Aquaculture

Aquaculture has been used in China since circa 2500 BC. When the waters lowered after river floods, some fishes, mainly carp, were held in artificial lakes. Their brood were later fed using nymphs and silkworm feces, while the fish themselves were eaten as a source of protein. By a fortunate genetic mutation, this early domestication of carp led to the development of goldfish in the Tang Dynasty.

The Hawaiian people practiced aquaculture by constructing fish ponds (see Hawaiian aquaculture). A remarkable example from ancient Hawaii is the construction of a fish pond, dating from at least 1,000 years ago, at Alekoko. According to legend, it was constructed by the mythical Menehune. The Japanese practiced cultivation of seaweed by providing bamboo poles and, later, nets and oyster shells to serve as anchoring surfaces for spores. The Romans often bred fish in ponds.

In central Europe, early Christian monasteries adopted some aquacultural practices used by the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean.^[2]The practice of aquaculture gained prevalence in Europe during the Middle Ages, since away from the seacoasts and the big rivers, fish were scarce and thus expensive. However, improvements in transportation during the 19th century made fish easily available and inexpensive, even in inland areas, causing a decline in the practice. When the first North American fish hatchery was constructed on Dildo Island, Newfoundland Canada in 1889, it was the largest and most advanced in the world.

Americans were rarely involved in aquaculture until the late 20th century, but California residents harvested wild kelp and made legal efforts to manage the supply starting circa 1900, later even producing it as a wartime resource.^[3]

Actually, there was keen interest in aquaculture in the United States as early as 1859 when Stephen Ainsworth of West Bloomfield, NY began his experiments with brook trout. By 1864 Seth Green had established a commercial fish hatching operation at Caledonia Springs, near Rochester, NY. By 1866, with the involvement of Dr. W. W. Fletcher of Concord Mass, artificial fish hatching operations were under way in both Canada and the United States.^[4]

In contrast to agriculture, the rise of aquaculture is a contemporary phenomenon. According to professor Carlos M. Duarte about 430 (97%) of the aquatic species presently in culture have been domesticated since the start of the 20th century, and an estimated 106 aquatic species have been domesticated over the past decade. The domestication of an aquatic species typically involves about a decade of scientific research. Current success in the domestication of aquatic species results from the 20th century rise of knowledge on the basic biology of aquatic species and the lessons learned from past success and failure. The stagnation in the world's fisheries and overexploitation of 20 to 30% of marine fish species have provided additional impetus to domesticate marine species, just as overexploitation of land animals provided the impetus for the early domestication of land species

In the 1960s, the price of fish began to climb, as wild fish capture rates peaked and the human population continued to rise. Today, commercial aquaculture exists on an unprecedented, huge scale. In the 1980s, open-netcage salmon farming also expanded; this particular type of aquaculture technology remains a minor part of the production of farmed finfish worldwide, but possible negative impacts on wild stocks, which have come into question since the late 1990s, have caused it to become a major cause of controversy.^[5]

In 2004, the total world production of fisheries was 140.5 million tonnes of which aquaculture contributed 45.5 million tonnes or about 32% of the total world production.^[6] The growth rate of worldwide aquaculture has been sustained and rapid, averaging about 8 percent per annum for over thirty years, while the contribution to the total from wild fisheries has been essentially flat for the last decade.

Aquaculture is an especially important economic activity in China. Between 1980 and 1997, the Chinese Bureau of Fisheries reports, aquaculture harvests grew at an annual rate of 16.7 percent, jumping from 1.9 million to nearly 23 million tons. In 2005 China accounted for 70% of the world's aquaculture production^[7][8].

In the US, approximately 90% of all shrimp consumed is farmed and imported.^[9] In recent years salmon aquaculture has become a major export in southern Chile, especially in Puerto Montt and Quellón, Chile's fastest-growing city.

The concentrated nature of aquaculture often leads to higher than normal levels of fish waste in the water. Fish waste is organic and composed of nutrients necessary in all components of aquatic food webs. In some instances such as nearshore, high-intensity operations, increased waste can adversely affect the environment by decreasing dissolved oxygen levels in the water column. Onshore recirculating aquaculture systems, facilities using polyculture techniques, and properly-sited facilities (e.g. offshore or areas with strong currents) are examples of ways to reduce or eliminate the negative environmental effects of fish waste.

Aquaculture can be more environmentally damaging than exploiting wild fisheries.^[10] Some heavily-farmed species of fish, such as salmon, are maintained in net-contained environments. Unused feed and waste products can contaminate the sea floor and cultured fish can escape from these pens. Escapees can out compete wild fish for food and spread disease, as well as dilute wild genetic stocks through interbreeding. Farming carnivorous fish like salmon may actually increase the pressure on wild fish, as for farming one kilo of farmed fish up to six kilo of wild fish are used for feeding.^[11] However considerable research and commercial feed improvements during the 1990s & 2000s has lessened many of these environmental impacts ^[12]

Certain forms of aquaculture such as the culture of seaweeds and filter feeding bivalve mollusks such as oysters, clams, mussels and scallops are relatively benign environmentally. Seaweeds act to extract nutrients such as inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus directly from the water, ^[13] and filter feeding molluscan shellfish can extract organic nutrients as they feed on particulate phytoplankton and detritus. ^[14]

Despite the environmental concerns, aquaculture profitability could be high enough that money could go back into promoting sustainable practices. ^[15] Furthermore, new methods minimize the risk of biological and chemical pollution through minimizing stress to fish, vaccinating fish, fallowing netpens, and applying Integrated Pest Management. Vaccines are being used more and more to reduce antibiotic use for disease control in aquaculture. ^[16]

Algaculture is a form of aquaculture involving the farming of species of algae. The majority of algae that are intentionally cultivated fall into the category of microalgae, also referred to as phytoplankton, microphytes, or planktonic algae.

Macroalgae, commonly known as seaweeds, also have many commercial and industrial uses, but due to their size and the specific requirements of the environment in which they need to grow, they do not lend themselves as readily to cultivation on a large scale as microalgae and are most often harvested wild from the ocean.

Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. It involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is generally referred to as a fish hatchery. Fish species raised by fish farms include salmon, catfish, tilapia, cod, carp, trout and others.

Increasing demands on wild fisheries by commercial fishing operations have caused widespread overfishing. Fish farming offers an alternative solution to the increasing market demand for fish and fish protein.

A freshwater prawn farm is an aquaculture business designed to raise and produce freshwater prawn or shrimp for human consumption. Freshwater prawn farming shares many characteristics with, and many of the same problems as, marine shrimp farming. Unique problems are introduced by the developmental life cycle of the main species (the giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii).^[17]

The global annual production of freshwater prawns (excluding crayfish and crabs) in 2003 was about 280,000 tons, of which China produced some 180,000 tons, followed by India and Thailand with some 35,000 tons each. Additionally, China produced about 370,000 tons of Chinese river crab (Eriocheir sinensis).^[18]

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) is a practice in which the by-products (wastes) from one species are recycled to become inputs (fertilizers, food) for another. Fed aquaculture (e.g. fish, shrimp) is combined with inorganic extractive (e.g. seaweed) and organic extractive (e.g. shellfish) aquaculture to create balanced systems for environmental sustainability (biomitigation), economic stability (product diversification and risk reduction) and social acceptability (better management practices).^[13]

"Multi-Trophic" refers to the incorporation of species from different trophic or nutritional levels in the same system.^[19] This is one potential distinction from the age-old practice of aquatic polyculture, which could simply be the co-culture of different fish species from the same trophic level. In this case, these organisms may all share the same biological and chemical processes, with few synergistic benefits, which could potentially lead to significant shifts in the ecosystem. Some traditional polyculture systems may, in fact, incorporate a greater diversity of species, occupying several niches, as extensive cultures (low intensity, low management) within the same pond. The "Integrated" in IMTA refers to the more intensive cultivation of the different species in proximity of each other, connected by nutrient and energy transfer through water, but not necessarily right at the same location.

Ideally, the biological and chemical processes in an IMTA system should balance. This is achieved through the appropriate selection and proportions of different species providing different ecosystem functions. The co-cultured species should be more than just biofilters; they should also be harvestable crops of commercial value.^[19] A working IMTA system should result in greater production for the overall system, based on mutual benefits to the co-cultured species and improved ecosystem health, even if the individual production of some of the species is lower compared to what could be reached in monoculture practices over a short term period.^[20]

Sometimes the more general term "Integrated Aquaculture" is used to describe the integration of monocultures through water transfer between organisms.^[20] For all intents and purposes however, the terms "IMTA" and "integrated aquaculture" differ primarily in their degree of descriptiveness. These terms are sometimes interchanged. Aquaponics, fractionated aquaculture, IAAS (integrated agriculture-aquaculture systems), IPUAS (integrated peri-urban-aquaculture systems), and IFAS (integrated fisheries-aquaculture systems) may also be considered variations of the IMTA concept.

Mariculture is a specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other products in the open ocean, an enclosed section of the ocean, or in tanks, ponds or raceways which are filled with seawater. An example of the latter is the farming of marine fish, prawns, or oysters in saltwater ponds. Non-food products produced by mariculture include: fish meal, nutrient agar, jewelries (e.g. cultured pearls), and cosmetics.

A shrimp farm is an aquaculture business for the cultivation of marine shrimp for human consumption. Commercial shrimp farming began in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the U.S., Japan and Western Europe. The total global production of farmed shrimp reached more than 1.6 million tonnes in 2003, representing a value of nearly 9,000 million U.S. dollars. About 75% of farmed shrimp is produced in Asia, in particular in China and Thailand. The other 25% is produced mainly in Latin America, where Brazil is the largest producer. The largest exporting nation is Thailand.

Shrimp farming has changed from traditional, small-scale businesses in Southeast Asia into a global industry. Technological advances have led to growing shrimp at ever higher densities, and broodstock is shipped worldwide. Virtually all farmed shrimp are penaeids (i.e., shrimp of the family Penaeidae), and just two species of shrimp—the Penaeus vannamei (Pacific white shrimp) and the Penaeus monodon (giant tiger prawn)—account for roughly 80% of all farmed shrimp. These industrial monocultures are very susceptible to diseases, which have caused several regional wipe-outs of farm shrimp populations. Increasing ecological problems, repeated disease outbreaks, and pressure and criticism from both NGOs and consumer countries led to changes in the industry in the late 1990s and generally stronger regulation by governments. In 1999, a program aimed at developing and promoting more sustainable farming practices was initiated, including governmental bodies, industry representatives, and environmental organizations.

• Asian carp
• Atlantic salmon
• Barramundi
• Bighead carp
• Black carp
• Black Drum aka,Redfish
• Catfish
• Catla
• Cobia
• Common carp
• Florida Pompano
• Grass carp
• Gourami
• Milkfish
• Black Crappie
• Perch
• Bluegill
• Tilapia

Mirgala, Rohita, Lates calcrifer (sea bass), Murrels

• Aquaculture Economics & Management ^[21]
• Fisheries Science ^[22]
• Journal of the World Aquaculture Society ^[23]
• Journal of Applied Aquaculture ^[21]
• Aquaculture Research ^[24]

• Algaculture
• Aquaponics
• Agroecology
• Fish farming
• Fisheries science
• Mariculture
• Industrial agriculture
• Shrimp farm
• Prawn farm

• AquaLingua ISBN 82-529-2389-5
• Rice–Fish Culture in China (1995), ISBN 9780889367760, OCLC 35883297

Global

• Template:Dmoz
• Template:Dmoz
• FAO (2007) Medium-term challenges and constaints for aquaculture ISBN 978-92-5-105568-7
• FAO (2000) Aquaculture in the Third Millennium
• FAO Fisheries Department and its SOFIA report on fisheries and aquaculture
• The World Aquaculture Society: an international non-profit society with over 3,000 members in 94 countries with the primary focus to improve communication and information exchange within the diverse global aquaculture community.
• The Coastal Resources Center provides a range of guidelines, policies and best practices and case studies on shrimp farming, seaweed farming and shellfish culture.

Regional

• Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific: Intergovernmental organization with 17 members that produce > 85% of global aquaculture production. Free news and full-text aquaculture publications for download.
• NOAA aquaculture: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – website for information about marine aquaculture in the US and elsewhere.
• Social & Economic Benefits of Aquaculture from "NOAA Socioeconomics" website initiative
• Aquaculture Association of Canada:
• American Fisheries Society
• Aquaculture Information from the Coastal Ocean Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Aquaculture Information Bureau: Scottish based Aquaculture Information Bureau.
• Fisheries and Illinois Aquaculture Center: Midwest US research center.

Topic Specific

• Aqua Farm Designs - Benefits of Water recirculation systems in Aquaculture: Description of water recirculation aquaculture systems and benefits of using these types of farm designs to produce fish within eco-friendly land based enclosed aquaculture operations.
• FishingHurts.com/FishFarms: Criticism of aquaculture's effects on animal welfare and the environment
• Watershed Watch Society Salmon farming and sea lice
• Web based aquaculture simulations for shellfish in estuaries and coastal systems: Simulation modelling for mussels, oysters and clams.

Web Resources

• Aqua KE--Aquaculture Research Database
• Aquaculture Resources Directory A directory of reference links and downloadable reports, articles from numerous sources.
• Organic Aquaculture: Articles and references on the merits and otherwise of farming fish organically.
• Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Aquaculture
• Guide to on-line resources in aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic science
• Aquaculture Resources for Ethno-Anthropologists News mirror service in the field of aquaculture with focus on its social effects
• Aquaculture Knowledge Environment: A searchable online library of government and United Nations documents covering nearly every aspect of aquaculture from pond construction to international codes of conduct.
• AquaNIC A comprehensive information server for aquaculture topics, including publications, news, events, job announcements, images, and related resources.
• Aquaculture and Information
• AAAS science magazine feature on aquaculture
• Aquaculture and the Protection of Wild Salmon
• SoCal Aquaponics is a facility that is established to grow the best quality organically grown Tilapia, Shrimp and Vegetables.