If in the past aquaculture has represented an alternative practice to fishing, modern aquaculture is rather a real production need.
Aquaculture is the "cultivation" of water for the collection of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and algae. It can be made in salt, brackish, sweet water and anywhere in the world.
Based on human intervention on the production activity, aquaculture is divided into: intensive, extensive and semi-intensive.
Intensive aquaculture is a form of farming in which fish species, farmed on dry land or in sea cages, do not feed naturally, but are fed directly by humans.
Extensive aquaculture is a form of farming in which the species farmed within lagoons, coastal ponds or lakes, feed in a totally autonomous and natural way with resources supplied by the environment.
Semi-intensive aquaculture is a form of farming in an intermediate position between the total exclusion of human intervention, which characterises the extensive form of farming, and subsequent evolution towards the intensive form.
Aquaculture can also be defined based on the nature of the farmed product. From this point of view, we distinguish the following production areas: fish farming or pisciculture, crustacean farming and mollusc farming. Mollusc farming is, in turn, divided into clam farming, muscle farming and oyster farming.