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Aquaculture is
thousands of years old in Asia, but here in the US it is relatively new. Our
government got involved in the late 1800s by importing common carp and brown
trout to raise for food. Presently, figures from 1995 showed that world
aquaculture production reached a record of 21 million metric tons of fish and
shellfish worth more than 36 billion in US dollars. China makes up 60% by
weight of the worlds total (mostly in carp). The US only accounts for about
2% of the worlds total. Here in the
US over 100 species of aquatic organisms are farmed, 60% are freshwater fish
of which 50% of that is catfish. The rest is mostly trout, salmon, and some
sturgeon. The dominant molluscs
produced are the American oyster and the Pacific (Japanese) oyster.
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