ESTUARIES ANT AL ZONES 



profit also depends upon the choice 

 of a suitable geographic area. It is 

 becoming increasingly difficult to find 

 large estuarine areas and water sup- 

 plies that are unpolluted and that 

 provide the necessary requirements 

 for aquaculture. Any hope of estu- 

 arine sea farming in many areas, 

 especially those close to large cities, 

 must be abandoned immediately be- 

 cause suitable areas cannot be found, 

 or, if they are available, are priced 

 prohibitively. Areas away from large 

 cities offer greater hope for aquacul- 

 ture, but the cost of just the land 

 investment can be substantial, espe- 

 cially in sea farming. 



Feed — Aside from finding suitable 

 locations, a number of other impor- 

 tant aspects can greatly affect fish- 

 farm production and, hence, profits. 

 Feeding, of course, is high on the 

 list. What feeds are required for the 

 farmed species as young and adults 

 is important in the profit equation. 

 Do these feeds provide rapid growth 

 and high survival? Research into 

 nutrition requirements has resulted in 

 foods designed specially for trout and 

 channel catfish in freshwater. But for 

 many of the animals considered for 

 sea farming, biologists are unsure of 

 what foods they consume in nature, 

 let alone what is the most desirable 

 food for these species in captivity. 

 This important quantity in the for- 

 mula must be solved before costs 

 and potential profit from mariculture 

 can be estimated. 



Manpower and Technology — 

 What sort of personnel are available 

 to operate a sea farm in a particular 

 area bears on the potential profit. 

 Some species require only rather 

 menial tasks; others require skilled 

 personnel or trainable persons. For 

 example, mass rearing of microor- 

 ganisms is a necessity. Again, until 

 answers to these questions can be 

 provided, the amount of profit pos- 

 sible is only speculation. In many 

 areas of aquaculture today technology 

 is moving rapidly, thereby making 

 speculation based on today's tech- 

 niques of little value tomorrow. 



Market Information — Many re- 

 ports in the past five years or so 

 have produced abundant information 

 on how many fish can be obtained 

 from a certain amount of water in a 

 particular time period. There is little 

 freshwater farming and even less 

 sea farming in the United States at 

 the present time; therefore these fig- 

 ures have been obtained in other 

 areas of the world. Since they give 

 some guidelines as to productivity 

 they are valuable in themselves, but 

 they must be examined carefully. 

 What sort of market exists for the 

 species? In some areas of the world 

 very small fish are an important mar- 

 ket item. In the United States this is 

 not the case. Also, we might ask 

 whether this high production is the 

 result of some unusually fortunate 

 combination of circumstances? For 

 example, when we consider the ex- 

 tremely high production of rafted 

 mussels in the Bay of Vigo (Spain), 

 where three-dimensional water use 

 is practiced, we find that plankton is 

 unusually rich. In some areas of 

 Asia where human and farm sewage 

 is used as fertilizer, production is 

 extraordinary. At this time, in many 

 of the developed countries, there 

 would seem to be little hope of using 

 fertilizers of this kind. It should be 

 added that the time is probably ap- 

 proaching when we will have to util- 

 ize these wastes fully, but in a more 

 sophisticated way, and fish farms 

 are one logical place for doing so. 



The entire present and potential 

 market for any particular species 

 must be examined with care before 

 the question of potential profit can 

 be answered. This is obviously within 

 the expertise of the market special- 

 ists, not the biologists. The species 

 considered now in the developed 

 countries are those with high market 

 demand and high price. However, if 

 the species can be raised in large 

 quantities, this picture can be altered 

 greatly: they can become a popular 

 consumer item and be available to 

 a larger segment of the consumer 

 population. Also, a number of other 

 species are profitable to raise, but a 



lot of money would have to be 

 on market promotion before the 

 housewife would consider purchas- 

 ing them. 



Conservation Laws — The status of 

 conservation laws can greatly affect 

 profit from aquaculture. These must 

 be relaxed to give the farmer com- 

 plete freedom to market any size of 

 fish any time of the year. Put another 

 way, the farmer must not have to 

 try to fit his operation into a scheme 

 of laws supposedly designed to con- 

 serve stocks of wild fish. Two sets 

 of laws concerning the same species 

 should be in effect — one for the 

 fishermen and one for the farmers. 

 Conservation groups place restric- 

 tions on certain times of the year 

 for extended periods. It is during 

 these times that a substantial profit 

 can be realized by sea farmers, who 

 can control their production so that 

 they can harvest at times of peak 

 demand. This is common procedure 

 in the Philippines, where milkfish are 

 harvested during the monsoon season 

 when fishermen cannot fish. In Ja- 

 pan, Fuginaga takes advantage of the 

 great demand for live shrimp during 

 their holiday season in order to ob- 

 tain a premium price for his product. 



Technology — There are many 

 other important considerations which 

 prevent anyone trained in a particular 

 discipline from being in a position 

 to provide answers to questions con- 

 cerning costs and profits in fish farm- 

 ing. Engineering aspects of building 

 ponds, sealing, and providing the 

 necessary water flow are important 

 facts needed for profitable aquacul- 

 ture. Some corporation research and 

 development personnel are visiting 

 biologists as a means of keeping up 

 on the trends in research and the 

 feasibility of profitable aquaculture. 

 They find that there is only a little 

 commercial fish farming in the United 

 States and that those operations that 

 do exist are on a small scale. Even 

 without the very formidable road- 

 block of the reluctance of private 

 business to disclose costs and profits 

 to would-be competitors, there is no 



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