For thousands of years, people have harvested the bounties of the sea and planted its “crops” as well. As demand for fish increases, farm-raised stocks will become more important to the food supply. The United Nations reports that nearly half of the world's total food fish supply comes from aquaculture. World aquaculture is probably the fastest growing food-producing sector, yielding almost 60 million tons with a value of about $70 billion. Worldwide, more than 1 billion people rely on fish as an important source of animal protein, healthy lipids and essential micronutrients.
Aquaculture is a catch-all term that encompasses the production of what are generally referred to as the commercially important finfish (such as trout, salmon, tilapia, bass, baitfish and sturgeon); reptiles (such as turtles, crocodiles and alligators); and shellfish and crustaceans (such as oysters, scallops, shrimp and crayfish). A distinction can be made between “aquaculture” and “mariculture,” or marine aquaculture. Aquaculture systems tend to be pond or confinement systems, and mariculture systems tend to be pen-type enclosures within open bodies of water, usually within the sea. April 2008 . . . Aquaculture