Aquaculture

Aquaculture is the controlled and/or targeted cultivation of specific freshwater or marine species by humans. An activity often likened to agriculture, aquaculture involves selecting a species for cultivation either because of market demand or subsistence requirements and because it displays traits amenable to highly successful reproduction or growth under regulated environmental conditions. Intensification in aquaculture has generally increased over time and currently varies depending on the aquaculturists’ desired level of capital investment and scale of production. Aquaculture should be considered as an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of marine and freshwater culture activities such as captive grow-outs, fish farming (including genetic manipulation and embryo rearing/hatching), alga farming, mariculture, aquaponics, and so on.

Alongside resource extraction and food production more generally, seafood production has experienced rapid, and often state-supported, industrialization during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Market demand for seafood products has also steadily increased during this time. Consequently, there is unprecedented interest in aquaculture, and according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, it is currently one of the fastest growing food production sectors in the world. Thus, aquaculture is receiving much regulatory, academic, and corporate attention, and it is a growing research area in both the social and the physical sciences.

Development and Evolution

There seems to be general agreement that the earliest practice of aquaculture began in China [Page 103]between 2000 and 2500 BC. At this time, methods involved holding, feeding, and growing fish in ponds or coastal entrapments until they reached the desired size or other food sources became scarce. However, there are many references to aquaculture activities scattered across ancient and modern history. A small selection of these include marine and freshwater habitat modification by indigenous peoples, capture and experimentation by the Egyptians and the Romans, and the hatching and release of numerous fish species in efforts to repopulate the dwindling recreational fish stocks in North America and Western Europe.

Fisheries in Chios Island, Greece

Source: Iraklis Klampanos/iStockphoto.

At present, aquaculture for subsistence purposes remains widely practiced, particularly in Asia and Africa. Precise data regarding volumes harvested and species cultured are limited; however, the significance of subsistence-driven aquaculture in these regions is substantial. Concurrently, industrial aquaculture is increasingly lucrative. By incorporating scientific, technical, and marketing expertise, selected species are bred, reared from embryonic stages, harvested, and then fed into national and international networks of markets. Products commonly cultured currently include salmon, shrimp, trout, carp, tilapia, bivalves, kelp and other aquatic plants, and pearls. Tensions between these two modes of aquaculture stand to increase, especially in cases where they operate in close proximity to one another.