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To meet increasing demand for fish protein in light of declining stocks and diminishing capture of wild fish, the use of commercial aquaculture—colloquially known as fish farming—has expanded significantly in recent years.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has estimated in 2008 that by 2030, annual commercial aquaculture production will need to increase by an additional 28.8 MM MT (i.e., 80.5 MM MT total) in order to maintain per capita fish consumption at current levels.
The recently issued (2010) Dietary Guidelines for Americans specifically recommend that Americans increase the amount and variety of seafood consumed by choosing seafood in place of some meat and poultry. These guidelines indicate that consumption of seafood, which provides an average consumption of 250 mg per day of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, is associated with reduced cardiac deaths among individuals with and without pre-existing cardiovascular disease, and thus recommend the consumption of higher levels of seafood to help prevent heart disease. These recommendations are expected to further contribute to increased demands for seafood in the future.
The dominant interest in genetically modified salmon and several other genetically modified fish species has been to increase growth rate and feed conversion efficiency, which are principal drivers of production and the economic viability of commercial farming operations (for all production agriculture). The development of what is now known as AquAdvantage Salmon began in 1989 and is the most commercially advanced of those efforts to date.
