**2.1 Aquaculture in Tunisia**

In Tunisia, according to the General Directorate of the Environment and Quality of Life [18], 5 types of aquatic livestock farming activities currently exist: marine fish farming, inland fish farming, fish farming in geothermal waters, shellfish farming and tuna grow-out. These aquaculture activities date back to the 1960s and they started with the rearing of sea bass *Disentrarchus labrax* and sea bream *Sparus aurata* in marine waters. At that time, the competent authorities set up a strategy for the exploitation of the dams' reservoirs as a significant hydro-ichthyic support. However, the first attempts to introduce freshwater species into the reservoirs have proven that only carp (*Cyprinus carpio communis*, *Cyprinus carpio specularis*, *C. carpio coriaceus*), roach (*Rutilus rubilio*) rudd (*Scardinius erythrophtalmus*), pikeperch (*Sander lucioperca*), black-bass (*Micropterus salmoides*), mullets (*Chelon ramada*, *Mugil cephalus*) and Nile Tilapia (*O. niloticus*) were able to acclimatize [14, 17, 19]. That said, inland fish farming in water reservoirs and hill lakes in Tunisia remains of paramount importance and contributes with 1000 tons/year in the total fishery production [20].
