History of cage culture, cage culture operations, advantages and disadvantages of cages and current global status of cage farming

The earliest record of cage culture practices dates back to the late 1800 in Southeast Asia, particularly in the freshwater lakes and river systems of Kampuchea. Marine fish farming in cages traces its beginning to the 1950s in Japan where fish farming research at the Fisheries Laboratory of the Kinki University led to the commercial culture of yellow tail Seriola quinqueradiata and developed into a significant industry as early as 1960. Since the 1970, Thailand has developed cage culture techniques for two important marine finfish: the sea bream (Pagrus major) and grouper (Epinephelus spp.). Large scale cage farming of groupers were established in Malaysia in 1980. Korea started cage culture in the late 1970s and by the end of 1980, cage culture of the olive flounder (Paralichthys olivacens) and black rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli) was established, and developed into a successful aquaculture industry in the 1990s. Cage culture of groupers (Epinephelus spp.) in the Philippines has been practiced since 1980s. Mariculture of milkfish in the 1990s led to the further growth and development of the industry