Aquaculture

Aquaculture employs many different strategies to achieve the final goal of producing a marketable farm-raised seafood product. Extensive, semi-intensive, intensive and super-intensive farming methods are all being utilized today. Aquaculture techniques for many different species have been continually refined over the last fifteen to twenty years. In 2000, reported total aquaculture production (including aquatic plants) was 45.7 million tons by weight and US$56.5 billion by value. China was reported to have produced 71 percent of the total volume and 49.8 percent of the total value of aquaculture production. More than half of the total world aquaculture production in 2000 was finfish, and the growth of the major species groups continues to be rapid with no apparent slowdown in production to date. World aquatic plant production was 10.1 million tons (US$5.6 billion), of which 7.9 million tons (US$4.0 billion) originated in China.

Aquaculture production has intensified throughout many regions of the world. According to FAO statistics, aquaculture's contribution to global supplies of fish, crustaceans and molluscs continues to grow, increasing from 3.9 percent of total production by weight in 1970 to 27.3 percent in 2000. Aquaculture is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. Worldwide, the sector has increased at an average compounded rate of 9.2 percent per year since 1970, compared with only 1.4 percent for capture fisheries and 2.8 percent for terrestrial farmed meat production systems. This explosion in aquaculture production has been led by China, which now accounts for more than 50% of all cultured seafood products. It is now recognized that approximately one in every four kilograms of seafood products comes from aquaculture.


In contrast to terrestrial farming systems, where the bulk of global production is based on a limited number of animal and plant species, more than 210 different farmed aquatic animal and plant species were reported in 2000. Species such as shrimp, tilapia, carp, catfish, salmon, trout, sea bream, cobia, sturgeon, arctic char, perch, mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, conch and many other aquatic organisms are all being actively farmed today.
It has become crystal clear that farm-raised seafood products have assumed an increasingly important role in the seafood industry as the pressures on the natural fisheries of the world intensifies. For example, wild salmon have increasingly become a rarity in the seafood markets of the world. Approximately 98% of all Atlantic salmon now comes from aquaculture net pen operations in Canada, Chile, Norway and other producer countries.
In the years ahead, there will continue to be a shift away from traditional fishing as the world continues to experience a paradigm shift in seafood production. In many respects, aquaculture is still in its infancy. We have only begun to realize the true potential aquaculture has to offer the world. Much of the current research in the field of aquaculture is being directed towards making the industry more sustainable and environmentally-friendly. This is truly a very exciting time for aquaculture!