SIC 0273 Animal Aquaculture

SIC 0273

This industry classification includes establishments engaged in the production of finfish and shellfish within a confined space and under controlled growing and harvesting procedures. It includes farmed aquatic animals intended as human food (catfish, trout, and oysters), bait (minnows), and pets (goldfish and tropical aquarium fish). Establishments primarily engaged in hatching fish and in operating fishing preserves are classified in SIC 0921: Fish Hatcheries and Preserves.

NAICS CODE(S)

112511

Finfish Farming and Fish Hatcheries

112512

Shellfish Farming

112519

Other Animal Aquaculture

The American aquaculture industry entered the twenty-first century with significant economic promise. Production was small but growing. Aquaculture crops had doubled between 1975 and 1983, and although the U.S. aquaculture industry faced relatively flat growth in the per capita consumption of seafood throughout the 1990s, both domestic production and imports were expected to increase in the early 2000s, due in part to increasing good news about the health benefits of freshwater fish and seafood. However, even with increasing seafood demand in the United States and declining capture fisheries, the U.S. aquaculture industry has traditionally been based on production of freshwater finfish, such as channel catfish. While cultivation of marine aquatic animals is the fastest growing segment worldwide within aquaculture, salmon are the only marine finfish species produced in the United States in notable numbers. Development and expansion of the U.S. marine aquaculture industry is challenged by the high cost and limited availability of coastal land and water resources, effluent concerns, high production costs, restricted growing seasons, lack of sufficient quality seedstock, and a general lack of experience regarding reproduction, larviculture, husbandry, and production strategies.

U.S. consumption of farm-raised fish more than doubled between 1990 and 2000, and sales of catfish from growers to processors rose from $200 million to $400 million during that span. Seafood production was substantially less. Ornamental fish exports increased in the early 2000s, particularly to Asia, reaching 4.4 million in 2003. The value of ornamental fish imports remained steady at $43 million in 2003.

Although aquaculture is a relative newcomer in...