Aquaculture

Aquaculture refers to the growing of aquatic floral and faunal organisms under controlled conditions. These range from preindustrial forms of stock enhancement to systematic intervention in the entire life cycle of the organisms most commonly found in today's semi-intensive and intensive forms of commercial aquaculture. Attention here is confined to faunal aquaculture; that is, finfish, mollusks, crustaceans, and other organisms. In the face of declining or static global stocks of open capture fisheries, aquaculture has been promoted by government, business groups such as the Global Aquaculture Alliance, and global governance agencies such as the World Bank as an efficient and environmentally sustainable way of providing animal protein for humans, particularly for fish-eating populations in developing countries. It has also been criticized by academics, national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local communities, and some policymakers as ecologically damaging, socially and economically regressive, and unsustainable in the long term. Particular criticism has been directed at tropical-water shrimp producers who supply elite consumer markets in the developed world and at salmon farmers in developed and developing countries. In response to such criticism and to the growing global demand for seafood, efforts are being made to move toward more sustainable and socially equitable forms of aquaculture production.

Aquaculture has expanded greatly in the past three decades and accounts for some 43 percent of global fish supply. It is dominated by freshwater finfish such as carp and other cyprinids (carp and minnows), mollusks (oysters, clams, cockles, ark shells), and crustaceans (shrimp). Freshwater aquaculture contributes the highest volume and value of the sector, but marine and diadromous (salt- to freshwater migratory) species add higher monetary value relative to production volume. Aquaculture is an important export industry in many developing countries, providing direct employment for over 12 million people and earning valuable foreign exchange. Asia—and China in particular—accounts for over 90 percent of the volume and over 80 percent of the value of global aquaculture production and has seven of the top 10 export countries. It is a good example of the globalization of production, exchange, and consumption in which hatcheries, farmers, processors, exporters, transporters, retailers, and consumers are linked through vertical and lateral networks of trade. These trading networks are increasingly dominated by corporate retailers in the [Page 39]developed world who exert control over the supply chains linking consumers to producers and processors located in developing countries. It is such “industrial aquaculture” that has attracted most attention and criticism. However, many developing countries also farm aquatic products under a variety of economic, social, and environmental conditions serving large, ethnically diverse, and economically differentiated local and domestic markets.

A manager at a catfish farm in Columbus, Mississippi, loads 2,000 pounds of fish onto a truck. Aquaculture facilities employ over 12 million people worldwide and now provide as much as 43 percent of the world's supply of fish.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service/Stephen Ausmus