Hydrocarbons and Heavy Metals Pollutants in Aquaculture

1.0 INTRODUCTION The increasing of human population has increased the need for food supply. This with the need for quality fish protein has increased the demand for fish and fish products. The global consumption of fish and derived fish products has generally increased during recent decades (Wim et al., 2007). The cage aquaculture sector has grown very rapidly during the past 20 years and is presently undergoing rapid changes in response to pressures from globalization and growing demand for aquatic products in both developing and developed countries. It has been predicted that fish consumption in developing countries will increase by 57 percent, from 62.7 million metric tons in 1997 to 98.6 million in 2020 (Delgado et al., 2003). In Malaysia, government agricultural policy is actively encouraging investment in aquaculture, and there has been increasing number of marine and brackish water aquaculture operations. Total fish production from aquaculture has increased from 100 thousand tons in 1997 to 200 thousand tons by 2006 (MOF, 2007).