Aquaculture In Asia

Over the last decade, the world has watched striking growth in many developing countries in the field of the aquaculture industries. It is unequivocally agreed that global aquaculture production will continue to increase and much of this will occur in the developing countries of Asia and Africa, through the expansion of semi-intensive, small scale pond aquaculture (Hilton and Taylor, 2000). Fishes are important in kingdom ‘Animilia’ because they contribute essential nutrients to their ecosystem and helps regulate the ecosystem food web. Fishing is the largest extractive use of wildlife in the world. In 2010 the annual capture, combining both wild capture and aquaculture was 149 million tons (IUCN, 2012).

The fishes are the most numerous and

In Pakistan effluents from industries, wastes from household activities and city garbage, agricultural wastes runoffs directly discharge into streams, lakes, ponds and other aquatic bodies. These pollutants contain infectious pathogens, oils, hydrocarbon, radioactive substances, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, non-biodegradable products and different corrosive substances such as acids and bases. Yet these sources are used for supplying water to the local masses such as fields, vegetation and culturing of economically important and luscious fish species (Rafiq Ullah et al.2015).

Water quality is very important for the survival of the living, which is at the mercy of the natural and anthropogenic impacts. Water quality is decreasing day by day due to anthropogenic impact i.e. agriculture intensification, industrialization and extreme urbanization. Heavy metals are the pollutants, which pollute the environment for a long time and with an irreversible impact on the productivity of aquatic ecosystem and ecology (M. Altaf et al.

However, globally fish from freshwater are in severe decline, driven in large part by economic and human population growth (Limburg et al., 2011). Fish farming in various parts of the world has increased many folds in the last decade and increasing day by day. As a result, fish culture has now become commercially an important industry worldwide. River Indus originates near Mount Kailas in the Gangdise range of Tibet and drains into the Arabian Sea covering about 3,000 km along its course ( RAMZAN and MIRZA, 2014). The Indus River is critical for Pakistan’s 160 million people, and irrigates 80% of its 21.5 million hectares of agricultural land (Rizvi, 2001). Rivers and lakes are very important part of our natural heritage. They have been widely utilized by mankind over centuries. Wetlands are of immense importance as they are acting like a transitional zone between the aquatic and terrestrial life. Wetlands offer habitat to a huge number of aquatic and terrestrial animals and therefore are thought to be important places for evolution and genetic diversity. They are providing a large reproductive site and a source of food for the major fauna. Wetlands are classified on the basis of their origin, chemical conformation, age, depth as well as extent of the wetland (Gorham and Janssens,