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Food-grade offcut stream
Frozen whole for feeding fish
Cleaned heads and fins are kept separate, fresh-frozen whole, and boxed as feed for aquarium and aquaculture fish.
Cleaned heads Fins Fresh frozen
For public aquariums, aquaculture, and feed suppliers
Every part of the squid has value.
Across 54 AZA aquariums and zoos, 55% of the seafood species fed to animals have an unknown sustainability status. Ours doesn't. One species, one MSC-certified fishery, one Rhode Island processor — whole, frozen once, and documented end to end.
Follow the processOne squid, two food-grade streams. Both leave whole.
The problem
Most feed can't prove where it came from.
AZA-accredited institutions buy an estimated 17 million pounds of seafood a year for the animals in their care. In an assessment of 54 aquariums and zoos, more than half the species fed could not be traced to a known standard.
- 55%
- of seafood species fed at those institutions have an unknown sustainability status — along with 25% of total volume by weight.
- Paperwork you can't complete
- Sourcing policies ask for species, catch location, gear type, and certification status. Feed-grade supply chains often can't provide them — and vague catch locations are a named indicator of seafood fraud.
Figures from Sourcing Sustainable Feed for Animals in Our Care, a 2024 project report from the Aquarium Conservation Partnership and AZA SAFE Shark and Ray.
Our product
Fresh-frozen squid heads and fins.
Everything starts on our partner's food-grade processing line. The mantle, arms, and tentacles go to market as seafood — we collect the cleaned heads and fins and freeze them whole as feed.
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Seafood product stream
Cleaned for market
Our processor partner cleans and prepares the mantle, arms, and tentacles as familiar seafood products.
Cleaned tubes Squid rings Tentacles
Why it feeds better
Whole and fresh-frozen, straight off a human-food line.
Most marine feed reaches you already processed — milled into meal, bound into pellets, or rendered. These heads and fins are separated on a line producing squid for human consumption, then frozen fresh. Squid is landed in season and held in cold storage, so supply continues between seasons.
- Frozen once
- Caught, processed, and frozen fresh — never thawed and refrozen.
- MSC-certified fishery
- Certified sustainable at the source, by third-party audit.
- No added fishing pressure
- A co-product of squid already landed for human food — feeding your fish takes nothing extra out of the water.
- Food-grade throughout
- Single species, consistent size, never rendered.
Ask us for current pack formats, volumes, and lead times.
Separated At source, on a human-food line
Frozen Whole and fresh — never milled
Shipped Boxed, to you
Rhode Island partnership
Processing knowledge meets marine science.
Processor partner
Rhode Island Seafood Processors
Food-grade squid processing and separation of the material at its source.
Collection and cold chain
Offcut Marine
Collects, freezes, and ships the food-grade offcut stream. Partners on research into future uses.
Research partner
Roger Williams University Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED)
Ingredient analysis, preparation, formulation, and marine fish evaluation.
The evidence
Already being fed to fish, under measurement.
These offcuts are in active feeding trials at the Roger Williams University Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED) with local New England species. The work measures composition, palatability, growth and health, so that claims about this feed rest on data rather than on provenance alone.
Fish in trial show a strong feeding response and strong growth, in line with expected results. If you want to see the data as it comes out, ask and we will send it.
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Characterize
Nutritional composition and raw-material consistency
- 02
Stabilize
Handling, storage, and cold-chain consistency
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Feed
Live trials with local New England species
- 04
Measure
Palatability, growth, and fish health
Work with us
Tell us what you feed.
We welcome conversations with public aquariums, aquaculture producers, and the suppliers who source their feed — as well as researchers and potential partners.
Prefer email? Write to contact@offcutmarine.com.