II.

History

Aquaculture was developed more than 2,000 years ago in countries such as China, Rome, and Egypt. Not long after, aquacultural practices in Europe, China, and Japan commonly involved stocking wild-caught seed—for example, carp fingerlings (juvenile fish) captured from rivers—in ponds or other bodies of water for further growth.

Mollusk culture was advanced in the 1200s by the discovery in France that mussel spat (newly settled juveniles) would settle on upright posts in the intertidal zone, and in the 1600s by the discovery in Japan that oyster spat would settle on upright bamboo stakes driven into the sea floor. The concept of pond fertilization was developed in Europe about 1500. In this process, manure is added to the water to encourage the growth of small organisms such as aquatic invertebrates and plankton, which in turn are eaten by the fish.

The United States system of federal hatcheries for the propagation of anadromous fishes (fishes that live and mature in salt water but reproduce in fresh water) was established in the 1870s. Much of the current technology used to reproduce fish in hatcheries has been developed by these federal hatcheries. In 1959 the first marine shrimp hatchery and farm was established in Japan, and it was the forerunner of the commercial shrimp-culture industry. The salmon-culture industry in Europe and the channel-catfish-culture industry (see Catfish) in the United States both began in the 1960s.