Foreword
Aquaculture in the Ecosystem – An Introduction
The growth of Aquaculture and its future role as a food supplier to human society
has environmental, social and economic limitations, affecting marine ecosystems
and socio-economic scales from local to global. These are close links with human
health requirements and societal needs for various goods and services provided by
marine ecosystems. This book shows this broad spectrum of dependencies of the future
growth of aquaculture and highlights both relevant problems and expectations.
Compensating for stagnant wild capture fisheries and the increasing demand for
marine products, marine aquaculture is one of the fastest growing industries in the
world, comparable to the computer technology industry (Chapters 9 and 10). The
demand for marine products is controlled by a complexity of factors in our society,
not least the increasing human population and the increasing global affluence that
allows the consumer to buy higher priced marine products such as salmon, tuna and
shellfish (Chapter 9). The populations of several of these top-carnivore species are
seriously compromised and it will be impossible in the future to maintain wild captures at the level of consumer demand. In less affluent areas including SE Asia and
Africa, aquaculture for both domestic consumption and export has major nutritional
and economic benefits. The production of fish in aquaculture is thus expected to
increase under the assumption that the bottlenecks for expansion can be overcome
(Chapter 10). This book discusses a range of bottlenecks, not only the environmental,
but also technological, social and economic constrains.
Aquaculture is an ancient activity enduring over millennia. Cultivation in historic
times was primarily for domestic use but, at the beginning of the 20th century,
larger farms started to appear, such as rainbow trout farms in fresh water ponds in
Northern Europe (FAO 2006). Since then the number of species domesticated for
aquaculture production has increased exponentially now exceeding the number of
species domesticated on land (Duarte et al. 2007). There is a large potential for further
species in aquaculture as only about 450 species are currently cultured out of about
3,000 aquatic species used for human consumption. Characteristically, the first initiatives in aquaculture were simple, low technology systems with limited demands
for maintenance and low operating costs. These aquaculture systems were dependent
v
Aquaculture in the Ecosystem – An Introduction
The growth of Aquaculture and its future role as a food supplier to human society
has environmental, social and economic limitations, affecting marine ecosystems
and socio-economic scales from local to global. These are close links with human
health requirements and societal needs for various goods and services provided by
marine ecosystems. This book shows this broad spectrum of dependencies of the future
growth of aquaculture and highlights both relevant problems and expectations.
Compensating for stagnant wild capture fisheries and the increasing demand for
marine products, marine aquaculture is one of the fastest growing industries in the
world, comparable to the computer technology industry (Chapters 9 and 10). The
demand for marine products is controlled by a complexity of factors in our society,
not least the increasing human population and the increasing global affluence that
allows the consumer to buy higher priced marine products such as salmon, tuna and
shellfish (Chapter 9). The populations of several of these top-carnivore species are
seriously compromised and it will be impossible in the future to maintain wild captures at the level of consumer demand. In less affluent areas including SE Asia and
Africa, aquaculture for both domestic consumption and export has major nutritional
and economic benefits. The production of fish in aquaculture is thus expected to
increase under the assumption that the bottlenecks for expansion can be overcome
(Chapter 10). This book discusses a range of bottlenecks, not only the environmental,
but also technological, social and economic constrains.
Aquaculture is an ancient activity enduring over millennia. Cultivation in historic
times was primarily for domestic use but, at the beginning of the 20th century,
larger farms started to appear, such as rainbow trout farms in fresh water ponds in
Northern Europe (FAO 2006). Since then the number of species domesticated for
aquaculture production has increased exponentially now exceeding the number of
species domesticated on land (Duarte et al. 2007). There is a large potential for further
species in aquaculture as only about 450 species are currently cultured out of about
3,000 aquatic species used for human consumption. Characteristically, the first initiatives in aquaculture were simple, low technology systems with limited demands
for maintenance and low operating costs. These aquaculture systems were dependent
v