Current Status of Sparidae Aquaculture

Abstract

The Sparidae, commonly called breams and porgies, is a family of the order Perciformes and includes about 115 species, mainly marine coastal fish, of high economic value, exploited and farmed for human consumption, as well as for recreational purposes. In terms of aquaculture, the Sparidae production in 2006 accounted for 244,153 mtn, and represented 6.8% of the volume and 14.5% of the value of the production of Percoidei fishes (a suborder including the tilapias, breams, seabasses, groupers, etc.). Although the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) aquaculture statistics compiles data for about 20 Sparidae species—some of them with discontinued records of production—more than 75% of the production is referred to just two species, the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata, 107,620 mtn) cultured mainly in the Mediterranean Sea, and the red sea bream (Pagrus major, 75,754 mtn) cultured in the Asia-Pacific region. The present chapter is an updated review of the characteristics of the main aquacultured species, the production cycle, and the production volume of all species with FAO statistics records. A special emphasis is given in the gilthead sea bream farming sector, because it is the Sparid that has shown the fastest and most significant growth during the last two decades. A comparative economic analysis on the ongrowing of several Atlantic-Mediterranean species is also presented.