AAPQIS --- Aquatic Animal Health E-Governance ----

Status and trends

Information on the status and trends of aquaculture, globally, regionally and nationally, is available from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. World aquaculture has grown tremendously during the last 50 years from a production of less than a million tonnes in the early 1950s to 59.4 million tonnes (valued at US$ 70.3 billion) by 2004.

Production

Global aquaculture production statistics are published annually in the FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics - Aquaculture Production, which is a compilation of statistics on world production of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic animals and plants produced from all culture practices (the most recent volume, 98/2, contains data up to 2004).

Management

Aquaculture management activities are done at many levels, ranging from the global and regional efforts of organizations to direct aquaculture towards more sustainable, responsible and economically rewarding pathways as undertaken by the FAO, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WFF) and

Development

A comprehensive review of aquaculture development trends to the year 2000 is provided by the various contributions included in Part IV – Aquaculture Development Trends of the 2001 landmark publication Aquaculture in the Third Millennium

Aquaculture fact sheets

To assist the aquaculture sector and national policy-makers, the FAO, through its Fisheries and Aquaculture Department , produces on-line Aquaculture Fact Sheets that contain a synthesis of detailed information on specific subjects and include related statistics, graphics (GIS maps, images, figures, etc.) and profiles.

Issues

There are many environmental, social and economic issues, both positive and negative, that have been raised by proponents and critics of aquaculture development and that are extensively discussed in the literature