Insights into organic farming of European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax and gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata through the assessment of environmental impact, growth performance, fish welfare and product quality

The organic farming of sea bass and sea bream exhibited an overall good performance. Husbandry and feeding practices did not produce any evident environmental impact although long-period investigations covering several full production cycles are needed. Organic fish grew well, displayed an overall state of well-being and had good quality features despite a lower EPA and DHA content. Improvement of organic feed formulation and quality of feed ingredients emerge as important issues to be addressed to optimize the nutritional quality of organic sea bass and sea bream.