Unit 2

Aquaculture constitutes the fastest growing industry of animal – sourced products in the world. The average annual growth rate since 1970 is close to 10%, when the corresponding average growth rate for fisheries and land animal production is much lower. About 50% of fish intended for human consumption comes from fish farming, while the growing demand for fish in the coming years is expected to be met by fish farming. Fish farming is also considered one of the most environmentally friendly food production practices. Its products are the most efficient method of producing animal protein. In recent years, Greece, responding in a timely manner to the emerging challenges and prospects in the production of aquaculture products, has shown an impressive growth in this sector and has grown at a pace that has made it one of the largest producers of sea bream and sea bass in the wider Mediterranean. For its viability, however, the industry is now called upon to address a variety of productive issues, mainly related to disease, nutrition and farmed fish breeding. In particular, the need to find new and effective antimicrobials, the pressures exerted by the production of fish nutrition on natural stocks of fish populations and the search for alternatives (side effects), but also the improvement of fish breeding technology are some of the most important industries. These priorities are covered in this section with three guidelines. The first concerns the evaluation of new antimicrobials for the treatment of serious pathological conditions in the breeding of marine fish. The second relates to alternative fish feeds for sustainable fish farming and the study of anti-nutritional agents. The third is based on improving the production of farmed fish sperm and assessing its quality using Computer Assisted Sperm Analysis (CASA).