ABSTRACT
It is well recognized that the political, governmental and societal interactions of capture and production of fish are as complex and diverse as its myriad inherent types; deriving, also, from the very nature of our interaction with the animal. We recreationally and nostalgically catch fish in lakes and rivers; we hunt them down in the ocean in massive quantities; we farm them. There are over 25,000 species of fish, most of them still roaming wild in the yet untamed ocean. Many species have been domesticated for farm production, and while the number of farmed species is limited by consumer preferences and the constraints of farming methods, consumption of not only seafood, but farmed seafood, is on the rise. In 2012, worldwide consumption of farmed fish surpassed that of beef (Larsen and Roney, 2013) as well as wild caught fish (FAO, 2012), for the first time in modern history. As the New York Times put it: ‘Fishing is the only part of global food production in which the tillers and breeders of the world are not dominant, and [in 2013], the last stronghold of the hunter-gatherers will be eclipsed’ (Leisher, 2013). In other words, aquaculture (fish farming) has taken its place on the world food production stage. The trend is projected to continue and our consumption of fish is projected to increase (OECD/FAO, 2014).
