Aquaculture
Aquaculture is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as ‘the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants with some sort of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated’.
Aquaculture can be in various forms. It can be:
- a hatchery operation which is producing fertilised eggs, larvae or fingerlings
- a nursery operation which is nursing of small larvae to fingerlings or juveniles, and/or
- a grow-out operation which is the farming of fingerlings or juveniles to marketable sizes.
Aquaculture can be carried out in freshwater, brackish water or marine water under different weather conditions depending on the species that is targeted.
The systems used for aquaculture are varied they include but are not limited to ponds, fibreglass or concrete tanks, pens, and floating cages.
Farming can be extensive, semi-intensive or intensive, depending on the level of input and output per farming area and the stocking density of juveniles.
Aquaculture can be used to produce fish/molluscs/crustaceans/aquatic plants for human consumption or it can be an operation for producing ornamental species and pharmaceutical products.
Aquaculture can also be operated with other agriculture activities forming an integrated aquaculture/agriculture system.