ish meal, coarsely ground powder made from the cooked flesh of fish. Though formerly crucial as a fertilizer, fish meal is now primarily used in animal feed — especially for poultry, swine, mink, farm-raised fish, and pets.

Fishmeal is a generic term for a nutrient-rich feed ingredient used primarily in diets for domestic animals, sometimes used as a high-quality organic fertilizer. Fishmeal can be made from almost any type of seafood but is generally manufactured from wild-caught, small marine fish containing a high percentage of bones and oil and is usually deemed unsuitable for direct human consumption. These fishes are considered industrial since most of them are caught for the sole purpose of fishmeal and fish oil production. A small percentage of fishmeal is rendered from the by-catch of other fisheries and by-products or trimmings created during processing (e.g., fish filleting and cannery operations) of various seafood products destined for direct human consumption.