Aquaculture
Summary
Aquaculture – the controlled cultivation of fish, shellfish, crustaceans and aquatic plants – has become a vital pillar of global food security and economic growth. With wild‐capture fisheries plateauing, farmed production now supplies nearly half of all seafood consumed worldwide. Systems range from extensive pond and pen culture of carp and tilapia to intensive recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for salmon and prawn hatcheries. Emerging practices such as integrated multi‐trophic aquaculture (IMTA) recycle wastes by co‐culturing seaweeds and shellfish alongside fed species, reducing nutrient loads and enhancing biomass yield. Key challenges include minimising reliance on wild‐caught fishmeal, managing disease and mortalities at high stocking densities, and limiting environmental impacts such as eutrophication and habitat modification. Advances in selective breeding, vaccination and on‐farm diagnostics improve stock resilience, while novel feed ingredients and biofloc technologies offer pathways to more sustainable nutrient use. Together, these innovations underpin the transformation of aquaculture into a robust, low‐impact food sector able to meet growing demands for protein and employment across diverse coastal and inland communities.
Research from Nature Portfolio
A novel immersion treatment has been shown to control a newly described parasitic copepod on squid eggs by applying peracetic acid (PAA) at precise concentrations. Brief exposures to PAA solutions eradicated all infective stages within minutes while preserving embryo survival and larval growth, demonstrating a targeted oxidative approach to pathogen control in cephalopod hatcheries. In a pilot‐scale study beneath mussel long-lines, two Mediterranean sea cucumber species were caged to evaluate their bioremediation potential. One species exhibited high survival and growth, suggesting selective deployment of deposit‐feeding holothurians can mitigate organic wastes from bivalve farms and generate additional harvestable biomass. A retrospective analysis of Atlantic salmon cohorts in Norway identified key production, environmental and treatment variables that influence baseline mortality. Non-medicinal lice delousing methods, seasonal stocking schedules and sea-surface conditions were among the factors shown to modulate monthly death rates in marine cages, offering actionable insights for syndromic surveillance and targeted husbandry adjustments.
Aquaculture publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in aquaculture across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA): A system in which species from different trophic levels are co-cultured so that the by-products of one species serve as inputs (e.g. nutrients, detritus) for another.
Peracetic acid (PAA): A potent oxidant used as a disinfectant in aquaculture to control pathogens through targeted oxidative mechanisms.
Biofloc: A suspension of microbial aggregates formed by promoting heterotrophic bacteria and other microorganisms to consume excess nutrients, which can then be harvested as supplemental feed.
Baseline mortality: The regular, non-outbreak mortality rate within a cultured cohort, used as a benchmark for health monitoring and management.
Monoterpene anaesthetic: A naturally occurring plant compound with sedative effects on fish, offering welfare-friendly alternatives to conventional chemical agents.
References
- Peracetic acid treatment of squid eggs infected with parasitic copepod (Ikanecator primus gen. et sp. nov.). Scientific Reports (2024).
- Evaluating sea cucumbers as extractive species for benthic bioremediation in mussel farms. Scientific Reports (2023).
- Factors associated with baseline mortality in Norwegian Atlantic salmon farming. Scientific Reports (2021).
- Effects of Different Carbon Sources on the Growth and Production of Rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis) in a Zero‐Water Exchange Biofloc Culture System. Aquaculture Research (2024).
- Negative association of sea lice from fish farms on recreational fishing catches of Atlantic salmon. Journal of Applied Ecology (2024).
- A meta‐analytic review of monoterpene for fish anaesthesia. Fish and Fisheries (2023).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.