More than one-third of the estimated production of cultured 

 products consists of finfish raised by about a dozen countries in 

 Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Most of this production consists 

 of various species of carp and tilapia reared by low-technology 

 methods in freshwater ponds and species such as mullet and milkfish 

 raised in saltwater ponds along coastal areas. 



In the U.S., aquatic plants are used primarily to produce extracts 

 used as emulsifiers and stabilizers for industrial purposes. In 

 Asia, aquatic plants are also of great importance as food. More 

 than 1 million metric tons are produced annually through 

 aquaculture in Japan, China, and Korea; seaweeds are also grown 

 extensively in tropical waters around Singapore, the Philippines, 

 and elsewhere. 



There has been a world wide expansion of aquaculture over the past 

 15 years. In 1966, a rough estimate of world aquaculture 

 production was given as 1 million metric tons, A partial estimate 

 based on 36 countries in 1972 showed a production of 2.6 million 

 metric tons, and about 6 million metric tons in 1975. The latest 

 estimate is over 9 million metric tons in 1979. These figures 

 probably reflect both increased production and more complete 

 reporting methods. Pillay projected a fivefold increase by the 

 year 2000, whereas Brown, taking a more conservative approach, 

 predicted that output would increase 3 to 3.5 times by the turn of 

 the century. 



U.S. Status 



Except for a limited number of marine and freshwater species, rapid 

 development of private aquaculture in the U.S. and its territories 

 has not occurred as rapidly as some would like to see. Scientific 

 and technological obstacles remain, but the primary constraints to 

 the rapid expansion of aquaculture production are political. 



U.S. President's Science Advisory Committee. Panel on 

 the World Food Supply. 1967. The world food: a report. Vol. II. 

 U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. 



2 



Pillay, T. V. R. 1972. Problems and priorities in 



aquacultural development. Progress in Fishery and Food Science. 



University of Washington Publication Fisheries (New Series) 



5:203-208. 



3 Pillay, T. V. R. 1976. The state of aquaculture 1976. 

 Paper presented at FAD Technical Conference on Aquaculture, Kyoto, 

 Japan. 26 May-2 June 1976. 



A 



Brown, E.E. 1977. World fish farming: cultivation and 



economics. The Avi Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, 



Connecticut. 397 p. 



