large waste of valuable fish biomass through the practice of fish discarding, the new reform of the common fisheries policy includes the obligation of landing all species under total allowable catch (TAC) regulations. The new policy also prohibits the use of specimens under minimum conservation reference size for direct human consumption. In this context, it is necessary to find new uses for undersized fish, which might help to alleviate the costs associated with the landing obligation but without prompting the creation of a market. European hake (EH) (Merluccius merluccius), which is one of the most important commercial fish species for the Spanish fishing industry, with a total TAC for 2018 of 37,423 t, is used for this study. Consistent with the current policy framework and taking into account the commercial importance of this species, the aim of this work is to study a new strategy for the extraction of collagen from the skin and bone fraction of Merluccius merluccius undersized discards. Three collagen fractions are successfully isolated for the first time from the skin of M. merluccius skin and bone discarded raw material: acid-soluble collagen (ASC) fraction 1 and pepsin-soluble collagen (PSC) fraction 2 from the skin and ASC fraction 3 from bones. The total collagen yield of the process is 13.55 ± 3.18% in a dry basis (g collagen/100 g of skin and bone fraction (SBF)) and 47.80 ± 9.83% (g collagen/100 g of collagen determined by the hydroxyproline content in SBF). The three fractions are further characterized by using different physical and chemical analysis techniques, with the conclusion drawn that the triple helix structure is preserved in the three fractions, although ASC fractions (F1 and F3) present more or stronger hydrogen bonds than the PSC fraction (F2). With the process herein presented, deboned and skinned hake specimens could represent an interesting source of high quality type I collagen, which could be useful as a raw material for the biomedical, cosmetic, and nutraceutical industries.

Highlights

IntroductionIn order to promote environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable fishing practices within European fishing fleets, the new reform of the common fisheries policy includes the obligation of landing all commercially exploited species under the total allowable catch (TAC) regulations, aiming to avoid the large waste of valuable fish biomass through the practice of fish discarding [1])
In order to promote environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable fishing practices within European fishing fleets, the new reform of the common fisheries policy includes the obligation of landing all commercially exploited species under the total allowable catch (TAC) regulations, aiming to avoid the large waste of valuable fish biomass through the practice of fish discarding [1]).The new policy prohibits the use of catches below the minimum conservation reference sizePolymers 2019, 11, 1485; doi:10.3390/polym11091485 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers (MCRS) for direct human consumption
Hake (Merluccius merluccius) specimens ranging from 16 cm up to 26 cm were captured by a commercial trawler

Summary

Introduction

In order to promote environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable fishing practices within European fishing fleets, the new reform of the common fisheries policy includes the obligation of landing all commercially exploited species under the total allowable catch (TAC) regulations, aiming to avoid the large waste of valuable fish biomass through the practice of fish discarding [1]). Polymers 2019, 11, 1485; doi:10.3390/polym11091485 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers (MCRS) for direct human consumption. In this context, it is necessary to find new uses for undersized fish, which might contribute to the alleviation of costs associated with the landing obligation but without prompting the creation of a market. If fishers do not receive any compensation for the costs involved in landing all the catch, the successful implementation of the new regulation might be at risk. The incentives should be focused on minimizing and avoiding unwanted catches, for example, specimens of species below the MCRS, it is expected that few of those undersized catches still occur depending on several factors such as type of fishery/gear, area, or time of the year.

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