Fish are the only game hunted today for mass commercial purposes. It is necessary to monitor fishing in wild waters to prevent extinction of some species. For example, the blue humpback whale was an endangered species until 1975 that fishing was temporarily stopped. The Atlantic blue fin has been overfished and is already an endangered species.
There is a move to ban temporarily its trade is underway under the International Trade in Endangered Species. Aquaculture is a relatively new word used to describe the art, science, and business of producing aquatic plants and animals useful to human (Parker 2012, p. 3). Overfishing in the recent past has prompted many people to turn to fish farming. China has been on the top seafood producing country in the world since 1990. In 2003 more than 30% of world fish products and more than 70% of the world aquaculture were produced in China (Leung, Lee & O'Bryen 2007, p.
10). A region in south China called 'Fuqing' is a booming industry for fish farming where the tilapia, eels and shrimp species are popular improving the economic growth. The rapid economic development has been achieved at an environmental cost (Sena, De Silva & Brian, 2010, p. 37). This is because they are able to survive diseases although the illegal chemicals mixed with their food help boost their immunity. It is unfortunate that, the giant ponds in this area are filled with murky brown water.
That has made fish farmers result to mixing illegal veterinary drugs and pesticides with fish feeds. This pollutes water but also is a concern for human health as the sea food has sites of heavy metal that could cause cancer. The biggest challenge in China is water shortage and heavy environment pollution by the toxic waters. Therefore, it is clear that aquaculture will determine the future of fish farming because of the depleted wild fisheries. However, it has shortcomings like environmental degradation and pollution of water.
This calls for regulations which do not augur well with satisfying the growing demand of seafood. It is essential however to consider aquaculture because it will give wild fisheries time to recover and probably fill up again with many species of seafood.
