Historic background

Definition

Definition of the word “Aquaculture” by the FAO:

Rearing of aquatic organisms (fish, molluscs, crustaceans, aquatic plants etc.) with the following two conditions :

• Human intervention in the process of increasing production: regular management, feeding, protection, etc.
• The stock being reared is someone’s legal property

Although the first condition is easy to understand, the idea of property is more complex. A fish farmer rearing trout will have bought the eggs or fry. This stock was therefore obtained by a financial transaction. The same is the case for a shellfish farmer who buys spat and puts it to grow on a leased area for which he or she pays rent. The situation is less clear when young salmon are released that will perhaps return in several years to breed. Who do they belong to? Are they the property of the producers who originally released them, or of the fishermen? The FAO made a decision for this case : these fish were aquacultural products, but became fishery products.

History

2000 B.C.	Rudimentary fish farming	Carp in China Tilapia in Egypt
600 B.C.	Oysters placed in on-bottom growing areas (parcs)	Greece
15th century A.D.	“Valliculture” (fish captured as they moved up into brackish water and maintained in an enclosure)	Italy
18th century	Discovery of artificial fertilisation Application to salmonids
19th century	Transplantation of salmonids Development of oyster farming	Europe
1950	Eel farming	Japan
1960	Massive increase in rainbow trout farming	Europe North America
1970	Sea ranching Aquaculture of seriola, catfish and scallops
1980	“New aquaculture” with production of salmon, shrimp, seabass and seabream
1990	Emergence of turbot, sturgeon and tropical species like grouper, barramundi and umbrine
2000	Tuna capture and on-growing

Ifremer / Yves Harache