HISTORY OF AQUACULTURE

A SHORT HISTORY OF AQUACULTURE

Origins
The earliest form of aquaculture practiced consisted of trapping wild aquatic animals in lagoons, ponds or small shallow lakes, so that they would be available at all times. This method dates back to the Neolithic age, when man started to act on natural resources, namely around 4000 B.C. in Europe. This minimalist practice no longer exists in Europe because all aquaculture involves at least one technical interaction with the environment or the animal.

In the second stage in its evolution aquaculture no longer relied solely on nature: aquatic environments favourable to the development of fish, molluscs and/or crustaceans were developed. Carp rearing in China is the most sophisticated form of this type of aquaculture, evidence of which dates back to the fifth century B.C. in the famous Treatise written by Fan-Li. In South America, the Aztec cultivated agricultural islands known as chinampas in a system where plants were raised on stationary (and sometime movable) islands in lake shallows and waste materials dredged from the chinampa canals and surrounding cities were used to manually irrigate the plants. This system is believed to be the earliest ancestor of modern aquaponics.

As for seaweed, the first written record of human consumption appeared in Japan more than 1500 years ago. However the intervention of men on seaweed production seems to have started in 1670 AD. At this time, Japanese fishermen were ordered fresh fish every day for the Shogun and realised that the bamboo fences used to farm fish were covered by seaweed.  They then realize that they could make the seaweed grow quicker by moving the bamboo fence in the estuary where it would receive some nutrient input from the land.

TIMELINE OF WORLD AQUACULTURE

3500 BC

Cultivation of carp begins in China using freshwater ponds and rice paddies

2500 BC

Hieroglyphics indicate tilapia were being farmed in Egypt

2000 BC

Oyster farming begins in Japan

746 AD

First reference to clam culture appears in Chinese literature

1400

Marine finfish aquaculture begins in Indonesia when young milkfish are trapped in coastal

ponds at high tide.

1600s

Seaweed farming begins in Japan

1733

Fish farming in its modern form begins when a German farmer successfully gathers trout eggs, fertilizes

them, and then grows the hatched fish to maturity

Early 1800s

Oyster farming is further developed by the French by placing strings of tiles in water for oyster larvae to

settle on and then transplanting the larvae to protected beds.

Oyster farming expands to the Atlantic coast of the U.S

1853

An Ohio trout farm becomes the first in the U.S. to artificially fertilize its fish eggs

1880s

Aquaculturists experiment with lobster and winter flounder aquaculture in New England

1909

The first commercial trout farm in the U.S. established in Idaho

1910

State and federal hatcheries in the U.S. develop channel catfish farming techniques

  

1919

Washington’s oyster farming industry begins when Pacific oysters from Japan are placed in

coastal waters

1930s

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Farm Pond Program encourages the growth of the U.S. aquaculture

industry by providing federal subsidies for building and stocking fishponds on farms.

Researchers in Japan make major advances in shrimp farming techniques

1934

Raft culture of scallop developed in Japan

1940s

Tilapia farming introduced to the Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S

1950s

Netpen aquaculture is introduced in Japan for the commercial culture of yellowtail

1951

Intensive seaweed farming begins in China

1960s

Commercial shrimp farming develops in Japan and soon begins in Ecuador and the U.S

Late 1960s

Sea bass production begins in the Mediterranean.

First commercial salmon farms are established in Norway and Scotland

1970s

U.S. catfish farm acreage grows from 400 acres in 1960 to 40,000 in 1970.

After nearly collapsing due to disease and a saturated world salmon market, Norway grows to become the world’s top salmon-farming nation.

Salmon farming expands to the U.S. and Canada.

Abalone hatcheries develop in California.

Mussel aquaculture develops on both coasts of the U.S

1976

New Zealand’s first commercial salmon farm is established.

World aquaculture production is estimated to be 6.1 million metric tons (mt)

 1980s

The National Aquaculture Act of 1980 is passed in the US to provide for the development of the

aquaculture industry.

Sturgeon farming begins in California.

The commercial farming of hard clams, or quahogs, begins in New England

1981

Manila clam farming begins in Washington and California

1984

World aquaculture production reaches 10 million mt, contributing 12 percent of the world’s

aquatic food supply

1985

Salmon farming introduced in Australia

Late 1980s

Shrimp farming industries in Asia and South America undergo rapid expansion

Early 1990s

World aquaculture production in 1990 is 13 million mt.

Research begins in the Mediterranean on the feasibility of off-shore aquaculture.

U.S. striped bass and tilapia aquaculture industries develop.

The Irish sea trout fishery collapses because of sea lice infestations believed to be caused

by salmon farms.

Shrimp farming industries in many parts of the world collapse due to outbreaks of disease.

Alaska bans commercial netpen fish farms to protect its wild fisheries

1991

Tuna farming, in which juvenile wild fish are captured and then fattened in cages, is established in

Australia

1992

Snapper aquaculture begins in Australia

1994

Between 1984-1994, world aquaculture production grows on average 11 percent per year.

Maine begins commercial seaweed aquaculture

1995

The British Columbia government places a moratorium on new salmon farm tenures in

order to conduct an environmental review of the industry.

World aquaculture production is 24 million mt

1996

Canadian researchers patent transgenic salmon

1997

Canada announces plans to fund research in cod farming

1998

Sea bream culture grows from 110 mt in 1985 to 41,900 mt in 1998

1999

World aquaculture production grows 154% over the 1990s. Production tops

33 million mt and contributes nearly one-third of the aquatic food supply.

Production of farmed salmon exceeds the amount of salmon caught in the wild

2000

Farmed salmon production tops one million mt.

Research begins on new aquaculture species such as flounder, sablefish and halibut.

American aquaculturists induce spawning in cobia, marking the first step towards

commercial cobia farming

2001

Since 1989, close to three million Atlantic salmon have been reported escaped from

farms in British Columbia, Washington, Maine, and Scotland.

Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) spreads to Maine forcing salmon farmers to slaughter

over 1 million fish

2002

Traces of illegal antibiotics are detected in farmed shrimp imported from Asia.

Officials in British Columbia announce plans to lift the moratorium on new salmon farms.

Australia’s bluefin tuna farmers produced 9,245 mt for a value of AU $260.5 million, a three-fold

increase in five years

2003

Salmon farmers in Maine are found in violation of the Clean Water Act and ordered to fallow their sites for two to three years and cease the use of European strains of fish at their farms.

Commercially farmed cod available in the US for the first time.

Offshore fish farming projects, funded by NOAA, exist in Hawaii, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and the Gulf of Mexico.