Title: Tilapia is the Fish for Next - Generation Aquaculture
Abstract: Next-generation sustainable aquacultureThe world population will be 9.3 billion by 2050.Meeting basic human needs for animal protein is a challenge in an increasingly over populated world.Besides livestock, fish is the major source of animal protein supply.The wild fish resource is limited for fisheries [7].Depleting wild stocks is an increasing concern for fishermen, environmental organizations and policy-makers.Sustainable aquaculture can play an important role in the transition to a more environmentally and economically viable fish production [3].Land-based recirculating aquaculture [13], and cage and offshore aquaculture [8] offer a unique combination of protection of wild stocks, socioeconomic benefits, and potential for sustainability and scalability.Such technology could change the way of fish production, leading to the large-scale culture of fish just as has been done with livestock, and thus will be the future of aquaculture.However, aquaculture faces a unique challenge, namely, reliance on wild-caught fish as feed for farming carnivorous fish, which could further contribute to the depletion of fish stocks [2,15].Future aquaculture should add edible protein to the world, rather than reduce it.Therefore, selection of species for aquaculture is critical to ensure sustainable fish supply while conserving wild fish stocks.Fish that do not need fish protein or less fish protein in their feeds will be the future of aquaculture. Tilapia is the fish for next-generation aquacultureAmong the 420 cultured fish species, carps, catfishes and tilapias require less fish meals in their feeds than other species [10].However, carpsare unfamiliar to the Western diet while most cultured catfishes cannot be cultured in seawater.Tilapias have gained widespread popularity, and certain tilapia hybrids can grow in brackish water and seawater [9,12].Therefore, tilapias are the fish for future aquaculture.Tilapias originate from Africa and the Middle East [12].Tilapias are hardy, prolific and fastgrowing tropical fishes.They are low on the food chain, adaptable and herbivorous, feeding mainly on plankton, algae, aquatic macrophytes and other vegetable matter [16,19].Thus, tilapias help to ease the fishing pressure on wild fish stocks [6].Their mild-tasting flesh can be easily adapted to all kinds of uses.The production performances of several breeds and strains have been substantially improved through breeding [4,9,17,18].Farmed tilapias reach market size (i.e.600-900 g) in 6-9 months of culture.Tilapias have been farmed in at least 120 countries [9,12].The