New FAO aquaculture report

Fish traps on the Boro River
Photo courtesy of Hannelore Bendsen

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released an advance copy of of its report, State of World Aquaculture 2006 at the agency's biennial meeting of the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture held this week in New Delhi. The FAO's most recent global assessment of wild fish stocks discovered that out of the nearly 600 species groups it monitors, 52 percent are fully exploited while 25 percent are either overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. Twenty percent are moderately exploited, with just three percent ranked as underexploited. Farmed fish represent 43 % of fish consumed in the world today.

The report, available online, looks at markets as well as the impact of aquaculture on the environment and biodiversity. In HOORC's Library you can find Aquaculture : an introductory text, Aquaculture : principles and practices , and Aquaculture and the environment.