Marine Fish Farming

The cultivation of marine fish comes over the years gaining greater importance, based on the decline of fishing production and increased demand for this protein source. According to Ward and Myers (2005) in the past 50 years the fishing activity in high-scale in the oceans has interfered in the marine ecosystems, generating major ecological changes and dramatically reducing various fish stocks.

Currently, due to growing demand for this type of food worldwide, there is a pressure on the scientific community and producers in search of improvements in the system and management. It is known that the main challenges today are fighting diseases, studies about the best place for the cultivation of a particular species, the search for replacement of protein source in the feed and breeding with the goal of finding the best features expressed by any species. Therefore, there is a huge field to evolve and develop the activity, which is relatively new when compared to other animal farming systems. In addition, an important factor to be considered with respect to the cultivation of marine fish is the legislation involved, which in most countries is an obstacle to the development of the activity due to high bureaucracy involved to acquire areas for production, especially in off-shore or near-shore systems.

Some aspects are fundamental when it seeks to establish a marine fish farming, including the selection of species, area and cultivation system, the feed being used and your commercial availability, the availability of seed in the region, transportation and logistics, technologies employed in rearing, fattening and breeding, the knowledge of diseases and prophylactic and therapeutic treatments and funding and qualified personnel. This book is intended for professionals, students and researchers who are interested in meeting some aspects of the current situation of production of marine fishes worldwide.