Mitochondrial genome sequencing of small pelagic fish used for fishmeal production in Chile

Fish meal (FM) is an essential ingredient of feed and animal food, made from small pelagic fish (smalloily, short-lived, fast-growing fish that are less demanded for human consumption). However, FM production has undesirable ecological side effects. To ensure that the small pelagic fisheries continue producing amaximum sustainable yield while protecting the marine ecosystem, governments establish fisheriesmanagement measures. FM is a highly processed and potentially multi-species sample. The long-term goal of this project is to determine the biomass of species used to produce FM by quantifying the proportion of species present in this commodity through metabarcoding using NGS read counts. A starting point is to sequence all mitochondrial genomes of small pelagic fish used to produce FM in Chile.