Aquaculture in America

Is it worth it?

Benefits, Costs and the Future.

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Aquaculture, or fish farming, is the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants with some sort of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated. (As defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO).

Like all agricultural processes, aquaculture comes with positive and negative consequences. Find out more about aquaculture, its benefits and risks, and the future of aquaculture in the United States. While aquaculture includes the production of ornamental fish species, this website focuses on the production of fish meant for human consumption.

Aquaculture is being called the next agricultural revolution because of the great changes it is generating in the production of shellfish and finfish products. While aquaculture has been in practice for thousands of years, commercial development really took off in the 1980's due to demand. In the past 15 years, global fish farm production has more than doubled (2). Farmed fish accounted for 25% of all fish consumed in 2000, and it is predicted that by 2025 it will contribute 50% to global consumption of seafood (FAO).

With approximately 4,000 US fish farms, aquaculture accounts for about 8-10% of domestic fish production and is the fastest growing sector of agriculture (1).

The orange and red areas on the map to the right show the major areas of the US practicing aquaculture.

(From US Department of Agriculture, 2002 Agriculture Census)

Fish farms fall into several categories based on where the farms are located and how they function. Some common types are: open net pens suspended in the marine water column (as shown in the picture below and left); inland ponds holding fresh or salt water and fish (as shown in the picture below and right); raceways that enclose fish in a channel system that flows continuous fresh water; recirculating systems that enclose fish in tanks of treated, filtered and recirculated water; and shellfish culture in which oysters, clams and mussels are grown on beaches or suspended in seawater by ropes, plastic trays or mesh bags.(3) These types of facilities contribute to the benefits and risks of aquaculture in unique and similar manners.