Farming the waters: Bringing aquatic plant and animal species to agriculture

Abstract

Aquaculture has a long history, with carp culture in Asia starting before 2000 BC and oyster culture in the Roman Empire before the time of Julius Caesar. However, it is clearly the past 40 yr that have seen the most dramatic expansion of aquaculture. The world's population now exceeds 6 billion people and is still growing at an alarming rate. The world's wild fish harvest has clearly peaked at or above the maximum sustainable yield of about 90 million t. Many fish stocks are suffering from over-fishing and there is little hope of any increase in the capture fisheries production. Though modern agricultural practices have been very efficient at increasing the per acre yields, the world is experiencing an alarmingly steady decrease in the amount of agricultural land devoted to food production. In the past 20–30 yr production of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants (aquaculture) has become an increasingly important means of producing food, and in some countries aquaculture production accounts for more than half of the total fishery harvest and is even as high as 90% in a few countries. I have reviewed the historical growth of aquaculture, compared the product value in various countries and reviewed aquaculture practices for a number of plant, molluscan, crustacean and fish species around the world. These culture technologies were compared and contrasted with agricultural practices. Finally, some predictions for the future of aquaculture development in Canada and the world have been made. Key words: Canadian aquaculture, history, salmon, fish farming, production statistics, fish culture technology