Sustainable Aquaculture
for a Secure Future
Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program Newsletter
Volume 19, Number 2/Spring 2004 pdacrsp.oregonstate.edu ISSN 1062-4996
From Wild Harvest to Aquaculture: The Missing Link?
W ithout agriculture, civilization is impossible. Thus, historians and archeologists have devoted a lot of research effort to understanding agriculture¹s origins‹how a hunter-gatherer lifestyle evolved into the systematic cultivation of food.
In contrast, the origin of aquaculture has received little attention. So how did people learn to cultivate fish? Ideas on this seem rather speculative.
For example, ³There is folklore evidence that basic aquaculture was first practiced in Canada by aboriginal peoples through the transfer of fish between streams and rivers.²1 Others suggest that aquaculture in Asia ³Šmost likely originated when fish were trapped in some type of enclosure after monsoon floods receded.²2
During a recent trip to the Amazon region of Peru, I observed a practice that is a plausible model for how aquaculture began.
By a riverside village, a small river had almost completely drained due to the receding flood of the main stream of the Amazon River into which the tributary flowed. Small temporary pools were left behind, filling natural depressions in the riverbed.
Villagers had placed barriers in some of the pools to prevent escapes of trapped fish. These fish are caught by hand or speared, a task young children could accomplish (see photo 1). This is
the first step toward cultivating fish.
What is the next step? Throughout the year, fishermen venture in dugout canoes into the forest¹s maze of streams and tributaries to catch wild fish. During high water (when the river by their village ran freely) small fish would normally be thrown back. However, at this time of year, villagers keep the small fish from their wild harvest. These small fish are placed in the natural pools to be grown to larger size suitable for consumption. Vegetation is placed in and around the pools to mimic the natural habitat to provide shade for the fish (see photo 2). Types of fish used this way are primarily various species of catfishes and characins.
This practice could be the ³missing link.² These activities represent simple and logical steps humans could have taken to adapt natural systems to cultivate fish. It is a straightforward pro
Young boy in the Peruvian Amazon spearfishing for fish trapped in a riverbed pool. (Note the barrier to prevent trapped fish from escaping.)
W e are pleased to announce a new resource for USAID missions and Aquaculture CRSP Ambassadors‹the Strategic Objective ³Solution Finder² website. To access the website, please go to: <http://pdacrsp.oregonstate.edu/missions.shtml>.
The ³Solution Finder² website was developed by the Aquaculture CRSP Management Entity to present the depth and breadth of Aquaculture CRSP capabilities available to USAID missions and to assist Aquaculture CRSP Ambassadors as they interact with USAID Mission officials.
Using the Solution Finder, visitors explore how the capacity and experience of the Aquaculture CRSP can assist USAID missions in meeting their strategic objectives. The site also provides a list of the many services the program can bring to bear to solve specific problems in a wide range of topics varying from food security to health concerns to economic development, among others, with links to applicable CRSP research.
The website is a dynamic resource that will increase in size and further evolve over time. We envision a broader launching of this new resource soon and hope that it will be a new conduit between the CRSP and those who can benefit from our expertise and our desire to help.
M ore than 800 scientists, policymakers, businesspeople, and civil society representatives participated in the
