Aquaculture in China

Aquaculture in China

Intensive mariculture occurs along China's 14,500 km (9,000 mi) coastline
General characteristics (2004 unless otherwise stated)
Lake area	196,000 km2 (76,000 sq mi) (incl reservoirs)
River area	74,550 km2 (28,780 sq mi)
Land area	9,326,410 km2 (3,600,950 sq mi)
Employment	7.9 million persons (2004)
Consumption	25.8 kg (57 lb) fish per capita (2003)
Harvest (2004 unless otherwise stated)
Wild total	19.9 million tonnes (21,900,000 tons)
Aquaculture total	32.4 million tonnes (35,700,000 tons) (2005)
Fish total	49.5 million tonnes (54,600,000 tons) (2005)

China, with one-fifth of the world's population, accounts for two-thirds of the worlds reported aquaculture production.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish and other aquatic life in enclosures, such as ponds, lakes and tanks, or cages in rivers and coastal waters. China's 2005 reported harvest was 32.4 million tonnes, more than 10 times that of the second-ranked nation, India, which reported 2.8 million tonnes.

China's 2005 reported catch of wild fish, caught in rivers, lakes, and the sea, was 17.1 million tonnes. This means that aquaculture accounts for nearly two-thirds of China's reported total output.

The principal aquaculture-producing regions are close to urban markets in middle and lower Yangtze valley and the Zhu Jiang delta.

Aquaculture began about 3500 BC in China with the farming of the common carp. These carp were grown in ponds on silk farms, and were fed silkworm nymphs and faeces. Carp are native to China. They are good to eat, and they are easy to farm since they are prolific breeders, do not eat their young, and grow fast. The original idea that carp could be cultured most likely arose when they were washed into ponds and paddy fields during monsoons. This would lead naturally to the idea of stocking ponds.

In 475 BC, the Chinese politician Fan Li wrote the earliest known treatise on fish farming, Yang Yu Ching (Treatise on fish breeding). The original document is in the British Museum.

During the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), the farming of common carp was banned because the Chinese word for common carp (鯉) sounded like the emperor's family name, Li (李). Anything that sounded like the emperor's name could not be kept or killed. The ban had a productive outcome, because it resulted in the development of polyculture, growing multiple species in the same ponds. Different species feed on different foods and occupy different niches in the ponds. In this way, the Chinese were able to simultaneously breed four different species of carp, the mud carp, which are bottom feeders, silver carp and bighead carp, which are midwater feeders, and grass carp which are top feeders. Another development during the Tang dynasty was a fortunate genetic mutation of the domesticated carp, which led to the development of goldfish.