This paper is an overview of marine aquaculture in Croatia and an in-depth coverage of works and achievements of scientists in the Laboratory of Marine Aquaculture. At the end of the 80's the first steps into the field of fish genetics were made by working on hybrids of Sparus aurata x Diplodus puntazzo, Sparus aurata x Diplodus vulgaris and finally Dentex dentex x Diplodus sargus; the last cross was found to be potentially interesting for marine aquaculture. Further research on chromosome manipulation was conducted to induce triploidy of Sparus aurata by temperature shocking freshly fertilized eggs. At the beginning of the 90's research on population genetics of mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) was conducted in the Laboratory in co-operation with French colleagues from IFREMER. The present work includes research on chromosome structure of Sparid species from the Eastern Adriatic as well as population genetics. In the future, will be implemented a database on Adriatic fish, mainly with the goal to support a program of protection of wild populations of finfish.