**Introduction**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Importance of Plant and**

**Introductory Chapter: Importance of Plant and** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81762

Aquaculture is an economic activity that presents a rhythm of global production with a sustained growth of 10–11% per year during the last years, with expectations of equating production by extractive fishing in 2025 [1]. It currently contributes about 50% of the world fish supply, and is considered to be one of the main economic activities of this century. In 2010, world aquaculture production was around 59.9 million tons; where freshwater fish dominated production (56.4%), followed by the cultivation of invertebrates such as mollusks

It is an activity that encompasses very varied practices, and a wide range of species, systems and production techniques. Aquaculture can be defined as the production of aquatic organisms with techniques aimed at making their performance more efficient. It is worth mentioning that more than half of the total amount of food of aquatic origin consumed today by the world population, as well as products destined for non-food uses, comes from aquaculture farms where fish, crustaceans, micro algae, mollusks and other invertebrates are raised [1, 4, 5]. Particularly, invertebrates make up 95% of the animals that inhabit our planet. Due to its great biodiversity, it has not been possible to study in its entirety. There are species of mollusks, crustaceans and echinoderms that are consumed by man and therefore are the object of artisanal or massive fishing, which can lead to problems of population reductions, local extinctions or loss of genetic diversity [3], thus Aquaculture is a good

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Invertebrates in Aquaculture**

**Invertebrates in Aquaculture**

Ruth Escamilla-Montes and Genaro Diarte-Plata

Ruth Escamilla-Montes and Genaro Diarte-PlataAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81762

(23.6%) and crustaceans (9.6%) [2].

alternative to solve this problem.

**1. Introduction**

## **Introductory Chapter: Importance of Plant and Invertebrates in Aquaculture Introductory Chapter: Importance of Plant and Invertebrates in Aquaculture**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81762

Ruth Escamilla-Montes and Genaro Diarte-Plata

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Ruth Escamilla-Montes and Genaro Diarte-PlataAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81762
