Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditionsfishcrustaceansmolluscsaquatic plants Freshwater species reared in the Caribbean  Tilapia  Cascadura  Prawn/Crayfish  Trout  Catfish

Aquaculture Benefits of Aquaculture -  Fish is a cheap source of protein  Aquaculture forms the basis for integrated farming  Fish is highly nutritious  Local production reduces dependence on foreign sources of protein (imports) and save scarce foreign exchange  Utilizes available land space  Creates employment opportunities  Offals can be converted to fish meal which is used to feed animals e.g pigs  Easy to set up and maintain. (minimal skill needed)  Use of dung/ faces as food for fish

Integrated farming systems Farm animals that can be used together with fish in an integrated farming system are- Cattle/buffalo, Pigs, Ducks, and Poultry. The economic benefits of a fish farm into an integrated/animal farming system:  Increased income  Added income  Use of dung/faeces as food for fish  More efficient use of farm labour  Grazing for ducks, poultry and cattle,  Fish offal converted to fish meal to be fed to animals

Marine aquaculture

Aquaculture Fingerlings- this refers to a very young fish

Indoor ponds

Indoor Ponds

Freshwater farming These are fishes that are reared inland in freshwater Such as Tilapia & Cascadura (armoured catfish)

Cascadura

Tilapia fish

Freshwater farming

Tilapia Farming

Harvesting This is where the fish is matured and ready to be removed from the pond to be processed and sold to supermarkets

Question Answer the following question :  Explain what is aquaculture?  Identify fishes reared in ponds in the Caribbean