NEW YORK – Feb 5, 2011 – Aquaculture is overtaking traditional fishing in global production, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) reported this week. But a scientist with the organisation predicted that growth would slow as space for the food farms dwindled and concerns grew about their effects on the environment.
Fish farming is the fastest growing area of animal food production, having increased at a 6.6-per-cent annual rate from 1970 to 2008, the agency said in the report. Over that period, the global per-capita supply of farm-raised fish soared from 0.7kg to to 17.8kg.
In volume, aquaculture now makes up 46 per cent of the world's supply of consumed fish, and the sector appears to have overtaken wild fisheries in commercial value, reaching US$98.4 billion in 2008, compared with US$93.9 billion for fish caught in the wild.
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