Main challenges facing the aquaculture sector: From a worldwide insight to a regional perspective

Aquaculture already accounts for 47% of the world production of fish for human consumption. Despite having in Europe severe restrictive policies against overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices, the European aquaculture production stands clearly below its potential (in 2007, it represented only 2.6% in volume and 5.1% in value of the world production). Portuguese aquaculture production merely represents 0.6% of the EU-27 and a residual 0.016% of the world total. The Algarve has excellent natural conditions for the development of aquaculture. Besides, the production of bivalve molluscs in nurseries located in the lagoons of Ria Formosa and Ria de Alvor, since 2008 this region has showed a very interesting capacity to attract significant investments namely on offshore production systems. The aim of the current paper is to characterize, starting from the wider context of world fisheries, the current situation of the Portuguese aquaculture sector with a particular emphasis to the Algarve’s case.