Aquaculture is both one of the oldest and youngest agricultural sources of protein in the world. There is evidence of aquaculture practices that date back around 6000 years. However, large scale intensive farming of aquaculture is a much more recent innovation. The FAO reports that in 2016, the total cultured production of all aquatic species exceeded the total marine catch, and aquaculture continues to grow by over 8% each year.
The top 5 producers in the world today are China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. By weight, finfish accounts for the largest percentage of production (67.6%), followed by mollusks (21.4%) and crustaceans (9.8%). This is a long way from 1950 where cultured species accounted for only a tiny fraction of harvested aquatic species. New and reliable sources of animal protein are essential for feeding an expected population of 9.7 billion people in 2050.
The biggest concerns facing aquaculture today are disease pressures and water quality issues. With high intensity culture, the risk of economic loss can be enormous. Biological diseases are present in the environment naturally, but aquatic species are more susceptible under high stress. Maintaining good water quality with low disease pressures is critical for preventing losses. Also, maintaining good water quality is important for mitigating environmental harm presented by hyper-eutrophication of downstream watersheds.
NCH Life Sciences ACTPRO™ technology utilizes a unique blend of Bacillus species combined with our patent pending ECOcharger™ 1000 activation systems to help our customers maintain good water quality and increase production potentials. Find out more about our aquaculture solutions here.