What difficulties did the first modern fish farmers encounter?
Successful fish farming requires a supply of fertilized fish eggs from parent fish held in captivity (broodstock), techniques to hatch these eggs and raise the delicate larval fish through their early stages, correctly formulated feeds to promote vigorous growth and constant supervision of the rearing environment so the fish remain healthy. There were challenges in all these stages, but research over the last 60 years has greatly improved our understanding and led to the development of fish farming industries that now play an important part in supplementing wild caught fish supplies. In fact, over a third of the fish we eat today is farmed. A good source of further reading on this is United Nation FAO (2004). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA): http://www.fao.org/sof/sofia/index_en.
