AQUACULTURE METHODS AND PRACTICES: A SELECTED REVIEW

Abstract: 

4.1 Historical Perspective

Aquaculture has a tradition of about 4 000 years. It began in China, possibly due to the desires of an emperor to have a constant supply of fish. It is speculated that the techniques for keeping fish in ponds originated in China with fishermen who kept their surplus catch alive temporarily in baskets submerged in rivers or small bodies of water created by damming one side of a river bed. Another possibility is that aquaculture developed from ancient practices for trapping fish, with the operations steadily improving from trapping-holding to trapping-holding-growing, and finally into complete husbandry practices (Ling, 1977).

Table 5. Possible environmental Impacts of aquaculture

Culture System

Environmental Impact

EXTENSIVE

1. Seaweed culture

May occupy formerly pristine reefs; rough weather losses; market competition; conflicts/failures, social disruption.

2. Coastal bivalve culture (mussels, oysters, clams, cockles)

Public health risks and consumer resistance (microbial diseases, red tides, industrial pollution; rough weather losses; seed shortages; market competition especially for export produce; failures, social disruption.

3. Coastal fishponds (mullets, milkfish, shrimps, tilapias)

Destruction of ecosystems, especially mangroves; increasingly non-competitive with more intensive systems; nonsustainable with high population growth; conflicts/failures, social disruption.

4. Pen and cage culture in eutrophic waters and/or rich benthos (carps, catfish, milkfish tilapias)

Exclusion of traditional fishermen; navigational hazards; conflicts, social disruption; management difficulties; wood consumption.

SEMI-INTENSIVE

1. Fresh- and brackishwater pond (shrimps and prawns, carps, catfish, milkfish, mullets, tilapias)

Freshwater: health risks to farm workers from waterborne diseases. Brackishwater: salinization/acidification of soils/aquifers. Both: market competition, especially for export produce; feed and fertilizer availability/prices; conflicts/failures, social disruption.

2. Integrated agriculture-aquaculture (rice-fish; live stock/poultry-fish; vegetables - fish and all combinations of these)

As freshwater above, plus possible consumer resistance to excreta-fed produce; competition from other users of inputs such as livestock excreta and cereal brans; toxic substances in livestock feeds (e.g., heavy metals) may accumulate in pond sediments and fish; pesticides may accumulate in fish.

3. Sewage-fish culture (waste treatment ponds; latrine wastes and septage used as pond inputs; fish cages in wastewater channels)

Possible health risks to farm workers, fish processors and consumers; consumer resistance to produce.

4. Cage and pen culture, especially in eutrophic waters or on rich benthos (carps, catfish, milkfish, tilapias)

As extensive cage and pen Systems above.

INTENSIVE

1. Freshwater, brackishwater and marine ponds (shrimps; fish, especially carnivores - catfish, snakeheads, groupers, sea bass, etc.)

Effluents/drainage high in BOD and suspended solids; market competition, especially for export product; conflicts/failures, social disruption.

2. Freshwater, brackishwater and marine cage and pen culture (finfish, especially carnivores -groupers, sea bass, etc. - but also some omnivores such as common carp)

Accumulation of anoxic sediments below cages due to fecal and waste feed build-up; market competition, especially for export produce; conflicts/failures, social disruption; consumption of wood and other materials.

3. Other - raceways, silos, tanks, etc.

Effluents/drainage high in BOD and suspended solids; many location-specific problems.

Source: Modified from Pullin, 1989

Chinese who emigrated to other Southeast Asian countries probably carried the knowledge with them and inspired the local people to take up fish farming. Brackishwater aquaculture is thought to have originated in Indonesia with the culture of milkfish and grey mullet (Ling, 1977) and must have spread to neighbouring countries like the Philippines which has been practising it for about 300 to 400 years (Baluyut, 1989).

The husbandry of fish is therefore not a new phenomenon. Ancient practices based on the modifications of natural bodies of water or wetlands to entrap young fish in enclosures until harvest, have just evolved into more systematic and scientific methods and techniques.

Other regions of the world have shorter traditions of aquaculture. In North America, it is about a century old; in Africa, aquaculture production consists almost exclusively of tilapia culture in freshwater ponds and dates back to the 1940s (UNDP/NORAD/FAO, 1987). Aquaculture development has been very recent and is just gaining momentum in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island countries (Rabanal, 1988b).

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Aquaculture methods
Engineering