A Global Overview of Aquaculture Food Production with a Focus on the Activity’s Development in Transitional Systems—The Case Study of a South European Country (Portugal)

Carolina P Rocha,Ana M M Gonçalves,Henrique N Cabral,João C Marques

doi:10.3390/jmse10030417

Abstract

World aquaculture food production rises every year, amounting, by 2018, to another all-time record of 82.1 million tonnes of farmed seafood, with Asia leading global production. In Europe, although coastal countries present historical fishing habits, aquaculture is in true expansion. Norway, the leading European producer, is the eighth main producer worldwide. Portugal is a traditional fishing country but has invested in the development of aquaculture for the past decade, attaining, by 2018, 13.3 tonnes produced, making Portugal the 16th main producer amongst European Union member states that year. Most Portuguese aquaculture facilities operate in coastal systems, resorting to extensive and semi-intensive rearing techniques. In Portugal, marine food production in transitional systems is particularly interesting as the practice has, worldwide, been continuously substituted by intensive methods. In fact, facilities in transitional systems have developed over time and products gained higher commercial value. Clams and oysters corresponded, together, to over three quarters of total mollusc production in Portugal in 2018, while gilthead seabream and European seabass made up nearly all fish production in coastal environments. The state of aquaculture practices worldwide is reviewed in the present work, providing a particular focus on Portugal, where considerable development of the aquaculture sector is expected.

Highlights

Dating back thousands of years, aquaculture has only recently experienced great development worldwide
The present review aims to gather a concise overview of the status of aquaculture practices worldwide, stress asymmetries regarding production across the globe—between and within continents—and raise questions about the development of the activity and its impact at different scales
Freshwater and diadromous fish supply surpassed that of capture fisheries for the first time in 1986 and 1997, respectively, and despite marine fish farming being in true expansion, it is considered unlikely to surpass supply from capture fisheries in the near future

Summary

Introduction

Dating back thousands of years, aquaculture has only recently experienced great development worldwide. It is unclear when aquaculture practices began, but findings over the years suggest the activity has existed for centuries. In Europe, Romans fattened fish in tanks that were primarily aimed for the rearing of oysters or for salt production, but it was only during the Middle Ages that European communities took the first steps in aquatic animals’ rearing, growing fish, especially carps, in monasteries’ ponds [1–3]. Aquatic animals’ farming in transitional environments began to develop around that time in Southern European countries, where coastal lagoons and ponds were used to maintain fish brought in by the ocean tide, usually alternating with salt production in the same areas. As for the farming of molluscs, its early development dates to the 13th century, and organisms, especially oysters and mussels, were produced in pole cultures, spreading along the French Atlantic coastline during the 19th century; Northern European countries, on the other hand, developed bottom cultures for the rearing of the same organisms [1,3]

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