Aquaculture & Fisheries

Freshwater biology is the scientific biological study of freshwater ecosystems and is a branch of limnology. This field seeks to understand the relationships between living organisms in their physical environment. These physical environments may include rivers, lakes, streams, or wetlandsBecoming a freshwater biologist, also known as limnologist, is among the most common career goals for those interested in freshwater biology. Limnologists assist in solving the issues in freshwater ecosystems. They may work closely with marine biologists. Fresh water may include water in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, and even underground water called groundwater.

There are three main types of freshwater biomes: ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, and wetlands. We'll go into the details of each below. Ponds and lakes are often called lentic ecosystems. Lakes and ponds also provide a water supply to agricultural, domestic, and industrial uses. Lakes and ponds are a wild life habitat for many different species. Lakes and ponds support and regulate the services of soil formation, biodiversity, groundwater recharge, and flood protection. Streams, headwaters and streams that flow only part of the year provide many upstream and downstream benefits. They protect against floods, filter pollutants, recycle potentially-harmful nutrients, and provide food and habitat for many types of fish. A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil.

Marine life, or sea life or ocean life, is the plants, animals and other organisms that live in the salt water of the sea or ocean, or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet. Marine organisms produce oxygen and sequester carbon. Three main groups of ocean life are plankton, nekton, and benthos. Plankton float in the water. Nekton swim through the water.

Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that live in large bodies of water and are unable to swim against a current. The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. They provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish and whales. The largest group of nekton are chordates and have bones or cartilage. This group includes bony fish, whales, sharks, turtles, snakes, eels, porpoises, dolphins and seals. Molluscan nekton are animals like octopus and squid. Animals that live on the sea floor are called benthos. Most of these animals lack a backbone and are called invertebrates. Typical benthic invertebrates include sea anemones, sponges, corals, sea stars, sea urchins, worms, bivalves, crabs, and many more.

Marine conservation is driven by the manifested negative effects being seen in our environment such as species loss, habitat degradation and changes in ecosystem functions and focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, restoring damaged marine ecosystems, and preserving vulnerable species and ... Marine protected areas help protect important habitats and representative samples of marine life and can assist in restoring the productivity of the oceans and avoid further degradation. They are also sites for scientific study and can generate income through tourism and sustainable fishing.We can conserve marine  life by several ways like makeing Safe, Sustainable Seafood Choices, Using Fewer Plastic Products, Influencing Change in Your Community.

Aquacultural engineering is a multidisciplinary field of engineering that aims to solve technical problems associated with farming aquatic vertebrates, invertebrates, and algae.The design and management of these systems is based on their production goals and the economics of the farming operation. The primary solution for managing the environmental impacts of aquaculture is the management of feed. Feed and feeding systems can effectively reduce wastes resulting from the fish feed through proper management of the inputs into the culture systems.

Solid fish waste consists of head, tails, skin, gut, fish and frames.  These by products of the fish processing industry can be a great source of value added products such as proteins and amino acids, collagen and gelatin, oil and enzymes. Ecological solid waste management refers to the systematic administration of activities which provide for segregation at source, segregated transportation, storage, transfer, processing, treatment, and disposal of solid waste and all other waste management activities which do not harm the environment. Fish waste compost can be applied into farm, garden, vegetable production, field crops, trees and landscapes as soil amendment and fertilizer supplement to increase soil organic matter and nutrients, promote moisture holding ability, and then enhance production and quality.

Sustainable aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic organism for commercial purposes by means that have a good natured impact on the environment, contribute to local social community development and to generate an economic profit. Integrated aquaculture has a variety of benefits for farmers in addition to the production of fish for consumption or sale. In Asia, for example, rice farmers use certain species of fish to fight rice pests such as the golden snail. With rice-fish farming, they boost their rice yields and harvest the fish. Sustainable aquaculture could be the key to feeding our growing population. And, 42% of the seafood we consume now being supplied by aquaculture, how/where those fish are raised is becoming increasingly important for our growing population and food security.

we make aquaculture more sustainable by following ways:

1.Invest in technological innovation and transfer

2. Focusing beyond the farm.

3. Shift incentives to reward sustainability

4. Eat fish that are low on the food chain

5. Leverage the latest information technology

Marketing channel of fishes includes the involvement of some intermediaries or middlemen through which transformation of fish take place from producer to consumer. In a very rare case, farmers carry the fishes (5%) to the markets and sell them to the retailers. A fish market is a marketplace used for marketing fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both. Retail fish markets, a type of wet market, often sell street food as well.

Seafood consumers are a fairly small group compared to those who buy beef, pork and chicken. But they're also a lucrative group that spends more money on groceries each week and are therefore worth courting, according to a recent Food Marketing Institute report. The marketing channel for cultured fish starts with the fish farmer, passes through a number of intermediaries and ends with the ultimate consumer. Major intermediaries who enter the fish marketing chain are Nikaries, Beparies, Aratdars and retailers. Fish farmers do not sell fish directly to consumers in the market.

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish.Aquaculture is of different types like Mariculture, Fish Farming, Algaculture, Inland Pond Culture, Recirculating Systems, Open-net pen and Cage Systems

The farming of fish is the most common form of aquaculture. It involves raising fish commercially in tanks, fish ponds, or ocean enclosures, usually for food. Aquaculture is a method used to produce food and other commercial products, restore habitat and replenish wild stocks, and rebuild populations of threatened and endangered species. There are two main types of aquaculture—marine and freshwater. Marine aquaculture refers to the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of aquatic plants and animals. It can take place in the ocean, or on land in tanks and ponds. U.S. marine aquaculture produces primarily oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, salmon, and other marine fish. Freshwater aquaculture refers to raising and breeding aquatic animals (fish, shrimp, crab, shellfish, etc.) and plants for economic purposes by the use of ponds, reservoirs, lakes, rivers, and other inland waterways (including brackish water), which play an important role in the aquaculture industry. Pisciculture involves only the culture and rearing of fish whereas aquaculture involves culture and rearing of fish as well as other aquatic organisms such as prawn, oyster, etc. Through these cultures the production of aquatic plants and animals both marine and fresh water have been enormously increased.

Aquaponics refers to any system that combines conventional aquaculture with hydroponics in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrifying bacteria initially into nitrites and subsequently into nitrates that are utilized by the plants as nutrients. Then, the water is recirculated back to the aquaculture system. Floating aquaponics systems on polycultural fish ponds have been installed in China in more recent years on a large scale. They are used to grow rice, wheat and canna lily and other crops, with some installations exceeding 2.5 acres. The development of modern aquaponics is often attributed to the various works of the New Alchemy Institute and the works of Dr. Mark McMurtry et al. at the North Carolina State University, who devised an "Integrated Aqua-Vegeculture System" (iAVs) based on the combination of aquaculture and sand-based grow bedsThe first aquaponics research in Canada was a small system added onto existing aquaculture research at a research station in Lethbridge, Alberta. Canada saw a rise in aquaponics setups throughout the '90s, predominantly as commercial installations raising high-value crops such as trout and lettuce.

Aquaponics consists of two main parts, with the aquaculture part for raising aquatic animals and the hydroponics part for growing plants.Aquatic effluents, resulting from uneaten feed or raising animals like fish, accumulate in water due to the closed-system recirculation of most aquaculture systems. The effluent-rich water becomes toxic to the aquatic animal in high concentrations but this contains nutrients essential for plant growth. Depending on the sophistication and cost of the aquaponics system, the units for solids removal, biofiltration, and/or the hydroponics subsystem may be combined into one unit or subsystem,which prevents the water from flowing directly from the aquaculture part of the system to the hydroponics part. By utilizing gravel or sand as plant supporting medium, solids are captured and the medium has enough surface area for fixed-film nitrification.

Deepwater may refer to ocean water in the abyssal zone, hadal zone, or other deep ocean zones. Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes. They occupy the sea floors and lake beds, which usually consist of mud, sand, gravel or rocks. Demersal fish are frequently captured by a trawl net that drags along the ocean or lake floor. As a result, demersal fisheries tend to be less discriminate than pelagic fishing methods such as long lines or gill nets that target fish using specific bait, specialized hooks, or mesh size. Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).They occupy the sea floors and lake beds, which usually consist of mud, sand, gravel or rocks.In coastal waters they are found on or near the continental shelf, and in deep waters they are found on or near the continental slope or along the continental rise. They are not generally found in the deepest waters, such as abyssal depths or on the abyssal plain, but they can be found around seamounts and islands.

Demersal fish can be divided into two main types: strictly benthic fish which can rest on the sea floor, and benthopelagic fish which can float in the water column just above the sea floor. Benthic fish are denser than water, so they can rest on the sea floor. They either lie-and-wait as ambush predators, at times covering themselves with sand or otherwise camouflaging themselves, or move actively over the bottom in search for food.Benthic fish which can bury themselves include dragonets, flatfish and stingrays. Benthopelagic fish inhabit the water just above the bottom, feeding on benthos and zooplankton.Most demersal fish are benthopelagic.

Aquatic ecology includes the study of these relationships in all aquatic environments, including oceans, estuaries, lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers, and streams. An ecosystem is a community of living organisms and their physical and chemical environment, linked by flows of energy and nutrients. Aquatic ecosystems perform many important environmental functions. For example, they recycle nutrients, purify water, attenuate floods, recharge ground water and provide habitats for wildlife. Physical alterations include changes in water temperature, water flow and light availability.

Aquatic ecosystems include oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries, and wetlands. Aquatic organisms generally fall into three broad groups: plankton, nekton, and benthos. They vary in how they move and where they live. Plankton are tiny aquatic organisms that cannot move on their own. An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem in a body of water. Communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment live in aquatic ecosystems. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems. Marine ecosystems can be divided into many zones depending upon water depth and shoreline features. The oceanic zone is the vast open part of the ocean where animals such as whales, sharks, and tuna live. The benthic zone consists of substrates below water where many invertebrates live.

There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems:

Lentic: slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes.

Lotic: faster moving water, for example streams and rivers.

Wetlands: areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time.

In aquaculture, nanotechnology has a broad spectrum of applications from the sterilization of ponds, water treatment, detection and control of aquatic diseases, efficient delivery of nutrients and drugs (including hormones and vaccines) to the enhancement of fish potential in absorbing these substances.Nanotechnology can increase agricultural production, and its applications include: (1) nanoformulations of agrochemicals for applying pesticides and fertilizers for crop improvement; (2) the application of nanosensors in crop protection for the identification of diseases and residues of agrochemicals; (3) nanodevices.

 Nanotechnology is an emerging area that engages almost every technical discipline - from chemistry to computer science - in the study and application of extremely tiny materials. It is one of the top ranked subject related to academic and research. In recent years, aquaculture is considered a fastest‐blooming global food industry, playing a crucial role in fulfilling the increased demand for animal protein requirements. However, disease prevalence, chemical contamination, environmental degradation and ineffective feed utilization are the factors that drastically hinder the outcome of this sector in aiding to achieve global food security.

Current nanotechnology in aquaculture involves, Delivery of vaccines, Water purification, Delivery of nutrients.

In the traditional farming system, the ponds are stocked with fry either collected from the wild or concentrated through tidal water entering the ponds. Shrimp production is inconsistent and varies from year to year due to the dependence on seasonal supply of fry from the wild. Crustaceans forms a major diverse arthropod taxon which is treated as subphylum that includes animals such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and barnacles. It is now accepted as paraphyletic taxon which involves all arthropods

Seaweed farming or kelp farming is the practice of cultivating and harvesting seaweed. In its simplest form, it consists of the management of naturally found batches. In its most advanced form, it consists of fully controlling the life cycle of the algae. Some seaweed are high in vitamin K, which may interfere with blood thinning medications such as warfarin. High potassium levels in seaweed such as dulse may cause nausea and weakness in patients with kidney problems, since their kidneys can no longer remove excess potassium from the body.

Plastic is like a sponge to many metals in our oceans. Plastics entering coastal waters both absorb and release cadmium, lead and other toxic metals. We know that plastic waste is overwhelming the ocean, sea life is dying from ingesting it and some even ends up in seafood. Plastic debris clutters the aquatic environment globally contaminating a diversity of organisms and habitats. It is composed of several different polymers, and their unique chemical ingredients may make some types of plastic more harmful than others. Metals, such as lead and cadmium, are often used in manufacturing of plastic and over time can enter coastal waters.

The farming of marine fish, crustaceans and even bivalves produces waste in the form of fecal matter and unused feed. These largely nitrogen-based wastes can cause oxygen depletion in coastal environments and a net loss of marine productivity in certain coastal areas. Aquaculture is a possible panacea, but at present it is also responsible for diverse complications related with the environmental health; however, the new strategies projected during the last decade have proven that it is possible to attain a sustainable aquaculture, but such strategies should be supported and announced by the different federal environmental agencies from all countries.