When was aquaculture invented

Pumps supply a constant flow of water at controlled temperatures. Custom-prepared food is given at specified times from automatic feeders. Specially bred disease-free stocks of fish are used to provide a regular flow of uniform product for markets. The originator of Canadian aquaculture was Samuel Wilmot , who developed techniques for salmon and trout in the s and s that were so successful that nearly a century elapsed before significant changes were made in Canadian trout hatcheries.

Most early Canadian aquaculture operations were operated by governments and involved, almost exclusively, the hatching and rearing of young fish in hatcheries for release in the wild for commercial and sport fisheries.

Starting in the s the value of nongovernment production rose, and it is now much higher than government production. Some private or commercial aquaculture production is for private sportfishing , but the majority is for direct sale as food in local and export markets.

Major species produced are salmon, oysters, mussels, clams, trout and Arctic char. The types of aquaculture operations in Canada vary considerably from region to region. On the West Coast throughout the s and s, there was a large increase in the rearing and stocking of Pacific salmon, as part of the Canada-BC Salmonid Enhancement Program.

The goal of this program was to double commercial and sport harvest of salmon. Private cage culture operations for growing salmon for market have also been established and the numbers have expanded greatly - to close to by BC is also a significant producer of cultured Pacific oysters and clams, and scallop culture is also growing. On the Prairies, many grain and cattle farmers regularly stock small prairie pothole lakes with rainbow trout fingerlings in spring and harvest pan-size fish in fall.

The production is mainly for private use, but increasing numbers are being marketed commercially. Cage rearing of trout is also being attempted and there are small-scale projects growing Arctic char in tanks. Significant numbers of walleye and whitefish fry are stocked from government hatcheries into large lakes in attempts to enhance and rehabilitate important commercial fisheries. The major production of fish, for direct sale to stores and restaurants, is in these 2 provinces, but there is also significant production of trout for stocking of private fishing ponds.

The Ontario government has been stocking Pacific salmon and lake trout in the great lakes in order to rehabilitate the fisheries there. In the Atlantic provinces, the federal government has been stocking hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon and trout since the s.

Recently, cage culture of Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout has been established in the Bras d'Or Lake and the south coasts of Nova Scotia and primarily New Brunswick. Production of Atlantic salmon in cages rose from 78 t in to t in and to 12 t in In there was virtually no culture of mussels.

In the mids federal and provincial governments in Canada began actions to clarify legislation and regulations related to aquaculture and to co-ordinate government and industry action leading to aquaculture developments. In a long-awaited federal aquaculture strategy was released. The success of aquaculture operations in Canada will depend on new knowledge from government, university and industry scientists, the availability of land, water and capital, on technologies employed, market acceptance, and the technical and business competence of the entrepreneur.

Based on the past 2 decades the future is very promising. Canadian Biodiversity Website A great information source for all budding biologists. Learn about biodiversity theory, natural history, and conservation issues. A disease outbreak in virtually wiped out the shrimp industry in Mozambique.

Chinese farmers started raising carp in their rice fields at least 2, years ago. Farmers stock their ponds with fast-growing breeds of carp and tilapia and use concentrated fish feed to maximize their growth. That is my duty. To make better fish, more fish, so farmers can get rich and people can have more food. The farm produces 30 million pounds of fish each year from its ponds. The fish are vegetarians: their feed is made from soy, corn, rice, wheat, and cottonseed meal, with no antibiotics.

Mouth brooding—along with rapid growth, a vegetarian diet, and the ability to thrive in dense populations—helps make the tilapia an easy fish to farm. A tilapia reveals a mouthful of eggs that will be extracted for hatching at a farm. How to do that without spreading disease and pollution? For tilapia farmer Bill Martin, the solution is simple: raise fish in tanks on land, not in pens in a lake or the sea. You compare that with a percent controlled environment, possibly as close to zero impact on the oceans as we can get.

To keep his fish alive, he needs a water-treatment system big enough for a small town; the electricity to power it comes from coal. Martin recirculates about 85 percent of the water in his tanks, and the rest—high in ammonia and fish waste—goes to the local sewage plant, while the voluminous solid waste heads to the landfill.

To replace the lost water, he pumps half a million gallons a day from an underground aquifer. But those goals are still a few years away. And though Martin is convinced that recirculating systems are the future, so far only a few other companies are producing fish—including salmon, cobia, and trout—in tanks on land. Able to hold hundreds of thousands of fish, but less densely stocked and better flushed than nearshore salmon pens, they produce little pollution.

Cobia contain as much healthy fish oil as salmon do. On a calm day in May the year-old president of Open Blue and I are lying at the bottom of a massive, diamond-shaped fish cage, 60 feet beneath the cobalt blue surface of the Caribbean, watching 40, cobia do a slow, hypnotic pirouette above us.

The bubbles from our regulators rise up to meet them; one pauses to stare into my mask. In the early s the collapse of the North Atlantic cod fishery and the import tariffs imposed on Norwegian salmon bankrupted the family business.

Now, off Panama, he operates the largest offshore fish farm in the world. He has some employees, a big hatchery onshore, and a fleet of bright orange vessels to service a dozen of the giant cages, which can hold more than a million cobia. A popular sport fish, cobia has been caught commercially only in small quantities—in the wild the fish are too solitary—but its explosive growth rate makes it popular with farmers.

Last year he shipped tons of cobia to high-end restaurants around the U. Next year he hopes to double that amount—and finally turn a profit. Maintenance and operating costs are high in offshore waters.

They suspect the diluted waste is being scavenged by undernourished plankton, since the offshore waters are nutrient poor. Public concerns over pollution and fierce opposition from commercial fishermen have made coastal states leery of any fish farms. His four cages left each produce 5 to 13 tons of shrimp every four to six months. They have less impact than a conventional shrimp farm, but they require Mexican government subsidies.

They have one big advantage over land animals: You have to feed them a lot less. It takes roughly a pound of feed to produce a pound of farmed fish; it takes almost two pounds of feed to produce a pound of chicken, about three for a pound of pork, and about seven for a pound of beef. Different sources of animal protein in our diet place different demands on natural resources. By this measure, farming salmon is about seven times more efficient than raising beef.

There are unfortunately some fish farms largely in Asia that do not hold themselves to the same high standards as top producers. Luckily, there are various regulating bodies that have recognized the importance of responsibly-raised fish and exist to help you make smart choices when it comes to the fish you purchase.

Look for certifications and labels from the best health and safety certifiers in the world, such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council , the British Retail Council , the Global Aquaculture Alliance , Ocean Wise and the U. Food and Drug Administration. Thousands of years after aquaculture was first practiced, fish farming has evolved into an industry that is helping people get more of the fish they love without increasing the strain on the environment.

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