"Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lotus)."
This is a type of industrial agriculture that involves the cultivation of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic organisms in controlled environments. This type of farming often involves the use of chemicals and antibiotics to control disease and parasites.
Aquaculture Systems and Techniques: The various types of aquaculture systems, their functions, advantages, and disadvantages.
Water Quality Management: Understanding of physical, chemical, and biological factors that influence aquatic environments and how to maintain optimal water quality for aquaculture.
Aquatic Animal Nutrition: Understanding basic principles of feeding, nutrient requirements, and feeding management for different species.
Aquatic Animal Health and Diseases: Understanding basic principles of disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in aquaculture.
Genetics and Breeding: Understanding of genetic principles, selective breeding, artificial insemination, and genetic improvement in aquaculture.
Economics of Aquaculture: Understanding of the economic aspects of aquaculture, including investment, costs, revenue streams, and pricing strategies.
Environmental Impact of Aquaculture: Understanding of the impact of aquaculture practices on the environment and how to mitigate these impacts.
Emerging Technologies in Aquaculture: Understanding of new technologies in aquaculture, including recirculating aquaculture systems, aquatic seed banks, and genetic engineering.
Aquaculture Regulations and Policies: Understanding of national and international regulations and policies concerning aquaculture with regard to commercial production, import/export, and sustainability.
Aquaculture Marketing and Branding: Understanding of marketing strategies, brand development, and product positioning in the aquaculture industry.
Pond culture: Involves the use of natural or manmade ponds to create a controlled environment for the growth and cultivation of aquatic organisms such as fish, shrimp, or some species of shellfish.
Cage culture: Involves the cultivation of aquatic organisms in cages or nets measuring various sizes and shapes and suspended in a prescribed water body. The cages or nets can be made of wire, rope, or synthetic materials.
Recirculating aquaculture systems: The system makes use of tanks, biological filters, pumps, and aerators to create a system that recirculates water around a contained environment for an extended period. The system only releases the water when the contaminants reach their maximum tolerable limit.
Flow-through aquaculture systems: This type of aquaculture depends on a water body that continuously flows through the production unit, sustaining the growth of aquatic organisms.
Raceway systems: Use concrete, or earthen channels to create a flowing stream of water, and stocked with fish, mainly salmonids.
Integrated multitrophic aquaculture: Involves farming of multiple species in one system or environment. The wastes of one species can be used to provide nutrients for another organism to grow.
Mariculture: Involves the cultivation of marine organisms such as fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and seaweed. It involves the cultivation of aquatic species in open waters or oceans.
Aquaponics: Combines aquaculture and hydroponics, the practice of growing plants in water, into a symbiotic environment that can maximize yield and minimize waste.
Algal Culture: Involves the cultivation of micro and macroalgae to produce products such as food supplements, bio-stimulants, and fertilizers.
Offshore aquaculture: Involves the cultivation of aquatic organisms in the open ocean, away from the shore.
"Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater, brackish water and saltwater populations under controlled or semi-natural conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish."
"Mariculture, commonly known as marine farming, refers specifically to aquaculture practiced in seawater habitats and lagoons, as opposed to freshwater aquaculture."
"Pisciculture is a type of aquaculture that consists of fish farming to obtain fish products as food."
"It is an environmental source of food and commercial product which help to improve healthier habitats and used to reconstruct the population of endangered aquatic species."
"Technology has increased the growth of fish in coastal marine waters and open oceans due to the increased demand for seafood."
"Aquaculture can be conducted in completely artificial facilities built on land (onshore aquaculture), as in the case of fish tanks, ponds, aquaponics or raceways, where the living conditions rely on human control such as water quality (oxygen), feed, temperature."
"Alternatively, they can be conducted on well-sheltered shallow waters nearshore of a body of water (inshore aquaculture), where the cultivated species are subjected to relatively more naturalistic environments, or on fenced/enclosed sections of open water away from the shore (offshore aquaculture), where the species are either cultured in cages, racks or bags, and are exposed to more diverse natural conditions such as water currents, diel vertical migration, and nutrient cycles."
"According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), aquaculture "is understood to mean the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form 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."
"The reported output from global aquaculture operations in 2019 was over 120 million tonnes valued at US$274 billion."
"However, there are issues with the reliability of the reported figures."
"In current aquaculture practice, products from several kilograms of wild fish are used to produce one kilogram of a piscivorous fish like salmon."
"Particular kinds of aquaculture include fish farming, shrimp farming, oyster farming, mariculture, pisciculture, algaculture (such as seaweed farming), and the cultivation of ornamental fish."
"Particular methods include aquaponics and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, both of which integrate fish farming and aquatic plant farming."
"The FAO describes aquaculture as one of the industries most directly affected by climate change and its impacts."
"Some forms of aquaculture have negative impacts on the environment, such as through nutrient pollution or disease transfer to wild populations."