Aquaculture is a must for Australia and the world. Only aquaculture can meet the growing human need for seafood, a source of nutrition whose health benefits are increasingly recognised. It will help to spare wild fishery stocks which have generally reached their limits. Well-designed aquaculture systems can be a benefit rather than a drain on the environment, a guarantor of water quality, and a user of otherwise degraded areas. Aquaculture is so diverse, it can provide worthwhile employment for all regions and most social environments.
Australian aquaculture is a newcomer by international standards.
Farming of carp and tilapia is said to go back to 2000BC, and oysters were farmed by the Romans. Salmon, trout and eels have been farmed for about 150 years. 15 years ago, by contrast, the farming of seafood barely existed in Australia. Oysters were grown, much as they had been for over a century, and small quantities of trout and mussels were produced. But there were no salmon, no farmed prawns, tuna, barramundi or abalone.