Pollution abatement and by-product recovery in shellfish and fisheries processing

Seventy million pounds of seafood wastes, mainly from crab, salmon, and shrimp fishing, containing 22.1 million pounds of COD were discharged to Kodiak Harbor, Alaska in 1970. A private firm was engaged to develop a plan to permit development of beneficial uses for the wastes while concurrently reducing the pollutional load on the harbor. The plan included collection and transportation of the waste to a central processing site on Near Island for by-product recovery. Shellfish wastes would be extracted with dilute alkali to yield a high quality protein and a chitin-calcium carbonate residue, the former to be used as pet food aditives or for industrial applications, and the latter to be exported for conversion to chitin and derived products or used in Alaska as a soil liming and fertilizer material. Fish wastes would also be extracted to yield a concentrated protein product similar to fish solubles oil and bone meal.