The earliest documentation of aquaculture is found in written records from China for nearly 3000 years ago. China is currently in a class of its own with a huge production of freshwater fishes and seaweed.

Globally there is a vast diversity of different aquaculture species and farming methods. There is production in fresh water, in sea water and in brackish water. The methods range from highly intensive production (industrialized farming) as we are accustomed to in Norway, to semi intensive farming and extensive farming. The latter may be fish that are set out in earth dams as a result of what the ecosystem can offer or releasing of lobster in the sea with the intent to recapture them later.

[picture1right]The figure to the right gives an overview of the fish species with the greatest production in 2006. Farmed atlantic salmon, witch Norway is the world leader of, does not reach the top ten list. Number one on the list is the macro algae Laminaria (seaweed) a with production of nearly 5 million tons. As the figure shows it is produced large amounts of various carp species in the world. The pacific cupped oyster is also produced in large quantities in a number of countries throughout the world. In comparison, the total production of atlantic salmon was a little more than 1,300,000 tons in 2006.