Terminologies in

Aquaculture
Aquaculture – also known as aquafarming, it is the controlled growth
of aquatic species.
Pisciculture – aquaculture practice involving finned fish.
Extensive aquaculture – managed aquaculture dependent on the local
natural setting, such as a pond or coastal sea area.
Intensive aquaculture – managed aquaculture controlled through
human engineered means, such as managing water quality and
sources of food.
Fish farm – locations used to grow populations of aquatic organisms,
primarily fish.
Fish Hatchery – one form of a fish farm, managed with the intent of
resupplying native wild populations in natural environments.
Ornamental fish – are small fish, such as koi, which are typically
grown to be kept in aquariums or small landscape ponds.
Wild fishing harvest – the commercial and personal fishing
consumption in a specific area and over a specific time frame
Water Quality – the characteristics of water, such as water
temperature and contamination, which define its ability to sustain
life and its purity from chemicals.
Culture tanks – Artificial holding areas used to rear fish farm stocks.
Fish husbandry – the breeding and rearing of fish for a variety of
Seasons.
Anadromous fish – migratory fish that live in salt water but breed in fresh
water.
Catadromous fish – migratory fish that live in fresh water but breed in salt
water.
Amphidromous fish – migratory fish that live in both fresh and salt water,
independent of breeding.
Potamodromous fish – migratory fish that move within fresh water only.
Oceanodromous fish – migratory fish that move within salt water only.
enotyping – determining the genetic makeup of a fish or stock or the purpose
of managing the efficiency of aquaculture production.
In vitro fertilization – artificially fertilizing fish eggs in a laboratory setting.
Fish meal – commercially processed food source used in fish farming as a
source of protein for the fish stock.
Fry – Development stage of fish immediately after the larvae stage, at
an age of less than a week.
Fingerling – Development stage of fish following the fry stage and
continuing into the first three to four months of life.
Yearling – Development stage of fish following the fingerling stage and
lasting until approximately one year of age.
Brood stock – fish of any particular species which are raised for
reproduction purposes.
Fish kill – a description of the number of fish stock to die in a specific
amount of time.
Pond acreage – area committed to extensive aquaculture holdings at a
fish farm or company.
Overfishing – detrimental practice of removing more
of a natural aquatic species than what natural
reproduction can support.
Contaminants – Both natural and artificial materials
not typically found or found in unusually high
concentrations which can be detrimental to the
health of wild or farmed aquatic species
What is Aquaculture?
Aquaculture involves the art, science and business of breeding
aquatic animals and plants in fresh or marine waters for human
use. It also extends to the marketing of such organisms in a
controlled environment.
Aquaculture contributed 43% of aquatic animal food for human
consumption in 2007 (e.g. fish, crustaceans and molluscs, but
excluding mammals, reptiles and aquatic plants) and is expected
to grow further to meet the future demand.
Aquaculture comes from these two words:
“Aqua” (water) and “Culture” (to grow).

It is kind of agriculture, and therefore, it requires inputs such as clean

water and nutrients. Looking at the bigger picture, it also requires,
storage for harvested produce, transportation and marketing
facilities. Inputs often depend of the species that are farmed. Species
lower on the aquatic food chain usually require less input, as they
feed on microorganisms and are fine in just clean water. More inputs
such as fish or fishmeal, cereals, or grains are required, as we get
higher on the food chain with species such as predatory groupers,
salmon, or tuna.
When we think of aquaculture, we often
think of fish farms. This is correct,
although it may include other water
animals such as clams and oysters. It
also includes crops such as seaweed,
often cultivated to feed water animals.

Aquaculture typically comes in two

major forms.
Warmwater aquaculture: Raising plants and animals that do
well in warm and fresh water. Examples are catfish, crayfish,
sport fish, and ornamental fish.

Coldwater aquaculture: Raising plants and animals that do

well in cool and fresh water. Examples are salmon and trout.
Aquaculture activities can also be classified according to their degree
of intensity:
Intensive — involving the high-density culture of organisms, with
regular and nutritionally complete feeding.
Semi-intensive — involving lower densities, with naturally occurring
feed, and some direct feeding.
Extensive — involves a low density of organisms, often with naturally
occurring feed.

Under these three areas, there are several water environments that
are required for specific species.
Historical Aspects
Rural aquaculture in the Philippine setting will be difficult to define
and appreciate without having to view it against aquaculture in
general. Furthermore by reviewing the history of the various species
being farmed, one can see which species caught on. Hopefully one can
even gather why some species are far ahead while others are left
behind in terms of development. Aquaculture in the Philippines has a
long history and involves many species and culture systems. Rather
than present the history in a strictly chronological order which would
involve jumping from one species and one culture system to another, it
is here presented by species in the chronological order of their
respective introductions.
 Milkfish
The exact period when aquaculture gained a foothold
in the Philippines may never be known. It is generally
accepted however that the earliest fishponds were
brackish water fishponds and the earliest species to be
grown was bangus or milkfish, Chanos chanos Förskal,
using naturally occurring fry that came in with tidal
waters.
The generally held belief is that brackishwater fishponds probably
had their origins in the island of Madura or in East Java. Herre and
Mendoza (1929) cited the Dutch author C. Th van Deventer as
having recorded that a Javanese law codified in 1400 A.D., already
provided punishment for “him who steals from a tambak.” It is likely
that when the Spanish conquistadors, led by Ferdinand Magellan,
set foot on the island of Cebu in 1521, there were probably already
fishponds on Mactan Island where he was slain. Herre and Mendoza
noted that the ancient style of fishponds continued until 1921 in
Mactan. The Indonesian word for fishpond, tambak, also means an
embankment, an earthen dam or to bank up earth (Echols and
Shadily, 1989). Tambak also means embankment, heap of earth or
to pile up in Tagalog (English, 1986).
For a very long time, aquaculture industry in the Philippines was
virtually synonymous with milkfish culture. And for a very long time
milkfish farming remained as a brackishwater operation watered purely
by tide, and relying totally on natural-food and naturally occurring, and
later, wild-caught seedstock. Even under such condition milkfish
farming developed into a highly sophisticated art involving a long
preparation period to grow the natural food and a series of ponds to
nurse the fry to fingerling stage. This eventually culminated in the
development of the modular method that provides for a series of
progressively larger ponds to accommodate the fish stock as they grow
and at the same time allow for a certain degree of overlap between
cycles. Other methods such as the stock manipulation method was
introduced by an FAO expert and the deep water method by a USAID
Project. However these never really caught on.
In the early seventies, milkfish farming operation
expanded to include culture in bamboo and net pens set
in Laguna de Bay - the country’s largest freshwater lake
(Delmendo and Gedney, 1974). Then in the early 1990s,
milkfish culture in fishpens spread as well to shallow
marine bays and estuaries particularly in the Lingayen
Gulf area. It did not take long for its culture to spread to
net cages whether fixed or floating in both freshwater
and marine setting.
The introduction of the marine cages has greatly
expanded the range of culture systems under
which milkfish is now being produced:
brackishwater ponds, fishpens in freshwater lakes,
fishpens in shallow bays, lake based cages
whether fixed or floating, and sea-based cages.
No other aquaculture species probably has a
wider range of environment and culture systems
under which it is being produced.
The culture of milkfish in cages depended upon and was hastened by
the development and marketing of commercial feed by the feed millers.
As mentioned earlier, milkfish farming for a long time depended totally
on natural food. Sometime in the mid-1950s, intensive milkfish farming
started in Negros Occidental, erstwhile center of the country’s intensive
prawn culture operations.. The impetus was the continued setbacks
suffered by the prawn growers due to diseases brought about by over-
intensification. Many went back to milkfish farming. However having
enjoyed the high value of prawns and having experienced the large
volume of harvest in intensive prawn ponds, many were not content to
go back to the fertilizer and natural food based milkfish culture system
with their relatively low yield which also was very weather-dependent..
The technology to spawn the milkfish in captivity and produce
fry in a hatchery was developed in 1979 by SEAFDEC
Aquaculture Department. With the initial success in rearing the
fish to maturity leading to spontaneous spawning in captivity, a
National Bangos Breeding Program was launched in 1985.
Somehow unlike in Taiwan and in Indonesia, commercialization
proved elusive. Both the banks and any would be investor were
discouraged by the long gestation period involved since it takes
five years for the fish to reach maturity.
It was not until 1996 when a local industrialist decided
to invest in a milkfish hatchery. But when they did they
turned to Taiwan for both the full-grown breeders and
the larval rearing technology. Hatchery produced
milkfish fry are now available but most growers still
prefer to use wild fry. This is believed to be temporary.
It can be recalled that there also used to be
considerable resistance among prawn farmers on the
use P. monodon fry from a hatchery.
 Carps and Other Freshwater Fish Species
The first exotic food fish with potential for aquaculture was
introduced only in 1915 with the entry of the common carp, Cyprinus
carpio in 1915 from Hongkong (Villaluz, 1953). These were stocked in
the swamps and freshwater lakes of Mindanao in 1916 and 1918.
Villaluz recounts that when 16,000 carp fingerlings from China in
1925, these were stocked in the fishpond of the then Bureau of
Science. The fishpond probably refer to 10 x 20 meter rectangular
tanks which were built fir use by the Division of Fisheries or the Fish
and Game Division of the Bureau of the Bureau of Science (Rabanal,
pers. comm.)
Since then several other freshwater fish species were introduced,
including the giant gourami from Thailand in 1927 and the various
plasalid species (Trichogasterspp.) in 1938. The big head, silver carp
and the Indian carps were also introduced in the 1967 to 1968. Carp
and gourami continues to be reported from freshwater fishponds, but
somehow freshwater fishponds never caught on. Several species
introductions and several years later the industry is nowhere the
magnitude of brackishwater fishponds and remains largely a backyard
type operation. It was not until the Nile tilapia was introduced and
became popular that freshwater fish farming assumed some level of
significance. Due to its importance Tilapia shall be discussed separately
by itself in a latter section.
The failure of freshwater fishponds to catch on is
probably due to two factors. One, good agricultural land
is considered too valuable to be dug up for fish culture.
And, two, due to the abundance of marine catch and the
island nature of the country, freshwater fish is still not as
widely accepted as marine fish. There are areas where
freshwater fish may be preferred but these are highly
localized. Until now it is not rare to find Filipinos who
refuse to eat freshwater fish.
 Oysters and Mussels
The farming of oyster in the Philippines was said to have started as
early as 1931 when an oyster farm was established in Hinigaran,
Negros Occidental employing the broadcast method of culture
(Rosell, 1992). Then either in 1932 (Ronquillo, 1992) or 1935 (Rosell,
1992) the then Bureau of Science introduced improved methods in
Binakayan, Cavite. Until now Binakayan is still a major oyster
producing center. For a long while, oyster farms were confined largely
to the Manila Bay area with only isolated and sporadic operations
found in a few localities.
The farming of mussels started 20 years after, in 1955 when the Bureau
of Fisheries oyster farming station in Binakayan, Cavite established a
300 m2 demonstration mussel farm (Rosell, 1992). Prior to this the
green mussels, Perna viridis, were regarded by the oyster farmers as
pests. The fisheries personnel however realized the potentials of the
species as a primary crop in itself and decided to put up the
demonstration farm. With a ready market in Manila it did not take long
for the mussel industry to grow. During the late 1960s, the Mr. Santos
B. Rasalan then Commissioner of the Phillippine Fisheries Commission
(as the Bureau of Fisheries became known at the time) reportedly also
brought in green mussel stocks from Thailand and replanted these in
the fisheries demonstration farm. What effect these had on the stock is
not known.