A new United Nations report shows that fish farming may soon be the world's most important provider of fish. The Food and Agriculture Organization says fish farming is growing at a rate of 6.6 percent a year. Fish farming now produces forty-six percent of the world's supply of fish. That represents a forty-three percent increase from 2006. The report also said fish farming earned more money in 2008 than traditional fisheries. In fish farming, fish are raised in tanks or small bodies of water called ponds. They are also raised in cages or nets in oceans, lakes and rivers. The report says increased fish farming has helped people around the world eat record amounts of fish. The FAO says each person ate an average of almost seventeen kilograms of fish last year. However, the FAO says the current yearly wild-fish harvest of ninety million tons shows no improvement. Decreasing numbers of fish and stronger catch limits have reduced the possibilities for catching wild fish. The FAO report says about thirty-two percent of world supplies are overfished. It says these supplies of fish need to be rebuilt at once. Some scientists have criticized fish farming. They say the nets and cages permit fish diseases and pests to spread. Some fish farming critics doubt whether fish farming can keep growing at the current rate. But Wally Stevens of the trade group Global Aquaculture Alliance says the industry must continue developing to feed growing populations. Mr. Stevens says a one hundred percent increase in fish farming over ten years is necessary to keep providing for people at the current level. He notes that fish farming creates jobs and wealth, especially for people in coastal areas of China. We learn that since the year 2006, fish farming has been   _  .
earning more money than traditional fisheries developing rapidly around the world growing at a rate of 6.6 percent each day producing 46% of the world's supply of fish