The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has recommended an increase in aquaculture activity to meet the rising global demand for seafood products.
"If overall production is to keep pace with an expanding world population…future growth will have to come from aquaculture," the report said.
According to the Times Online, aquaculture has taken off within the past 50 years. In the early 1950s, less than a million tonnes of fish were produced a year; by 2006, however, production levels had risen to 51.7 million tonnes. Around 520 million people, or eight percent of the global population, relies on fish farming for their protein, income or family stability.