Abstract—The purpose of the present work is to review some data for the management challenges that the aquaculture industry in Greece is currently facing. The results indicate that Greek aquaculture fish farms apply Human Resources Management (HRM) practices which can increase motivation, commitment and job satisfaction of their personnel. In turn, these practices can increase the productivity of the business. The Greek fish farms appear to invest in research and technological innovation with a good record in research activities and the generation of patents. Interestingly, the results of the present work were carried out during the period of the recent economic crisis in Greece. Several sectors of the Greek economy were severely affected by the financial problems of the Greek government and the Greek banks. Under the adverse economical conditions created by the Greek economic crisis, even the Greek aquaculture industry, which historically is considered as a thriving national exporting business sector, experienced harsh economic and market conditions. As a result of the global, European and national economic crisis, consumption of fish dropped while companies had to hold most of their stocked fish in order to regulated the flow to the market and the price. This occurred at a time where Banks in Greece had their own financial crisis – banking crisis - which resulted in limited access to lending for the all business sectors of the national economy including the Greek aquaculture industry. In spite of these economic conditions, the Greek aquaculture industry, after a series of mergers and acquisitions, has now stabilized production and exhibits very good prospects for future growth. Evidently, the firms had to cut salaries and on some occasions even pay their staff in arrears. Nevertheless, the results presented in this paper indicate that during the economic crisis, the surveyed fish farms maintained their HRM practices, investing in their human capital and technological input. In fact, human capital and technological input are the ticket for future success of companies in any business sector. Keywords—Aquaculture, Human Resources Management. I. INTRODUCTION ARMED fish are the fish which have been produced in accordance to the principles and practices of aquaculture. Globally, the Aquaculture Industry faces a challenge to increase the productivity and reduce the cost of producing farmed fish. The Greek marine aquaculture industry has a significant share in the aquaculture production of the European Union where production is mainly concentrated in 5 countries: France, Greece, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom. Historically, the aquaculture production in these countries accounts for up to 77% in volume and 76% in value of EU S. Anastasiou is with the School of Business Administration, Dept Logistics, TEI of Chalkida, Thiva, Greece (e-mail: anastasiou@yahoo.com). C. Nathanailides, P. Logothetis, and G. Kanlis are with the Aquaculture & Fisheries Department, Technological Educational Institute of West Greece, Messolonghi, Greece. totals [1]. The volume of farmed fish production in Greece is now at much lower volume of production than the potential capacity of the country’s industry. This is mainly due to the extreme financial difficulties and limited access to credit for the otherwise very healthy aquaculture companies in Greece. Even under these difficult financial conditions for the fish farms, Greece is producing 43% of the total volume of Marine Mediterranean farmed fish. In fact, the Greek aquaculture industry is the second most important economic sector for the growth of the Greek Economy [2]. Currently, the Greek aquaculture industry is going through a series of mergers and restructure. The financial status of the different aquaculture companies, the working conditions and management practices may vary according to lending exposure, market mix, company size, and technological parameters of the different fish farm units and rearing systems. The aquaculture personnel are exposed to harsh environmental conditions and to occupational risk. Under these conditions, there is pressure on the personnel of fish farms to constantly improve their production efficiency and to enhance their work skills to the new methods and practices which are adopted by the aquaculture industry. Nevertheless, a high level of job satisfaction and work performance of the aquaculture personnel is frequently reported and can be attributed, at least partially, to the nature of the work which has a very distinct working environment but most of the staff has very positive experiences with the interaction with their workmates. There is some evidence to suggest that the Greek aquaculture industry is rapidly adopting and improving new technology and practices of human resources management, including constant training of the staff, very good communication channels between management and the personnel and reducing the risk of occupational hazard to the aquaculture personnel. All these parameters of management may have a determining role for the final product quality and future of this sector in Greece. Increasing the efficiency of aquaculture production requires technological input and the rapid adoption of new methods, effective communication between different levels of the hierarchy and a team-work climate. The aquaculture industry in Greece is currently experiencing the consequences of the global and national financial crisis; nevertheless the Greek marine aquaculture industry is constantly increasing the production (Fig. 1) and the labor productivity also increased in the last ten years [3]. A significant portion of this increased productivity of the sector can be attributed to increased technological input and S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides, P. Logothetis, G. Kanlis Management Challenges and Product Quality of Fish Farms in Greece F World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Vol:8, No:11, 2014 3608 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(11) 2014 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/9999792 International Science Index, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Vol:8, No:11, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9999792