Aquaculture has evolved from its earliest documented forms in the Fan Li Dynasty ca 4000 BC (Nash, 2011), to a multi-sector industry, supporting vital food production, globally. With the world's population expected to near 10 billion by 2050 (Anderson, 2010; Conforti et al., 2011), food, energy and water needs have surfaced as the most profound challenges in this new millennium. Global food shortages are exacerbated by reduced crop yields due to global warming and limited availability of water for agriculture. To ensure food security, increases in production volume of staple foods (rice, wheat, etc.), alongside with high calorie protein-based products (meat and fish) are needed. Fish are the most effective protein sources for humans with the highest edible yield (nearly 70% of the body mass utilized) and protein retention (31% vs. 18% for red meat) (Kaiser, 2012). Global production of protein from aquatic species is partially accomplished by marine and freshwater aquaculture practices with the latter producing 50 million metric tons, valued at $100 billion, annually (Bostock et al., 2010). This makes aquaculture the fastest growing food-production sector, comprising nearly 50% of the current seafood supply (Bostock et al., 2010). In addition to food security, aquaculture also plays an important role in habitat restoration, recreation, and threatened and endangered species conservation. Aquaculture is practiced on a global scale using varied approaches (i.e. intensive, extensive) and scales (i.e. high density, low density). Regardless of the application, sustainable aquaculture operations have production-specific challenges and bottlenecks. The ability to manage aquatic disease agents, monitor and maintain animal health constitutes an assemblage of notable challenges