Aquaculture has the potential to be an environmentally sound, profit making business. Whether this will be the case depends on the owners of these farms to conduct business with an eye toward the future and being stewards and caretakers of their environment.  Profits will accrue over the long term if the environment continues to be healthy.

A regional conference was held in Yerevan, in 2009, with the participation of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Network of Aquaculture Centers of Central-Eastern Europe.  Their meeting notes provide a suitable framework for understanding aquaculture’s future in Armenia (to access the notes click on “Conference Report” when webpage opens).

The report’s main points:

There has been a gradual increase in aquaculture production since 1996, which will be likely to continue.

Aquaculture will remain an important supplier of healthy food for local population, however, export activity especially niche market segments will offer new opportunities.

It is a great challenge to satisfy the increasing demand for fish and seafood by local products. Aquaculture will continue to be a significant contributor to rural development, particularly through various forms of pond fish farming.

Aquaculture is important for recovery of species diversity in natural water bodies.

According to aquaculturepro.com, aquaculture enterprises will soon provide half of the world’s fish.

The long-term costs of environmental damage and public health threats are finally being accounted for around the world. Environmental degradation comes at an immediate and obvious ecological cost. But, the effects on public health (i.e. costs of treatment and loss of labor due to illness), as well as the eventual loss of the resource itself, lead to significant detrimental impacts on local, regional, and national economies. As economists increasingly study the impacts of environmental damage to national economies, it is becoming clear that economic profit can and should be based on environmental protection, not in contradiction to it.

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