Current Status, Problems, Solution Suggestions and Future Focuses of Aquaculture in Türkiye

In Türkiye, a significant amount of production is carried out by both fishing (sea and freshwater fisheries) and aquaculture. Aquaculture, especially in recent years, offers great potential for sustainable fish production and economic gain.

Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) are popular fish especially in the Mediterranean region (Llorente et al., 2020), and are extensively farmed in Türkiye. Since the 2000s, Türkiye has achieved a great increase in gilt-head sea bream and seabass farming, and has become one of the world leaders in this field. By 2020, Türkiye's total sea bream and sea bass production reached over 200,000 tonnes (FEAP, 2022)

As of 2020, a total of 422,837 tonnes of fish were produced by aquaculture in the Mediterranean. Seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) accounted for 49.8%, gilt-head bream (Sparus aurata) 44.7%, meagre (Argyrosomus regius) 2.7%, turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) 2.6%, and Solea (Solea senegelansis) 0.2% of production. 49.3% of these fish were produced by Türkiye, 28.9% by Greece, 10.2% by Spain, 4% by Italy, and 3.5% by Croatia and Cyprus, France, Portugal, respectively (FEAP, 2022).

By 2020, a total of 356,318 tonnes of fish were produced by aquaculture in fresh waters in European countries. According to the species, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) was produced at the rate of 77.6%, Eurasian carp (Cyprinus carpio) 17.2%, wels catfish (Silurus glanis) 2.2%, European eel (Anguilla anguilla) 1.3%, and others amounting to 1.8% of production. Approximately a quarter (28.8%) of these fish were produced by Türkiye, 13.8% by Poland, 11.4% by France, 10.8% by Italy, 9.6% by Denmark, 5.1% by Hungary, 5.7% by Czech Republic, 5.6% by Spain, 3.9% by Germany, 2.2% in England, and 1.5% in Holland and Croatia, Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, respectively. (FEAP, 2022)

In addition to gilt-head bream, sea bass and rainbow trout, Türkiye produces bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) and Turkish salmon (Oncorhynchus mykiss) species. Mussel breeding facilities are also established, and continues to develop.

The aquaculture sector in Türkiye has some problems as in every developing aquaculture sector in the world. It is important to analyze these problems and develop appropriate mitigation strategies. At the same time, it is better to incorporate scientific advances into the solution.

Extra nutrient and waste pollution may occur in the waters where aquaculture activities are carried out in the world scale. This kind of situation causes problems. Human-caused terrestrial pollution creates problems in aquaculture production areas. Sustainable application and long-term preservation of healthy marine ecosystems are critical.