The global commercial production for human use of fish and other aquatic organisms occurs in two ways: they are either captured wild by

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

or they are cultivated and harvested using aquacultural and

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

techniques. According to the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

(FAO), the world production in 2005 consisted of 93.2 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s captured by

wild fisheries A wild fishery is a natural body of water with a sizeable free-ranging fish or other aquatic animal (crustaceans and molluscs) population that can be harvested for its commercial value. Wild fisheries can be marine ( saltwater) or lacustrine/ ...

, plus 48.1 million tonnes produced by

fish farm Fish farming or pisciculture involves commercial breeding of fish, most often for food, in fish tanks or artificial enclosures such as fish ponds. It is a particular type of aquaculture, which is the controlled cultivation and harvesting of aq ...

s. In addition, 1.3 million tons of

aquatic plants Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). In lakes, rivers and wetlands, aquatic vegetations provide cover for aquat ...

(

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), '' Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

etc.) were captured in wild fisheries and 14.8 million tons were produced by

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

. The number of individual fish caught in the wild has been estimated at 0.97-2.7 trillion per year (not counting fish farms or marine invertebrates).A Mood and P Brooke (July 2010)
Estimating the Number of Fish Caught in Global Fishing Each Year
FishCount.org.uk.

Marine and inland fisheries

Capture production by species

The following table shows the capture production by groups of species (fish,

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s, etc.) in tonnes.

Projected production

The following table shows the fish production in 2004 and projections for 2010 and later simulation target years.FAO (2005) Part 4. All figures, other than percentages, are in million tonnes.

Charts

Notes

References

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...

(2005
''Review of the state of world marine fishery resources.''
Fisheries technical paper T457, *

(2006
''Yearbooks of Fishery Statistics Summary Tables''
*

(2007
''State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006''
Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Rome. *

(2009
''State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008''
Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Rome. *

(2010
''State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2010''
Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Rome. *

Yearbook (2008) tp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0400t/i0400t.zip Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics 2006Rome. *

Summary tables of Fishery Statistics
Rome. Retirved 28 November 2009. *

Fishery resources
Rome. {{fisheries and fishing Fishing industry