Along with the rapid and sustained increases of global aquaculture production, aquaculture has been rapidly replacing the capture fisheries in the last two decades, and already become a production activity with great potential to meet human demand for high-quality proteins. The rapid consumption growth of aquatic products in the world in recent decades shows the increasingly important role of aquatic products in the human food system. Genetic improvement has attracted much attention as a key part in the development of aquaculture. Up to now, selective breeding and cross-breeding are the main breeding methods, and economic traits such as growth rate and survival rate are the main target traits for improvement, which have played a fundamental, leading and strategic role in the development of the world aquaculture industry. Following the increasing demand for high-quality protein and the widespread popularization of the concept of the "Greater Food" approach, it is a general trend to make aquatic production into a more efficient food production system. Globally, however, the aquaculture seeds industry has some limitations, such as not many strains and species of genetic improvement, and improved traits lagging behind the needs of industrial development. It is necessary to improve technological, variety and mechanism innovation, to promote the development of high-quality aquaculture seed industry. Based on previous research results and various fishery statistics, this study summarizes the development of the global aquaculture industry, the genetic improvement of important aquaculture species, the application of breeding technology in aquaculture, the improvement of target traits, and the production data of six major species experiencing artificially genetic improvement to analyze the development status and existing problems, which could provide a reference for the study of the aquacultural seed industry as well as its high-quality development.