aquaculture

The Native Fish Conservancy is about preserving the North American aquatic heritage. A group of like-minded conservationists, they are seeking other people, willing to donate time and skills to the ongoing development and production of the e-newsletter, the web site, and marketing. The Native Fish Conservancy is a not-for-profit, volunteer run organisation. Although their emphasis is on North American species, no doubt they would welcome international members. From a more commercial aquacultural perspective, a lot can be learned from people who keep fish as a hobby – people who have the time and resources to carefully develop breeding, feeding, and raising strategies that could be scaled into full scale commercial enterprises.

Update (Dec 2010) – sadly, the Native Fish Conservancy seems to have met an untimely end. The above link is via the Internet Archive. If any of the former webmaster/site managers are out there please feel free to make contact.

Brian Coad has published a substantial work in the Freshwater Fishes of Iran.

From the introduction:

This work is meant to provide a guide to the freshwater fishes of Iran. There are no modern keys to this fauna, some available books are incomplete or cursory treatments or outdated, and the detailed and diverse scientific literature is widely scattered in time, languages and journals. Iran lies at a region of major zoogeographical interchange and has a diverse and interesting ichthyofauna about which comparatively little is known. An accurate identification is a pre-requisite for further scientific studies and this website aims to serve that purpose and to be an introductory guide to the fishes. The guide is aimed at a mixed audience, including scientists familiar with ichthyology to whom some introductory sections of this work will be superfluous, and those whose knowledge of fishes is embryonic or who may have limited access to literature sources.

This work has been carried out over a period of over 30 years from my first arrival in Iran in January 1976. In that year, 7 articles were published strictly on Iranian fishes (3 on parasites, 1 on pesticides, 1 on fisheries, 1 describing the blind white fish and 1 a summary of the latter; 2 were in Farsi). In 2006, 160 articles on Iranian fishes appeared, along with many relevant works from neighbouring countries, works on the aquatic environment in Iran and works on taxonomy and systematics relevant to Iran. The study of fishes is now a very active field within Iran and the Middle East. Accordingly, 2006 is the last year that this work was updated although some systematic and taxonomic studies may still be incorporated.

Very usefully, the FAO have launched an online glossary of aquaculture terms, available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.

This multidisciplinary glossary has been prepared by the Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service (FIRI) of FAO Fisheries Department, under the coordination of Valerio Crespi.

The primary objectives of this glossary are

1. to serve as a reference to fish farmers, consultants, administrators, policy makers, developers, engineers, agriculturists, economists, environmentalists and anybody interested in aquaculture; and
2. to facilitate communication among experts and scientists involved in aquaculture research and development.

I was trying to verify the USA tilapia importation figures as quoted in an earlier posting. In the Electronic Outlook Report from the Economic Research Service (Aquaculture Outlook), I discovered:

U.S. tilapia imports surged to over 297 million pounds in 2005, up 19 percent from 2004 and 233 percent higher than in 2000. The value of tilapia imports rose even faster, climbing to $393 million in 2005, 32 percent higher than the previous year and 288 percent higher than in 2000.

One short ton = 2,000 pounds, therefore 297 million pounds = 148,500 short tons; according to Google.

If you are considering exporting aquacultural and related products to the USA, this report represents critical business information. You can subscribe to the Aquaculture Outlook (for free). Outlook examines the U.S. aquaculture industry, including production, inventory, sales, prices, inputs, and trade of catfish, trout, tilapia, salmon, mollusks, crawfish, shrimp, ornamental fish and new species.

Virginia Cooperative Extension is a product of cooperation among local, state, and federal governments in partnership with tens of thousands of citizens, who, through local Extension Leadership Councils, help design, implement and evaluate Cooperative Extension’s needs-driven programs. As part of their information service, authors: Louis A. Helfrich, Extension Specialist and Associate Professor, Fisheries D. J. Orth, Assistant Professor, Fisheries R. J. Neves, Adjunct Professor, Fisheries Virginia Tech have published a summary document about selecting the right freshwater fish to raise or farm in Virginia, USA. The document also includes some analysis of non-fish freshwater species such as frogs, and aquatic vegetables e.g. water chestnuts.

From their introduction:

In Virginia and throughout the United States, interest in fish farming for profit or as a hobby has increased in the past few years. Encouraged by the success of trout farmers in western states and catfish farmers in southern states, prospective fish farmers question if similar opportunities exist in Virginia’s fresh waters.

The prospects for fish farming in Virginia range from very good to poor depending on the objectives (commercial or noncommercial), the economic and water resources available, and the type of fish selected for growing. In this publication we present basic information on fish farming and discuss some of the opportunities and problems involved with growing certain freshwater fish and other aquatic animals in Virginia.