New School Fish Production vs Old School Fish Harvesting

Abstract

Fish farming has been practiced for about 5000 years. Until the mid 1970s, however the majority of fish farming practices were extensive. By the mid 1970s the knowledge of fish diseases, fish nutrition and fish husbandry had advanced to the state that intensive farming was becoming possible. Early attempts at intensive fish farming were still plagued by significant information and knowledge gaps which resulted in many failures. By the mid 1980s enough progress on the know-how of fish farming had been made that intensive fish farming was becoming a global reality. Between the mid 1980s and the present, intensive fish farming has been making great strides. For example, by 1996 the production of salmon on farms exceeded the production of salmon from wild sources and by 2005 approximately 70% of the world salmon was originating from farms. Such rapid increases in production have been made possible only as a result of the rapid increase in the development of intangible assets.