Not in a laboratory.
Out at sea.
For generations, fishermen along the Atlantic coast of North America harvested menhaden—small, oily fish that were rarely served at the dinner table. Instead, they were processed into oil and fertilizer, making them one of the earliest industrial fish resources.
For a long time, menhaden oil was valued mainly for practical uses. It appeared in paints, leather treatments, lubricants, and animal feeds. Few people imagined that the oil from these unassuming fish would one day become important to nutrition science.
Global Chemical Database