Aquaculture is the process of rearing, breeding, and harvesting of aquatic species, both animals

and plants, in controlled aquatic environments like oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. It
serves different purposes, including food production, restoration of threatened and endangered
species populations, wild stock population enhancement, the building of aquariums, and fish
cultures, and habitat restoration.

Importance of Aquaculture

1. Health Benefit

People have learned that seafood are healthier and help fight cardiovascular disease, cancer, alzheimer's
and many other major illnesses. Now seafood has become part of regular diets. The demand for seafood
has increased because people have learned it is better for you to eat more fish.

2. Sustainable Use of Sea Resources

An increase in demand for food sources and globalization has led to an increase in fishing. Aquaculture is
estimated to account for approximately 13 percent (10.2 million tons) of world fish production. Through
aquaculture, it provides both an alternative and opportunity for wild stocks to replenish.

3. Conservation of Biodiversity

Reduced action of fishing saves the diversity of the aquatic ecosystem from extinction, says the World
Aquaculture Organisation (WAA).

4. Increased Efficiency, More Resources for Less Effort

Aquacultures will add to wild seafood and make it cheaper and accessible to all. Fish convert feed into
body protein more efficiently than cattle or chicken production. This means that less food and energy is
used to produce food, meaning that the production process is cheaper as well.

5. Reduced Environmental Disturbance

Increasing fish farming has led to a reduction in the need for fishing of the wild stock, and this
means less stress on the ecosystem and less human interference.

Reference: Rinkesh. Conserve Energy Future. Aquaculture: Types, Benefits, and Importance
(Fish Farming). https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/aquaculture-types-benefits-
importance.php

Reference: Ailmentarium. The history of aquaculture.

https://www.alimentarium.org/en/fact-sheet/history-aquaculture
History of aquaculture

Fish farming dates back to the Zhou dynasty (111212-221 BCE), then the politician Fan
Li, around 500 BCE. During the Tang dynasty, around 618, the Emperor Li forbade
farming the fish that bore his name. Liquid manure from livestock farming was used to
stimulate algae growth in ponds and make it more nutritious.

In Europe, aquaculture first began in Ancient Rome, with oyster farms and vivariums.
These vivaria were built inside wealthier homes, where guests could choose what fish,
they wished to eat.

In the Middle Ages, throughout feudal Europe, the monastic orders and aristocracy were
the main users of freshwater fish vivaria. Mussel farming was invented in the 13th century
and the technique remained largely unchanged until the 1960s. As with hunting, poaching
was severely punished and the less well-off would have to wait centuries before fresh fish
appeared on their plates.

Freshwater fish farming was further developed during the Renaissance. Carp dominated
the artificial ponds of Eastern Europe. Emperor Charles IV ordered many such ponds to
be built in Bohemia, what is now the westernmost region of the Czech Republic.

Artificial breeding was discovered in Germany in the 17th century, but it wasn't until the
19th century that researchers began to master the process. In the 1860s, trout and other
salmonids colonized rivers around the world, in the United States, India, New Zealand
and even Japan.

In the kibbutzim of Israel, farmers adapted traditional methods imported from Eastern
Europe to the arid environment and developed new techniques.

In the late 1950s, the invention of artificial granulated food revolutionized fish farming,
which until then had relied on products from agriculture and livestock farming (raw meat,
for example), to feed the fish.
Marine species aquaculture enjoyed a revival in the 1970s, thanks to lighter, more hard-
wearing and less expensive building materials. These new facilities turned out to be
commercially non-viable. Aquaculture has become increasingly important, with global
production surpassing that of capture fisheries in 2013.