The sustainability of aquaculture has been debated intensely since 2000, when a review on the net contribution of aquaculture to world fish supplies was published in Nature. This paper reviews the developments in global aquaculture from 1997 to 2017, incorporating all industry sub-sectors and highlighting the integration of aquaculture in the global food system. Inland aquaculture—especially in Asia—has contributed the most to global production volumes and food security. Major gains have also occurred in aquaculture feed efficiency and fish nutrition, lowering the fish-in–fish-out ratio for all fed species, although the dependence on marine ingredients persists and reliance on terrestrial ingredients has increased. The culture of both molluscs and seaweed is increasingly recognized for its ecosystem services; however, the quantification, valuation, and market development of these services remain rare. The potential for molluscs and seaweed to support global nutritional security is underexploited. Management of pathogens, parasites, and pests remains a sustainability challenge industry-wide, and the effects of climate change on aquaculture remain uncertain and difficult to validate. Pressure on the aquaculture industry to embrace comprehensive sustainability measures during this 20-year period have improved the governance, technology, siting, and management in many cases. The volume of global aquaculture production has tripled since 2000 with positive trends in environmental performance, but the sector faces mounting challenges including pathogen management, pollution, climate change, and increasing dependence on land-based resource systems.

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A 20-year retrospective review of global aquaculture.

Agricultural Experimentation: Design and Analysis

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing farmed food sector and will soon become the primary source of fish and shellfish for human diets. In contrast to crop and livestock production, aquaculture production is derived from numerous, exceptionally diverse species that are typically in the early stages of domestication. Genetic improvement of production traits via well-designed, managed breeding programmes has great potential to help meet the rising seafood demand driven by human population growth. Supported by continuous advances in sequencing and bioinformatics, genomics is increasingly being applied across the broad range of aquaculture species and at all stages of the domestication process to optimize selective breeding. In the future, combining genomic selection with biotechnological innovations, such as genome editing and surrogate broodstock technologies, may further expedite genetic improvement in aquaculture.

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Harnessing genomics to fast-track genetic improvement in aquaculture.

Nutritional immunity of fish intestines: important insights for sustainable aquaculture

Important operational changes that have gradually been assimilated and new approaches that are developing as part of the movement toward sustainable intensive aquaculture production systems are presented via historical, current, and future perspectives Improved environmental and economic sustainability based on increased efficiency of production continues to be realized As a result, aquaculture continues to reduce its carbon footprint through reduced greenhouse gas emissions Reduced use of freshwater and land resources per unit of production, improved feed management practices as well as increased knowledge of nutrient requirements, effective feed ingredients and additives, domestication of species, and new farming practices are now being applied or evaluated Successful expansion into culture of marine species, both off and on shore, offers the potential of substantial increases in sustainable intensive aquaculture production combined with integrative efforts to increase efficiency will principally contribute to satisfying the increasing global demand for protein and food security needs

/pdf/achieving-sustainable-aquaculture-historical-and-current-3ac4lpyq42.pdf

Achieving sustainable aquaculture: Historical and current perspectives and future needs and challenges

Discussions about global aquaculture production and prospects for future growth largely focus on Asia, where most global production takes place. Countries in Asia accounted for about 89% of global ...

A Global Blue Revolution: Aquaculture Growth Across Regions, Species, and Countries

Aquaculture has been the world's fastest growing food production sector with an annual growth rate of 8%. Total aquaculture supply increased dramatically from 0.7 mMT in 1950 to 90 mMT in 2012. Growth of the global seafood supply was made possible through adoption of new technologies that brought more control over aquaculture production processes. This review presents evidence of supply-side technological progress that spurred growth in shrimp, salmon, and tilapia production from 1981 to 2012. Greater availability of hatchery-raised post-larvae, better feed formulations, and a shift in preferred shrimp species from Penaeus monodon to Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) Litopenaeus vannamei appear to have been critical technological advances that triggered rapid growth of shrimp farming. Nutritionally balanced feed, use of automated labor-saving equipment, genetic selection programs, and development of vaccines triggered growth of Atlantic salmon production. Diffusion of Genetically Improved Farm Tilapia ...

Technological Advances that Led to Growth of Shrimp, Salmon, and Tilapia Farming

Factors Driving Aquaculture Technology Adoption

Split ponds are recently developed pond-based aquaculture systems that allow intensification of catfish aquaculture. Successful industry-wide adoption of newly developing technologies like split-pond systems will depend upon their productivity and cost efficiencies. Costs and production performance of the following three split-pond design scenarios were monitored in Arkansas and Mississippi: (1) research design developed at the Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center, Stoneville, Mississippi; (2) waterwheel design tested on commercial catfish ponds; and (3) screw-pump design tested on commercial catfish ponds. An economic engineering approach using standard enterprise budget analysis was used to develop estimates of breakeven prices (BEPs) ($/kg) for producing foodsize hybrid catfish (♂Ictalurus furcatus × ♀Ictalurus punctatus) for each scenario. Estimates of BEPs of hybrid catfish raised in split ponds ranged from $1.72 to $2.05/kg. The cost of catfish production in split ponds was sensitive to yield, fish prices, and feed prices. Annual net cash flows from both commercial split-pond systems were high and sufficient to make the investment profitable in the long run. Feed price, feed conversion ratio, and yield contributed the most to downside risk of split ponds.

Costs and Risk of Catfish Split‐pond Systems

The US catfish industry is evolving by adopting production-intensifying practices that enhance productivity. Catfish producers have increased aeration rates over time, and some now use intensive rates of aeration (>9.33 kW/ha). Costs and production performance were monitored at commercial catfish farms using high levels of aeration (11.2–18.7 kW/ha) in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi. A multivariate-cluster analysis was used to identify four different management clusters of intensively aerated commercial catfish farms based on stocking density, size of fingerlings at stocking, and feed conversion ratios (FCR). Breakeven prices of hybrid catfish raised in intensively aerated pond systems were estimated to range from $1.86/kg to $2.17/kg, with the lowest costs associated with the second greatest level of production intensity. The two medium-intensity clusters generated sufficiently high revenues for long-term profitability. However, the least-intensive and the most-intensive clusters were economically feasible only when catfish and feed prices were closer to less probable market prices. Feed price, FCR, and yield contributed the most to downside risk. Intensive aeration in catfish ponds, up to the levels analyzed in this study, appears to be economically feasible under the medium-intensity management strategies identified in this analysis.

Ganesh Kumar

Papers

A Global Blue Revolution: Aquaculture Growth Across Regions, Species, and Countries

Technological Advances that Led to Growth of Shrimp, Salmon, and Tilapia Farming

Factors Driving Aquaculture Technology Adoption

Costs and Risk of Catfish Split‐pond Systems

Economics of Intensively Aerated Catfish Ponds