Common aquaculture species

Common aquaculture species

As mentioned, there are several species of finfish, shellfish and plants that are used in experimental or commercial aquaculture. Several new species including unconventional members are being recruited to aquaculture recently, as signified bythe increasing list of producer species in annual production reports. Besides the conventional categories, for example, the production data for 1999 show that 19371 tons of tunicates and 86389 tons of turtles were produced through aquaculture. The interest in inducting more aquatic species into farming is increasing, as is evident from the trends in several countries (EAS, 2001). However, the bulk of present-day production is based on a smaller number of species (see Table 2.2). The more important of them are listed below, along with species for which appreciable progress has been made in developing culture technologies. The list is not claimed to be exhaustive and is based on gross evaluations as it was found not feasible to use precise criteria. The list of farmed aquatic organisms presented here is based on species listings in FAO aquaculture production statistics for the year 2000 (FAO, 2002). It should be noted that besides finfishes, crustaceans and molluscs the list includes amphibians (frogs) and reptiles (turtles, but not crocodiles) and a single ascidian, as given in the FAO report.