ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Aquaculture production of seafood most likely will remain the most rapidly increasing food production system worldwide through 2025, according to an assessment published in the January 2009 issue of BioScience.
The assessment, by James S. Diana of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, noted that despite well-publicized concerns about some harmful effects of aquaculture, the technique may, when practiced well, be no more damaging to biodiversity than other food production systems. It also may be the only way to supply growing demand for seafood as the human population increases.
Diana noted that total production from capture fisheries has remained approximately constant for the past 20 years and may decline. Aquaculture has increased by 8.8% per year since 1985 and now accounts for about one-third of all aquatic harvest by weight. Finfish, mollusks and crustaceans dominate aquaculture production; seafood exports generate more money for developing countries than meat, coffee, tea, bananas, and rice combined.
When carefully implemented, aquaculture can reduce pressure on overexploited wild stocks, enhance depleted stocks and boost natural production of fishes as well as species diversity, he said. Some harmful effects have diminished as management techniques have improved, and aquaculture has the potential to provide much-needed employment in developing countries.
