What is aquaculture’s contribution to global seafood production?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) statistics, aquaculture’s contribution to global supplies of fish, crustaceans and molluscs continues to grow, increasing from 3.9 per cent of total production by weight in 1970 to 27.3 per cent in 2000. Aquaculture is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. Worldwide, the sector has increased at an average compounded rate of 9.2 per cent per year since 1970, compared with only 1.4 per cent for capture fisheries and 2.8 per cent for terrestrial farmed meat production systems. The growth of inland water aquaculture production has been particularly strong in China , where it averaged 11.5 per cent per year between 1970 and 2000 compared with 7.0 per cent per year in the rest of the world over the same period. Mariculture production in China increased at an average annual rate of 14 per cent, compared with 5.4 per cent in the rest of the world. In 2000, reported total aquaculture prod
