Advantages And Disadvantages Of Aquaculture

Aquaculture is the cultivation or farming of aquatic organisms like fish, molluscs, crustaceans for human and animal consumption. Various species of crustaceans, fish, molluscs, etc are cultivated in a variety of environments ranging from ponds, rivers to open oceans. The production from aquaculture is segregated. The flesh and edible parts are sold in market for human consumption while the by-products and offal such as viscera, bones and other inedible parts are processed for use in animal feed. Aquaculture is the world's fastest-growing and highly demanded source of animal protein and currently provides about half of all fish consumed globally. Although aquaculture is ancient, decreased wild fisheries and increased global population consistent with increased purchasing power have

Fishmeal, prepared from of fish, mainly from small, wild-caught marine fish that contain a high percentage of oil and bones is considered the best source of protein as it contains 60-72% of crude protein by weight and has many advantages like it is highly palatable (it is seen that Glutamic acid imparts palatability), a very good amino acid profile as it contains almost all essential amino acids especially, Methionine, Lysine and Tryptophan, is highly digestible and has low amount of carbohydrates. Some of the nutrients in fishmeal also aid in disease resistance by boosting the immune system.. Production of fishmeal and oil averaged 6.5 and 1.3 million metric tonnes (mmt), respectively, over the past 20 years. However, during some time production is higher and while sometimes lower. Variability in production is associated with the variability in land area of fish used to make fishmeal. The paramount source of variability in land area is the El Nino events in the eastern Pacific Ocean that affect land area in Peru and, to a lesser extent, northern Chile. Landings in this area can decrease by 4^5