Marine aquaculture started in Cyprus in an experimental basis by the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research in 1972, while the first private nursery and the first private fattening units started in 1986 and 1988 respectively. Today is one of the most important export industries in the primary sector. There are nine farms of Mediterranean fish species and four hatcheries of which three for fish fry and one for shrimps. All fish farms operate under the method of sea-cage, in 1 - 4 km from the shore and water depth of 20 - 70 m. This method was chosen as it is considered more environmentally friendly and, additionally, for economic reasons as due to many competitive uses the availability of the coastal areas was limited. Aquaculture composes almost 75 - 80% of the total quantity of Cyprus fishing production. Sea bream is the main species cultured in Cyprus and accounts for 71% of the total volume and 64% of total value of production in 2017. Sea bass on the other hand accounts for 22% of the total volume and 35% of the value produced in 2017. Efforts are being made to culture other species, but without commercial results yet (DFMR). An important share of domestic production is exported, mainly in third countries.

The annual contribution of marine fishery in Cypriot economy is rather small, but the fishing sector is considered valuable mainly because creates economic benefits in coastal communities, creates jobs and offers products of high nutritional value to the consumers. Cypriot marine fishery is characterized by a variety of fishing gears and a mixed species catch. The fishing fleet is divided among three segments the small-scale segment consisting of vessels of less than 12 m, the polyvalent vessels which is part of the large-scale segments over 12 m length which use passive gears, and very few trawlers, the other part of large-scale segment, fishing in territorial and international waters. The fishing fleet is dominated by the small- scale vessels. It is in general a small fleet and the number of vessels during the last decade was reduced gradually due to the low biological productivity of the area and in an effort to diminish fishing pressure to an already bad condition of fish stocks. The evolution of the fishing fleet capacity appears in the following. The small-scale fishing vessels and trawlers (of both territorial and international waters) target a mix of demersal species like surmullet, common pandora, red mullet, bogue, picarel. While polyvalent vessels target large pelagic species like albacore, swordfish, bluefin tuna. Marine fishery in Cyprus is a sector that face problem of sustainability due to the bad condition of some of the main commercially exploited fish stocks. The low biological productivity of the area combined with the fishing pressure lead to overfishing of these stocks with negative impacts on the fleet catches and therefore on the economic performance of the sector and fishers’ income. However, over the last three years (2015-2017), signs of fleet production recovery can be traced. The production increased from 1,278 tons in 2015 to 1,479 tons in 2016 and 1.736 tons in 2017, a cumulative increase of 35% in the reference period. It must be underlined though that this level of production is well below the relevant figure of last decade (2007: 2,429 tons).

The problem of the lack of sufficient water resources to meet the water supply and irrigation needs in Cyprus is particularly acute. Prolonged droughts as well as climate change conditions that are beginning to emerge, make policy of better water management in itself insufficient to tackle the problem. Finding additional water resources is a necessity. In order to separate the supply of drinking water from climatic conditions, the competent Ministry proceeded with the construction of desalination plants.

The ratio of visitors to permanent residents (4.5: 1) is the highest in Europe (Hermes Airports Ltd and Pulse Marketing Research, 2015). Over the past three years an increase in arrivals and revenues has been reported following several years of relative stagnation.