IV-109 



AQUACULTURE 



The great fish and shellfish resources of United States coastal 

 waters have adequately supplied the seafood demands of the 

 increasing population for over three hundred years. Now, how- 

 ever, the demand for some products is so large that the normal 

 fishing grounds and fisheries are in great danger of being exhaus- 

 ted, both from overfishing and from the indirect effects of man's 

 encroachment into the estuarine environment. To supply future 

 needs of some fish products new approaches toward commercial fish- 

 ing are needed, both in harvesting the natural growth and in con- 

 trolling the entire fishery. 



Aquaculture is defined as the rearing of aquatic organisms, both 

 plants and animals, under controlled conditions using the tech- 

 niques of plant and animal husbandry. It involves a variety of 

 operations: some are highly sophisticated where man exercises 

 control over the principal environmental factors affecting the 

 cultured species, and others are very simple with only minimal 

 control or manipulation of the habitat and the cultured animal. 



The following examples illustrate the variety of aquacultural 

 activities that are now practiced: 



