DEFINITIONS

Aquaculture

The term is defined by FAO for statistical purposes (FAO, 1997b), “Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some sort 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.

For statistical purposes, aquatic organisms which are harvested by an individual or corporate body which has owned them throughout their period contribute to aquaculture”. In this definition, the sources of the aquatic organisms farmed are not defined clearly; they can be either from the wild through capture and collection or from hatcheries through manipulation of broodstock maturation and reproduction, and larval and juvenile rearing.

Fisheries

“It is a practice of capturing aquatic organisms by the public as a common property resource, with or without appropriate licences” (FAO, 1997b). According to this definition, wild seed collection is a type of fisheries. The significant difference between capture fisheries and seed fisheries is that the caught aquatic organisms go to market directly in the former case, and to culture operations before entering markets in the latter.

 

Capture-based aquaculture (CBA)

It is a practice of collecting “seeds” (see below) from the wild from early life history stages to adults and subsequent growing-out them in captivity to marketable size, using aquaculture techniques (Ottolenghi et al., 2004). This definition can clearly distinguish CBA from HBA, which is a practice of producing and using “seeds” from hatcheries through manipulation of adult maturation and reproduction and larval and juvenile rearing.

Seeds

“Seeds” are the aquatic organisms used to farm in captivity for varying times; these organisms can be captured and collected from the wild (e.g. for CBA) or hatched in hatcheries (e.g. for HBA). These organisms cover a wide range of life history stages, from larvae to juveniles to adults, defined on the basis of morphology, including size, and sexual maturation stage. Larvae are the stage prior to metamorphosis; they can be pre-settlement or early post-settlement and differ in form and appearance from the adults. Juveniles are the stage from after metamorphosis to prior to sexual maturation; they can be late post-settlement and are often similar in form and appearance to the adults. Adults are the stage after sexual maturation. Wild seeds collected for CBA are not only from early life history stages (larvae and juveniles) but also from adult stages depending on the species and market demands. We use “larvae”, “juveniles” or “adults” instead of “seeds” in this report whenever they can be distinguished clearly or where the distinction is relevant. Sub-adults refer to late stage juveniles that will soon reach sexual maturation.
Some words are also commonly used to describe early life history stages of aquatic organisms, such as “fry” and “fingerling”. “Fry” can be applied to larval stage in finfish, or post-larvae (i.e. after metamorphosis) in shrimps, and “fingerling” can be applied to small juveniles in finfish.

Grow-out and fattening

“Grow-out” in CBA is the process of farming the aquatic organisms captured and collected from the wild till they reach marketable size. The grow-out period varies on the basis of the life history stages of the farmed organisms at the start and the market demand for each species and circumstance. If the organisms started from larval and small juvenile stages, they usually need to be kept in captivity for a considerably longer period to reach marketable size, unless there is sale between grow-out phases for economic reasons; if the organisms are at sub-marketable size (e.g. large juvenile and adult stages), they need relatively short period to reach marketable size. “Fattening” is a type of grow-out activity, which particularly focuses on sub-marketable or even marketable size individuals aiming to increase the fat content (e.g. tunas Thunnus spp.) or the gonad maturation (e.g. female mud crabs Scylla spp.) through a short culture period for a better price, usually accompanied with high feed input. The differences between “grow-out” and “fattening” are the relative length of the culture period, and the life history stage being cultured in some cases, although in practice the difference between the two is often unclear, such as “grow-out” of sub-adult grouper and “fattening” of sub-adult or adult tuna.